A nation in dire need of research advancement has been granted stimulus money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The University at Buffalo will use its stimulus funding to improve and advance the nation.
According to UB's research Web site, the ARRA is providing over $16 billion in research funds for numerous federal funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health.
UB has been granted close to $23 million as of Oct. 8, and with each coming week the funding for research projects is expected to increase further, explained Dr. Jorge V. Jose, UB's vice president for research.
'As [employees of] a research university, the UB faculty like to create new knowledge,' Jose said. 'The federal government provides money to the best ideas for grant proposals that will have an impact on science and, in general, health, to benefit society as a whole.'
It can be very challenging to receive funding for research projects because of the difficult process involved, Jose said. This creates fierce competition among those employed in the field of research.
'The usual rate of success … for obtaining funding is on average 10 to 15 percent,' Jose said. 'But for the Federal Stimulus funding, UB has had instead close to a 20 percent success rate.'
Once a grant has been given to an institution, the research must strictly adhere to what was written in the proposal.
The goal of ARRA is to help states get out of financial deficit and to improve the overall national economy through various research funding and other investments in education and infrastructure.
'The future of the U.S. will depend on the investments we make in scientific and engineering research in order to produce new inventions and cures,' Jose said. 'President Obama correctly decided that the U.S. must support scientists because the country will fall behind if we [don't match the] present investment made and growth in other countries.'
The funding UB received will make an impact on the Western New York economy because when UB receives $23 million in grants, there is a $57.5 million economic impact on the local economy, Jose explained. The funding from the grants will be used toward the purchase of supplies, equipment and to pay salaries.
The reason UB was given the additional money for this clinical trial is that UB has been the most successful at enrolling patients and following them, Greenfield explained.
Dr. Saul Greenfield, clinical professor in the department of urology and director of pediatric urology for Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo, received an National Institutes of Health grant of $367,000, which is in addition to his original $2.5 million NIH award, to continue his research on children with vesicoureteral reflux.
'[Vesicoureteral reflux] is a congenital bladder condition … the urine goes back to the kidneys because the children have an abnormal valve,' Greenfield said.
A variety of approaches are used to fix this problem, including surgery and medication, Greenfield said. The medication consists of an antibiotic and is given to the child to prevent infections, and eventually in many children the valve grows and the reflux stops.
'[In our current study], we take a group of children and put half of them on medications and the other half are given placebos,' Greenfield said. 'Our interest is in learning who may or may not need long term antibiotics before the reflux is corrected.'
A study conducted by Sarbajit Banerjee, Ph.D., an assistant professor of chemistry, has received the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award through the National Science Foundation. Awardees must have a combination of excellent research and teaching through their role as a teacher-scholar.
'The Career funds will enable me to support graduate students working on research projects in my laboratories over the next five years,' Banerjee said. 'These funds will also enable me to support Buffalo Public Schools science teachers over the summer here at UB. The science teachers will work in collaboration with my research group and me to develop novel curricula and experiments targeted at getting middle school students excited about science.'
His research will involve studying properties of early transition metal oxides, Banerjee said.
'A major focus of our research is pushing ... phase transition down to close to room temperature so that this material can be used in ‘smart' windows that change color depending on the outside temperature and as transistors for the next generation of computer chips,' Banerjee said.
UB, through the research conducted, will help advance scientific discoveries, the economy and the wellbeing of Americans, according to Jose.
'The researchers will publish their results, which will give more exposure to UB because others may be able to look at their results and use them for their own research and applications,' Jose said. 'We are going to discover and make an impact on solving problems that are the paradigms of the 21st century.'
E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
