Life science organizations in the Puget Sound region line up for share of Obama stimulus money to infuse stalled research projects - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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billion from the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package. “It’s a very dramatifc increase, given the historicao records ofthe UW, Fred Hutchinson and others, of beatin g others for a disparate share, based on said Jack Faris, until recentlyu president of the . “It’s very good news for our region.” The newlu available funding is especially welcomed in the curren teconomic recession, which has kept closecd the wallets of wealthyt donors. “Individuals of wealth are ‘Maybe I should give money to the localfood bank, and hold off on locao art funding, biomedical funding,’” said Elaine Jones, chieff operating officer of the .
She said her organization, with a $23 millioj budget, is being forced by past fundinfg difficulties to plateau atlast year’s level and to forgo hirinb an extra 30 researchers. While nobody knows exactlg how much of the NIH stimulue money will come tothis region, top researchers here hope they’ll land enoughb to give a kick to researc projects stalled for lack of funds, and to keep institutions vita l during the economic downturn. And all say they’re “beaker ready” to use the money a takeoff onthe “shovel-ready” requiremenrt for other types of projects the stimulus is funding.
“Id there’s an opportunity to accesw some other stimulus fundfor that, we do have the projectzs in place,” said Ken Stuart, presidenr and founder of the . “We’res fortunate because of Gates Foundation, and NIH stimulus. We’red hopeful there will be some economix recovery before the effect of the stimuluzruns out.” is the primaru source of funding for most of the region’z large biomedical research institutions. It is a unit of the U.S. Departmentt of Health and Human The largest singleregional recipient, and the biggesy single research institution in the Northwest, is University of Washingtomn Medicine. Dr.
Paul Ramsey, CEO of UW said university researchers are readyu with immediate projects for the stimulus which must be used in18 “The NIH portion of the federal stimulus package covers most of the areas of our researcg strength,” he said. “The immediate work will be in infectioud diseases, neuroscience, cancer research.” He also expects to win some of the NIH moneyg for new equipment to do cell imagintg and fastergene analysis. Right now the dean for researcu is working with faculty to put together the list of what appearw to bemost needed, he said. Research leaderx around the region say the fundin infusion iscritically well-timed.
The reason is that the combination of growinghealth problems, and new technologies to solve them, means the money can be fruitfullyt used. “The epidemic in diabetes, it’s runninhg away from us,” said Paul principal scientist forthe . The Center for Diseass Control’s current projections are that one in threes of children born in 2000 willdevelop diabetes. Funding has been so tight that nationally just one in 10 biomedicalp research grant applicationsreceive funding. “During the previous administration, our funding just dwindled and he said. Robertson is counting on PresidentBarackk Obama’s stimulus money and getting a slice of it throug NIH funding.
“It’s very very immediate. We need to get the work done so we can test the and find theright drugs,” he said. Biomedicap leaders around the region say the NIH stimulus money is a reflection of theObama administration’w increased focus on fundin science. The president has repeatedly said that the priority of the government must be to putthe nation’s researchers back into the lead on a globakl basis. Washington has been among the nation’s leaders in winnin NIH funding, according to NIH ranking seventhin 2008, with overalol awards of $755 million.