Second COBRE Grant Awarded

The KU Medical Center has received a $10.5 million COBRE grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund work that will dovetail with that funded by the COBRE grant awarded to the University of Kansas in 2000. To be administered over a five-year period, the grant will fund a two-pronged effort. First, it will cover the expense of a mentoring program for tenure track faculty at the three institutions: KU Med Center, Kansas State University and the University of Kansas-Lawrence. Funded investigators from the three institutions will be involved in research that will identify proteins important for controlling microbial pathogens. These proteins will then be directed into the drug development efforts funded by the COBRE grant awarded last year.

"The mentoring program is a wonderful way for junior investigators to get their research going so that they can generate new data that will allow them to obtain further research support funds from the NIH," said COBRE grant administrator Bill Narayan. "One of the reasons KU Med was awarded this grant is that we have an extensive record for training junior faculty."

Second, the grant will allow the KU Med Center, KU-Lawrence and KSU to use COBRE funds to supplement the amount of funds offered in start-up packages to new faculty. "Before, our institutions haven't had big enough packages to lure faculty from other places," said Narayan professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology at KU Med Center. "We just haven't been able to compete with the East Coast institutions in hiring top-notch faculty researchers, but the grant will provide funds that can be combined with what each university can offer."