Research Enterprise Newsletter - August 2007: Faculty News
VUMC among select few to see NIH funds grow
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is one of only a handful of institutions with an increase in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2006 (FY06). At a time when most of last year's top-ranked medical schools experienced grant funding decreases of between $5 million and $20 million, VUMC's total grant funding increased from $241.2 million to $245.6 million. The dollar amount increase paralleled an increase in number of grants awarded—from 586 in FY05 to 603 in FY06. VUMC is now 12th in the nation in NIH grant funding; last year, total funding put VUMC at No. 15 in the nation.
Establishing where Vanderbilt stands in comparison to other U.S. medical schools, however, has become more complicated than in previous years. The NIH no longer publishes rankings of individual schools or departments, leaving the institutions to extract the data from funding databases organized by state. The NIH updates these data continuously, rather than once per year. Using the most current data available, which does not include contracts, VUMC's Office of Research calculated grant funding at each of the institutions ranked in the top 25 in the prior fiscal year (FY05). The calculation included only those grants awarded to medical schools and their associated departments, excluding grants to affiliated programs like Pharmacy, Allied Health, Dentistry and Public Health.
To advance in the rankings, Vanderbilt passed Baylor College of Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. Baylor, with $221.8 million in FY06 NIH grant funding, dropped from 13th to 16th, and Columbia, with $242.8 million in FY06, moved from 14th to 13th. Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Michigan Medical School now rank 10th and 11th with $274.6 million and $270.4 million, respectively. Both schools experienced increases in funding compared to FY05.
NIH's Zerhouni asks for help reviewing peer review
NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, recently published an article in the summer NIH Directors Newsletter, found at nih.gov. In the article, Zerhouni discusses the need to transform the current peer review system, outlines plans for possible future changes and ideas on how best to support scientific research, and requests input from the scientific community. Please respond to the NIH Request for Information on Peer Review at grants.nih.gov.
Cherrington named to endowed chair
Alan Cherrington, Ph.D., former chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been named to a newly endowed chair in diabetes research. The Jacquelyn A. Turner and Dr. Dorothy J. Turner Chair in Diabetes Research will support Cherrington's laboratory, which is studying the metabolic abnormalities associated with diabetes and ways to improve treatment of the disease.
Chang lands vision research award
Min Chang, M.D., assistant professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, has received the Robert E. McCormick Scholar Award from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB).
The $55,000 award is part of RPB's Special Scholar program, designed to support outstanding young scientists who are conducting research of unusual significance and promise into the causes, treatment, and prevention of blinding diseases.
Craig Lindsley most downloaded from Science Direct in 2005
Associate Professor of Pharmacology Craig Lindsley's manuscript, "Allosteric Akt (PKB) inhibitors: discovery and SAR of isozyme selective inhibitors," has received the "Most Cited Paper 2003-2006 Award" in the journal Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters and has been recognized as the third most downloaded article from Science Direct in 2005. The paper describes the design, synthesis and SAR of allosteric Akt kinase inhibitors. As a result of the allosteric binding mode, these molecules inhibited both the activity and the activation of Akt, while also providing Akt isozyme selectivity in vitro and in vivo.
