U of M researchers receive stimulus grants

Fifteen University of Minnesota research projects have received more than $10.3 million in federal grants funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, officials announced Thursday.

The "challenge" and "grand opportunities" competitive grants come through the National Institutes of Health. Both are new NIH initiatives aimed at quickly advancing a research area or supporting a project that would benefit from short-term funding.

The largest grant -- totaling nearly $3 million -- will go to Dr. Selwyn Vickers, who heads the university's surgery department. Vickers' project looks to improve minority participation in clinical trials for diseases such as cancer.

Two other projects, each receiving more than $900,000, include an effort to create a consumer research network using health records, and research into re-programming an individual's cells into blood stem cells that can be used in bone marrow transplants.

The grants the University of Minnesota received from the two NIH initiatives are each worth more than $300,000 and cover everything from Alzheimer's disease to the health effects of climate change to how animal hibernation could apply to human health.