School of Medicine ranks in top 20 schools in NIH support

Sept. 18, 2006
School of Medicine ranks in top 20 schools in NIH support

BY holly korschun

New rankings from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) place Emory School of Medicine 19th among all U.S. medical schools in total NIH awards support for the second year in a row, and the School of Medicine is now ranked 18th nationally in NIH research grant awards. Emory medical school researchers attracted $190.3 million in NIH grant support in 2005, an increase of approximately 7 percent over 2004 in the face of flat NIH budgets. Over the past decade, the School of Medicine has climbed 12 places in the NIH rankings.

The School of Medicine had 13 departments ranked in the top 20 in NIH support in 2005. The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint department between the School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology, was ranked No. 1 nationally among biomedical engineering departments in NIH funding, garnering $8.6 million, more than double what was received last year.

Overall, Emory ranked 22nd in NIH support among U.S. institutions of higher education, receiving nearly $221.8 million in NIH funding for the School of Medicine, Rollins School of Public Health, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

“Our substantial NIH funding reflects the excellent work taking place in our laboratories and the dedication of our faculty and their exceptional teams of graduate students,” said Thomas Lawley, dean of the School of Medicine. “Strong support from the NIH is essential to continuing the groundbreaking research that has led to significant increases in life expectancy over the past few decades and that is vital to ongoing advances in medical science that will benefit current and future generations of patients.”

Last year Emory researchers attracted a total of $346.4 million in sponsored research funding, including funding from the NIH.

Major NIH grants to Emory last year included:
• $19 million from the National Cancer Institute to Emory and Georgia Tech for a National Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence. The center will serve as a “discovery accelerator” to integrate nanotechnology into personalized cancer treatments and early detection.

• $10 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to scientists in the Emory Transplant Center, the Emory Vaccine Center and Yerkes National Primate Research Center to develop new vaccine strategies that can better protect organ transplant recipients and other immune-suppressed patients from infectious disease threats.

• $9 million to Emory from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Human Genome Research Institute for a National Molecular Libraries Screening Center. The center uses high throughput robotics equipment to identify small molecules that can be used as research tools or potential drugs.

• $11.5 million to Emory and Georgia Tech to establish a new research program using nanotechnology to analyze cardiovascular plaque formation on the molecular level and to detect it at its earliest stages.

• $7.4 million from the National Institute on Aging to the School of Medicine, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, the Rollins School of Public Health and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing for a National Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

And, $6 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to the School of Medicine, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and Morehouse School of Medicine to address health disparities in individuals at risk for developing cardiovascular disease.

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