Medical Center research funding exceeds $100 million

Growth in federal research funding and plans for an increased focus on personalized medicine research were key highlights of the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center's public board of directors meeting on Wednesday, Sept. Harold L. Paz, Medical Center CEO, Penn State's senior vice president for health affairs and dean of Penn State College of Medicine , reported that external support for Medical Center and College of Medicine research exceeded $100 million in 2009-10, approximately $2 million higher than last year's total. Paz revealed that Medical Center and College investigators received nearly 600 grant awards totaling $100.24 million from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, with almost $71 million coming from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH dollars increased significantly from the $59 million secured last fiscal year. The largest research commitment secured over the past year is a seven-year $54 million grant to the College of Medicine's Department of Public Health Sciences to support the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) AsthmaNet data coordinating center. The grant, which includes more than $3.5 million in the first year, supports a research collaboration of multiple clinical centers across the United States that conducts clinical trials to address new treatments and asthma management.