April 28, 2009
 
Del. partnership awarded $17.4 million grant INBRE receives biomedical research funding
By HIRAN RATNAYAKE
The News Journal
 
For the third time, a partnership between Delaware hospitals and colleges has won major federal funding for biomedical research.
 
A $17.4 million federal grant announced Monday will help six Delaware institutions partner on studies including cancer, heart disease and neurological disease.
 
The new funding, which will be distributed over five years comes from the National Center for Research Resources. The local partnership, known as the Idea Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence, or INBRE, is between two hospitals -- Christiana Care and Nemours -- and four colleges - University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Delaware Technical & Community College and Wesley College.
 
"We are coming up with great ideas and learning how to play together," said Karl Steiner, associate provost for interdisciplinary research initiatives at the University of Delaware. "Having this biotech institute will allow us to attract researchers and change the game for us."
 
The program is designed to raise the competition among researchers in areas of the nation that typically don't get a lot of federal money. Delaware and 22 other states and territories can apply for money through the program.
 
The money will be used in the following areas:

• $7.5 million to conduct 15 medical studies on cancer, heart and neurological disease.
• $3 million for research internships for students and professional development for faculty.
• $3 million for state-of-the-art research instruments and personnel.
• $2 million for administration.
• $1.65 million for the hardware and software components of bioinformatics.
• $250,000 to renovate laboratories at Wesley College and Delaware State University.

With the latest money, the Delaware Biotechnology Institute continues to build upon its past success. The institute has brought Delaware organizations close to $140 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation since 2001.
 
In 2004, INBRE also received a similar five-year, $17 million grant for an initiative, to be completed next month, to build state-of-the-art laboratories and fund 19 medical studies. Roughly 100 papers were published in medical journals based on those studies.
 
It is the third time in three attempts that partnerships between Delaware Biotechnology Institute and local institutions have received multimillion-dollar grants through National Center for Research Resources's program.
 
A number of partnerships have taken place in Delaware during recent years. INBRE falls under the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance, a collaboration whose founding partners include University of Delaware, Christiana Care Health System, the Nemours Foundation and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Jefferson is not part of INBRE.
 
"As all of you know, this is what makes Delaware unique," said Steiner, who helps develop research grant initiatives at the University of Delaware. "We are a small and capable community, and when things need to get done, we know that we can rely on each other to put aside our differences and to pull together. INBRE has focused us to achieve more over the past decade than any of us had hoped for at the outset."
 
For five years, Christiana Hospital and the University of Delaware have been working to conduct so-called translational cancer research. Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, in Rockland, has also begun collecting tissue from cancer patients for study at Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research. Their findings are shared with the Graham Cancer Center and UD. The Graham Cancer Center's tissue bank was funded through the previous INBRE grant.
 
"Our major emphasis is on caring for patients, but when we can get our physicians to think about questions that make the patient care better, that's what's important," said Dr. Brian Little, vice president of academic affairs and research at Christiana Care. "If you look at the success we've had, it's remarkable."
 
Officials announced the new grant Monday at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute in Newark's Delaware Technology Park.
 
Gov. Jack Markell said the grant demonstrates the benefits of organizations working together.
 
"When we are best in Delaware is when we have these partnerships," he said. "It's a shared win that, more and more, we're going to be collaborating on some of the research."