The University has received a five-year, $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support genetically-based cancer research at its Center for Genomics and Proteomics. The grant is one of the largest Brown has been awarded in the past several years.
The new grant, announced Thursday, is the second award given to the University through the NIH's Center of Biomedical Research Excellence program. In 2000 the NIH gave Brown a five-year, $11 million COBRE award to fund the creation of the Center for Genomics and Proteomics. The new center is located at the Laboratories for Molecular Medicine, the University's new research facility in the Jewelry District.
While the 2000 grant was mainly used to pay for equipment and facilities for the newly established center, the new grant will primarily fund projects investigating how cancer cells develop from normal cells.
Five faculty members, led by John Sedivy, a professor of medical science and the director of the Center for Genomics and Proteomics, will investigate DNA damage, cell growth and division, hormone signaling and other contributing causes of the development or spread of cancer.
Sedivy chairs the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry.
"The COBRE awards are playing a vital role in expanding Brown's research portfolio and fueling the growth of the Division of Biology and Medicine and its Medical School. They've created advanced biomedical facilities and well-trained scientists that will be recruited for a cause of great consequence - the fight against cancer," Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Eli Adashi said in a University statement.
