Sebelius announces grants for lab construction, repair

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced that $1 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds has been awarded to construct, repair and renovate scientific research laboratories and related facilities across the country. The awards are part of an overall $100 billion federal government investment in science, innovation and technology the administration is making to spur domestic job creation in emerging industries.

A total of 146 grants to institutions in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were awarded to upgrade and construct buildings, laboratory spaces and core facilities that are crucial to biomedical and behavioral investigators. Sebelius said the "unprecedented" investment will help provide for modern research facilities and create jobs.

In a statement, the department highlights a few examples of how the institutions receiving the funds will use them. The Children's Health Research and Evaluation Facility in Indianapolis will receive nearly $8.5 million in grant funding to help create a facility for pediatric clinical research and a core facility of pediatric phenotyping laboratories and patient research resources at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

"The Children's Health and Evaluation Facility will enable us to conduct studies that will improve health care for countless children in the future," says IU School of Medicine Dean D. Craig Brater. "For example, most drugs and diagnostics are tested in adults--but children aren't just little adults. They respond to therapeutics differently than their older counterparts, and this facility will give us the ability to understand those differences."

- see the HHS announcement
- check out the IU statement