ARKANSAS: Translational Research Center at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute Receives $11.5M from NIGMS to use “Big Data” to Discover New Therapies
NIH has awarded $11.5M in Phase II funding to the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute based on the successes of the COBRE Center for Translational Pediatric Research, established five years ago. The center applies a cutting-edge systems biology approach to understand how diseases like cancer form in children’s developing bodies.
Under the leadership of Alan Tackett, associate director for basic research at ACRI and director of the CTPR, the center is at the forefront of this type of research.
“We believe that research performed in this center will not only generate scientific knowledge and new technologies for studying disease formation but also will impact future clinical care by leading to the discovery of new treatment strategies translatable to the pediatric population,” said Tackett, who is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine and the deputy director of the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
“During the past five years, we supported 13 junior faculty who received approximately $22 million of federal funding, demonstrating our commitment to, and progress towards, becoming a self-sustaining research center,” Tackett said. “Our successes in Phase I have set the stage for substantial growth to create a self-sustaining research center focusing on developing the next generation of therapies to treat diseases impacting children.”