Kaptur, UT organize biomedical research discussion with NIH director

June 6, 2012 | News, UToday
By Jon Strunk



Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and officials at The University of Toledo have coordinated a discussion today of the state’s contribution to biomedical research with the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans, the Ohio Congressional delegation, and Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Heath (NIH).

Collins

“Nearly 65 percent of the $711 million the NIH has awarded to organizations in the state of Ohio has gone to Ohio’s medical schools in pursuit of biomedical research,” said Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, UT chancellor and executive vice president for biosciences and health affairs and dean of College of Medicine and Life Sciences, who also serves as chair of the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans. “The expertise Dr. Collins can share with us will be key to advancing translational research across the state. It’s also an opportunity to showcase the advances medical schools have made with funds NIH has invested in us.”

“I am pleased to bring top officials at NIH together with Dr. Gold and other leaders,” Kaptur said. “Greater collaboration can mean only greater successes in the future.”

The meeting in Washington, D.C., will include deans and senior leaders from Ohio’s seven medical schools: Case Western Reserve, University of Cincinnati, University of Ohio, Northeastern Ohio Medical University, Ohio State University, Wright State University and UT.

As NIH director, Collins oversees the work of the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world, spanning the spectrum from basic science to clinical research.

Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH from 1993 to 2008.

Before coming to the NIH, Collins was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Michigan. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, and received the National Medal of Science in 2009.

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