UM neuroscience research garners $9.5 million grant – McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls gets $1 million grant – Clinical researchers see role for Montana

The University of Montana has been awarded a $9.5 million grant to continue its research on brain and neurological disorders for the next five years.

The National Institutes of Health awarded the grant to UM’s Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience, which is directed by UM researcher Richard Bridges.

The award is the largest NIH grant given in Montana, Bridges said. UM got the grant because its research center is unique.
"We integrate faculty from a wide spectrum of basic science disciplines such as chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology and genetics to collaboratively investigate diseases of the nervous system," Bridges said.

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2005/09/30/news/local/news04.txt

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McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls gets $1 million grant

Investigations at McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls into neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s received a million-dollar boost Thursday.

The local award is part of one of the biggest-ever grants in Montana from the National Institutes of Health — a five-year $9.5 million grant to the Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience at the University of Montana in Missoula.

MRI is a collaborative partner in the Missoula center and will receive more than $700,000 to help support the research and hiring of a new neuroscience investigator.

UM will add three new researchers. In addition, MRI will receive money to support postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in its Great Falls laboratories, bringing the institute’s total to almost $1 million.

By PAULA WILMOT
Tribune Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050930/NEWS01/509300315/1002

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Clinical researchers see role for Montana

By DIANE COCHRAN
Of The Gazette Staff

Despite its small population and rural setting, Montana is a petri dish of opportunity for medical research.

So say researchers who spoke during the Ideas Montana Medicine conference at St. Vincent Healthcare Thursday.

"Clinical research is very definitely doable in small towns," said Dr. George Risi, an infectious-disease specialist from Missoula. "This is going to become a larger way we can care for patients in Montana."

Risi, who is in private practice, is one of six infectious-disease specialists in the state. He supplements his clinical income by doing research for pharmaceutical companies.

Full Story: http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?ts=1&display=rednews/2005/09/30/build/state/40-clinical-research.inc