San Diego-Based Research Institutes Win Record Grants From NIH

This week, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and Scripps Research Institute announced that they have won almost $180 million in NIH grants for research aimed at developing targeted treatments for rare diseases, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Burnham will get $98 million over six years (Somers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/3). Scripps will get $80 million over six years.

The grants are part of NIH's Molecular Libraries Production Centers Network, aimed at translating scientific research into new therapies (Somers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/2).

NIH designated Burnham and Scripps as two of the comprehensive research centers for the project. The other two centers are the Broad Institute Comprehensive Screening Center in Massachusetts and NIH's Chemical Genomics Center in Maryland.

Five smaller centers also will participate in the project (San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/3).

Research results will be posted in PubChem, a public Internet database available to researchers and drug discovery firms (San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/2).