NIH TO AWARD GRANTS FOR HIGH-END INSTRUMENTATION

The NIH's National Center for Research Resources announced Aug. 15 that it will provide $21.5 million for 14 high-end instrumentation (HEI) grants that will fund cutting-edge equipment required to advance biomedical research and increase knowledge of causes of human disease.

Awarded to research institutions around the country, the one-time grants support the purchase of sophisticated instruments costing more than $750,000. Each grant provides a maximum of $2 million.

High-end instruments supported in this round of funding include two supercomputers that rapidly process vast quantities of data. In addition, awards will fund the purchase of two nuclear mass resonance spectrometers, a quadrupole/trap-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer and a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer.

Awards will also support: Three magnetic resonance imaging systems;A new positron emission tomography/single photo emission computed tomography/computed tomography scanner;Two cryo-electron microscopes;A magnetic resonance microscope; andAn ultra high-throughput genome sequencing system.

More information about the HEI program is available at www.ncrr.nih.gov/biotech/btheinstr.asp (http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/biotech/btheinstr.asp).