OPPORTUNITIES
Stimulus Dollars Rise
As of Sept. 23, HMS had received 53 stimulus awards totaling $23 million over the next two years. These numbers are expected to rise as federal agencies rush to distribute money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 by the end of the fiscal year.
The stimulus funding aims to create and retain jobs, but it is also beginning to pay off in advancing biomedical knowledge, as evidenced by a report published online Sept. 15 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings come from the lab of Donald Coen, HMS professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, who has received three ARRA awards.
Photo by Rachel Eastwood
Jay Alves, the ARRA grants specialist for HMS, helps coach principal investigators and research administrators through the uncertainties and extra reporting details needed from recipients of stimulus awards.
The study, led by postdoctoral fellow Jeremy Kamil, investigated a crucial
molecular component of a virus that infects most people. The human cytomegalovirus
(CMV) typically establishes lifelong infections without symptoms, but it also
is a leading cause of birth defects and of serious disease in immunocompromised
people.
Stimulus dollars supported the final experiments showing that CMV relies on a viral enzyme (UL97) to inactivate the well-known retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (Rb) in nondividing cells. The inactivated Rb unleashes the expression of the cells’ DNA synthesis genes, which the virus commandeers to replicate its own DNA. To confirm the enzyme’s target, Kamil substituted another well-known Rb-inactivating protein from a high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). In people, Rb inactivation by this HPV protein promotes cervical cancer. Stimulus money will fund follow-up studies and cover Kamil’s job when his fellowship runs out next spring.
Even before all the stimulus money has been received, Harvard has geared up for the first quarterly ARRA reporting deadline. A University-wide ARRA task force has been created to keep up with the rapidly changing federal rules, hold informational workshops, create guidelines, meet with ARRA recipients and offer other support.
The buzzwords are accountability and transparency, said Jay Alves, the ARRA grants specialist for HMS. Alves fills one of six new positions at Harvard created to fulfill the extra reporting duties. The new combination of narrative summary and job data is due to Harvard by Oct. 1. The University will add more details and fill out the online federal forms. All of this information will be revealed to the public in late October on http://recovery.gov.
For more information, see http://www.hms.harvard.edu/spa/funding/stimulus.shtml and http://research.harvard.edu.