HHS distributes $1 billion to research labs

The Health and Human Services Department will give $1 billion in economic stimulus law funding to academic and public health laboratories.

Economic stimulus law funds amounting to $1 billion will help pay for enhanced data storage and computing, along with construction and renovation for 146 projects at biomedical research laboratories, according to the Health and Human Services Department.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced May 14 that the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Research Resources is adminstering the grants for academic and public health laboratories in 44 states.

The Genome Data Center Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis will get $14.3 million to provide computational power and data storage for decoding genomics of hundreds of cancer patients, while the San Francisco Office of AIDS Renovation Project will get $9.5 million to  help the San Francisco Department of Public Health enroll and obtain data from new research participants.

"These Recovery Act dollars will provide state-of-the-art facilities for hundreds of researchers to conduct cutting-edge science with the latest technologies," NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said. “At the same time, they will create job opportunities nationwide."