ARRA Success Stories

Divaker Choubey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University of Cincinnati

My application to study the potential role of p202 protein in sex bias in SLE did not make the payline. However, the proposal received two years of funding through ARRA. My laboratory has been studying the role of p202 in cell growth regulation and autoimmunity for a long time. Therefore, ARRA funding has allowed me to continue our studies by employing a research scientist and to hire a new postdoctoral fellow. Thus, the funding created a new job and saved another one.

Gail Bishop, Ph.D.
Professor, The University of Iowa

This new two-year project, funded as an ARRA grant, will allow us to get a jump-start on a new idea and move ahead much more quickly and effectively than if we had to painstakingly amass the large amounts of preliminary data we would have needed to submit this as an R01. After receiving the Notice of Award in September, I quickly hired a new college graduate to work as a research assistant on the project. I was also able to provide continuing employment to a senior postdoc, whose promised job in industry vanished when the company was bought by another. Together they are both moving ahead quickly on the project goals.  So both new ideas and employment are benefitting.

Michele Swanson, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Michigan Medical School

Our ARRA Administrative Supplement provided focused research experiences for two ambitious undergraduate students who aspire to careers in the biomedical sciences. While working full time in the laboratory this past summer, the students read scientific journals, incorporated what they learned into the design of their own experiments, and then analyzed their data.  At the close of the summer, the students described their projects orally at a department-wide forum designed to showcase our ARRA Summer Scholars.  Thanks to this NIAID program, these talented students had the opportunity to learn what it is like to work in a lab, to understand science at a deeper level, and to become more resourceful and logical thinkers.

Michael Imperiale, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Michigan

My competing renewal did not make the payline but received two years of funding through ARRA. I had been studying adenovirus for over 25 years and it would have been sad to put that project to rest. In addition, this allowed me to continue employing a research tech who had been with me for 24 years, and to hire a new tech who is a recent college graduate. Thus, it created one job and saved another.

Nannan Liu, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Auburn University

A major obstacle hindering efforts to control mosquito-borne diseases is that mosquitoes readily develop resistance to insecticides. Our long-term goals are therefore to determine the precise roles of the genes that control mosquito response to insecticides and then use this information to develop novel approaches to control mosquito vectors, especially in resistant strains.

Our study characterizing the roles of specific genes in insecticide resistance is a necessary first step in the process of identifying resistance mechanisms and understanding how these genes are involved in the development of resistance.

The ARRA funding has helped in practical ways by enabling us to recruit a postdoctoral fellow to work on this project and to maintain our experienced staff, as well as conveying intangible benefits by boosting our confidence and supporting our passion for conducting research in this vital area.

We appreciate the reviewers' valuable comments during the review process and, especially, our program official, who has consistently provided both guidance and support. 

Yongwon Choi, Ph.D.
Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

We will be able to continue studying the molecular and cellular regulation of immune tolerance. The outcome of this study may contribute to preventing or treating various autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases. With this grant, we should be able to maintain many of the postdocs and technicians who have been involved in this project.

Jim Drake, Ph.D.
Professor

Jonathan Harton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College

Our research project entitled “MHC Class II Subsets in B Lymphocyte Biology,” a highly collaborative effort between our two laboratories, recently received ARRA funding.

This funding allowed our laboratories to add additional staff to our research group. We recruited a new research technician and postdoctoral fellow to work on this project, which seeks to attain a deeper understanding of how molecular structure affects the function of MHC class II molecules. MHC class II molecules mediate interactions between helper T cells and other cells of the immune system, an interaction that is critical for initiating and controlling an immune response.

Deeper understanding of how these molecules mediate this critical interaction will be important to developing more effecting approaches to manipulate the immune system for better human health. Without ARRA support, research into this intriguing aspect of MHC class II biology would not have been possible.

Irving Coy Allen, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow, Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Respiratory viruses represent a unique public health challenge due to the high level of world travel and the advent of global economies and international trade.  Of particular relevance, influenza viruses are associated with annual epidemics resulting in high rates of morbidity and mortality and result in the deaths of approximately 500,000 people per year globally.  In the United States alone, annual influenza epidemics result in an enormous economic burden with direct medical costs exceeding $10.4 billion dollars. 

Understanding the mechanisms underlying how influenza virus interacts with components of the host innate immune system is essential for the development of new strategies to treat infected individuals and gain insight into the molecular components of the host and virus which regulate virulence, pathogenesis and disease outcomes.  Following exposure to viral pathogens, the ensuing inflammatory response mediated by cells of the innate immune system is essential to effectively recognize and cope with the infection. 

The purpose of my research is to understand the role of specific immune system components in the recognition of the influenza virus and identify the specific signaling pathways responsible for establishing the ensuing inflammatory response.  The emergence of the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” virus has added a new sense of urgency to this project and it is my hope that our research will provide important mechanistic insight into potential targets for drug therapy. 

This project is funded only through small project grants.  Thus, prior to the NIAID ARRA-related fellowship, my time was split between this project and another unrelated project in our lab.  This fellowship allows me to focus on the influenza project full time.

Corinna La Rosa, Ph.D.
Associate research scientist, Division of Translational Vaccine Research, Department of Virology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope National Medical Center

Abhijit P. Limaye, M.D.
Associate professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Medicine (Infectious Diseases), University of Washington Medical Center    

We submitted an R21 grant in October 2008 following a successful joint project between City of Hope and University of Washington that suggested a critical role of a negative regulator (PD-1) of the immune response to CMV in transplant recipients.

We sought to explore the utility of a novel approach to overcome the impact of negative regulators of the host immune response to CMV, as a potential approach to decrease the morbidity and mortality of CMV in high-risk transplant patients.

Though enthusiastic and confident of our preliminary data, we were at the same time conscious of the difficult historic moment for NIH funding. Still for both of us, it was the first possibility of submitting a grant as PIs, based on a project that was novel and scientifically solid. The skepticism, which was running high in the surrounding scientific community, did not play a major role: we needed to focus on more substantial and challenging tasks!

After days and nights in isolation trying to put in a written intelligible form our multiple ideas, we finally submitted the product of our joint efforts. Very grateful to the critical guidance we received from colleagues and administrative staff through all the application process, we started to wait and hope. The reviewers provided very helpful comments and suggestions, but the initial priority score of 194 was not suitable for funding. 

We were busy revising the application to accommodate the reviewer’s comments, when we were informed that, through the availability of ARRA funds, the grant was funded.  We immediately provided the “just-in-time” materials and began the study within one month of the award notice. 

The study now is well underway and proceeding very well, with recruitment exceeding our initial estimates. The availability of ARRA funds allowed us to pursue a provocative line of investigation (with the ultimate potential for significant clinical benefit) that could not have otherwise been pursued.  A research coordinator who would have been otherwise laid off has now been able to maintain her position for the two-year grant period. 

We are extremely grateful to NIH staff, ARRA funds, and especially our program official for very professional guidance and support.  Thanks to ARRA, the prompt financing of our first grant gave us a tremendous impulse both for excellence in fulfilling our current exploratory project and future planning to expand our clinical research finding towards an R01 project.

Constantine D. Tsoukas, Ph.D.
Professor of biology (immunology) and advisor, graduate program in Molecular Biology/Microbiology, Molecular Biology Institute and Center for Microbial Sciences, Department of Biology, San Diego State University

I received two R21 ARRA grants. Even though both my proposals received fundable scores, due to the extremely high competition for NIH funds, they were unlikely to be funded. ARRA funding made our projects possible to go ahead.

Currently, we are using the funds to support four graduate students and another to be appointed later in September, who will be able to complete their research for their Ph.D. and M.S. degrees and move on to post doctoral or academic or industry positions.

ARRA funding provided support to develop these young scientists whose future work will benefit society and the economy many times over the initial, relatively small investment provided by ARRA.

In addition, one of our projects is likely to pave the way for the development of pharmaceuticals for treating bronchial asthma. If this materializes, the return of the ARRA investment will be many, many times more than the initial funding.

The lesson from this, and I am sure other situations like mine, is that funding NIH and research is the least expensive and most productive way to not only stimulate the economy, but also derive huge benefits to society.

Crystal Botham, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Immunology, Stanford University

Receiving the ARRA-funded NRSA fellowship will significantly advance both my research and career development. The fellowship guarantees another year of training as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. David B. Lewis at Stanford University.

Dr. Lewis' laboratory is an ideal training environment for me to achieve my career goal of becoming a productive, independent scientist who is able to contribute to the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases such as influenza.

The NRSA fellowship will enable me to focus on my research goals and training experiences instead of searching for funding to support my studies. Additionally, beyond the financial support, the distinction of holding this fellowship will considerably enhance my future successes.

Michael P. Pollastri, Ph.D.
Research assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, and director, Center for Molecular Discovery and Medicinal Chemistry and Core Synthesis Facility, Boston University

Our ARRA summer supplement has helped us get our newly-funded R01 project up and off the ground by adding key resource to the project team that has really gotten things rolling.

In addition, we were able to put four very talented students (two undergraduates and two high school students) to work, and provided them an opportunity to learn how we do early-stage drug discovery, and to learn the skills.

We’re very grateful for the support!

Daniel Portnoy, Ph.D.
Professor of public health and molecular and cell biology, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley

We received a two-year program project grant that will be shared with six other researchers from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and Stanford University to investigate how bacteria that cause illnesses such as tuberculosis, Legionnaire's disease and food-borne listeriosis are able to evade the body's immune system.

The funds will support a highly interactive group addressing problems of global health and biodefense, leading to the development of vaccines. Without the Recovery Act funds, this very synergistic group was going to fall apart.

With the new funding, we were  not only able to retain the administrative core of this group but also able to hire a chemist, two postdoctoral fellows, one technician, and two people to set up a core facility to be shared by all the researchers. And that's just the impact at UC Berkeley.

Look It Up

• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
• fellowship (F)
• National Research Service Award (NRSA)
• overall impact/priority score
• postdoctoral trainee
• program project (P)
• R01
• research project grant

See the Glossary for more terms.