Department Of Pediatrics Sets Pace In NIH Funding

THE DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRICS AT IUSM RECEIVED $8.3 MILLION IN NATINAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH FUNDING IN 1998 AND NOW RANKS ELEVENTH AMONG THE NINETY-ONE PEDIATRIC DEPARTMENTS IN THE COUNTRY WHO RECEIVE NIH FUNDING

Pediatrics has climbed steadily in the rankings since 1990 when it was fiftieth out of 124 U.S. medical schools. A significant portion of the funding has been generated by researchers in the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research, which opened in 1991 in Riley Hospital for Children and expanded, along with other research laboratories, in the Cancer Research Institute in 1997. Recent advances in molecular biology and genetics in the Wells Center have provided tremendous insight into the molecular basis of many pediatric diseases.

Also outstanding was the Department of Medicine, which ranked in the top fifteen percent in the country with $36.1 million in NIH funding. It is fourteenth among the 107 NIH-funded departments in the U.S. A significant amount of its funding is focused on research in cancer, alcoholism, diabetes, arthritis, and infectious (sexually transmitted) diseases, as well as on bone studies and the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC).

Other departments in the School that received approximately $1 million or more from NIH are the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Genetics, Microbiology, Otolaryngology, Pathology, Pharmacology, Physiology and Psychiatry.