USD named recipient of National Institutes of Health grant

The University of South Dakota (USD) has been selected as one of nine institutions to receive the shared $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The grant will go toward the funding of medical research in four states.

“This project has a very worthy goal: to develop and guide clinical and translational research across the northern Great Plains,” Dean of the USD Sanford School of Medicine (SSOM) Dr. Mary Nettleman said. “Simply put, this will help turn scientific discoveries into actions that directly benefit people of the region.”

The program that provides the funding is run by the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) and the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Studies. The grant will bring together nine institutions from Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Kansas, forming the Great Plains IDeA-CTR Network.

“USD researchers will have the opportunity to participate in the two major programs that the grant will support, the pilot projects and the scholars program,” Robin Miskimins, associate dean for research at SSOM, said. “The pilot projects will focus on ways to take basic research findings and develop medical treatment and practice. The scholars program will allow us to add and train more researchers.”