The Valley Research Partnership has fostered a new form of collaborative research between its medical school in downtown Phoenix and medical partners in the valley.
The partnership is awarding a total of $1.6 million to fund research projects through the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. The distributions take the form of grants given to individual research projects.
Burt Feuerstein, a professor and faculty scholarship development specialist at the university, said that the grant is a way to both encourage productive medical research and enable a form of research-oriented education.
“The major goals of the partnership are to encourage collaborative research and to teach people how to put together research projects,” Feuerstein said.
A total of seven research projects were given grants during the first round of distribution. Each research team has partners within the College of Medicine and across the valley.
However, the grants are not only fostering collaboration between partners throughout the valley, but they are also giving downtown-Phoenix medical students a unique opportunity to get involved in developing research.
Kurt Gustin, associate professor at the university, was awarded $5,000 for cystic fibrosis research that he described as a student-driven project.
“Most of the work is done by a first year medical here at the College of Medicine – Phoenix,” Gustin said.
The money will go to filling the logistic needs of his research.
“The grant will provide funds to allow us to purchase some of the reagents we need to test for the presence of this virus in patient samples and also provide money for the physicians and staff and Phoenix Children’s Hospital to enroll patients in the study.” Gustin said.
Gustin added that the university’s position both downtown and in the valley acts as a catalyst for productive research.
“It builds sort of a research infrastructure that we have available to us downtown and creates a more vibrant dynamic community of researchers who are all investigating important questions about public heath,” Gustin said.
Another awardee, Dr. Sue Kim, echoed the idea that the research community is a vital component of effective research.
“We have all these great institutions in this community. (The grant) will give fuel to spark the fire which will benefit patients and therapeutic cures,” Kim said.
Kim, along with Dr. Landon Inge, was awarded $80,000 for her research involving the way the immune system interacts with lung cancer.
There are two more rounds of grants to be distributed, and the application deadline for the second has passed.
Contact the photographer at Nicole.E.Hernandez@asu.edu.
