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A National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit of five Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) awards to the University of Kansas Center for Research (KUCR) questioned $1,550,054 in direct and indirect costs. The largest amount, $625,532, stemmed from what auditors called “inappropriately retained indirect costs.” KUCR’s charges to NSF “exceeded costs paid to its subrecipients,” auditors said in the Jan. 7 report. Subrecipients, under a 2016 agreement, “billed KUCR for indirect costs on EPSCoR awards at rates that were 8 percentage points lower than their formal negotiated indirect cost rates. KUCR paid subrecipients at the lower rates, but it charged the EPSCoR awards for allowable indirect costs at the full, negotiated indirect cost rates and retained the remainder.” Auditors said NSF was not aware of this arrangement. “KUCR agreed to end the practice,” according to the report, but disagreed that its action
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The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on supporting brilliant, early career researchers, named 15 new
Damon Runyon Fellows. The recipients of this prestigious, four-year award are outstanding postdoctoral scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators across the country. The Fellowship encourages the nation s most promising young scientists to pursue careers in cancer research by providing them with independent funding ($231,000 total) to work on innovative projects.
The Committee also selected five new recipients of the
Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists who will each receive $100,000 toward their research. This award provides additional funding to scientists completing a Damon Runyon Fellowship Award who have greatly exceeded Damon Runyon s highest expectations and are most likely to make paradigm-shifting breakthroughs that transform
Jan. 21, 2021 , 2:10 PM
For 7 years as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Robert Tjian helped steer hundreds of millions of dollars to scientists probing provocative ideas that might transform biology and biomedicine. So the biochemist was intrigued a couple of years ago when his graduate student David McSwiggen uncovered data likely to fuel excitement about a process called phase separation, already one of the hottest concepts in cell biology.
Phase separation advocates hold that proteins and other molecules self-organize into denser structures inside cells, like oil drops forming in water. That spontaneous sorting, proponents assert, serves as a previously unrecognized mechanism for arranging the cell’s contents and mustering the molecules necessary to trigger key cellular events. McSwiggen had found hints that phase separation helps herpesviruses replicate inside infected cells, adding to claims that the process plays a role in functions as diverse as switching
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Credit: University of Cincinnati
PORTLAND, OR - A first-of-its-kind randomized clinical trial found that patients with pancreatic cancer didn t live any longer than expected after receiving pre-operative chemotherapy from either of the two standard regimens, according to trial results published in
JAMA Oncology.
While the trial findings did not show a direct patient benefit, they do show that it s possible to safely administer chemotherapy prior to pancreatic cancer surgery. They also pave the way for better treatment testing for this notorious killer. With no symptoms in the early stages, and few effective therapies, pancreatic cancer is the fourth-most deadly cancer type in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, only 20 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are alive one year after diagnosis. After five years, only about 7 percent are alive.
Deal Ticker: UT Southwestern Leases Space at Visionary Project Pegasus Park
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The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has signed a 180,000-square-foot lease at visionary project Pegasus Park. UT Southwestern will occupy six floors in the tower building.
Located at 3000 Pegasus Park Drive, Pegasus Park is developed as a life sciences hub for North Texas. The campus spans 23 acres and consists of more than 750,000 square feet across multiple buildings, including an 18-story office tower. Pegasus Park will be a mixed-use collaborative ecosystem and office campus designed to bolster local biotech, social impact, and corporate innovation. Construction is underway to transform the former oil industry campus into a future-focused center. Pegasus Park campus is