The University of Maine has received a $11.3 million Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support interdisciplinary biomedical research. The COBRE will focus on research about the mechanisms that regulate cellular behavior in response to cues from outside the cells, from the impact of persistent viral infections on cell systems to the mechanisms that lead to muscle cell development. The research has the potential to inform future treatment of infectious diseases, neuromuscular disorders and muscle aging and regeneration.
The COBRE is led by Clarissa Henry, professor of biological sciences in the School of Biology and Ecology and director of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at UMaine.
“This award will transform the landscape of biomedical research at the University of Maine and foster innovation in the life sciences statewide,” Henry says.
It will primarily support five research projects led by early career investigators from UMaine and the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, including UMaine’s Melissa Maginnis, Jared Talbot, Joshua Kelley and Ben King, as well as Romain Madelaine at the MDI Biological Laboratory.
Both Maginnis and Madelaine initiated their research programs in Maine through INBRE grant awards.
The award will also support the creation of a Microscopy and Image Analysis Core headed by Rob Wheeler, associate professor of microbiology at UMaine. Wheeler also received an INBRE early-career Investigator award in 2009.
Melissa Maginnis, PhD, University of Maine
Romain Madeleine, PhD, MDI Biological Laboratory
Rob Wheeler, PhD, University of Maine