UH biomedical research lab is awarded $10M federal grant

The University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine research laboratory that famously produced the world’s first cloned mouse in the late 1990s has been awarded a $10.8 million federal grant to continue its work in reproductive and biomedical research.

The money comes from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The multiyear grant is the second phase of a previously awarded $10.5 million grant to UH’s Institute for Biogenesis Research. The latest funding brings the institute’s total research awards to about $40 million since its founding in 2000.

"This is a very good measurement of success for the institute," said Director Steven Ward.

The research lab’s founder, Dr. Ryuzo Yana­gi­ma­chi, is renowned for the scientific groundwork he laid in in vitro fertilization, and the institute is devoted to studying reproductive biology and transgenesis technology, or the transfer of genetic information, or DNA, from one animal to another.

To demonstrate its transgenesis technique, UH researchers have used a jellyfish gene to produce mice and other animals that glow green under black lighting. The manipulation technique could lead to new and more efficient ways of producing medicines, the school said in a news release.

Ward said the state directly benefits from the research award because most of the funds are spent in Hawaii, including $5 million in salaries over the next five years.

"Eighty percent of that, or $8.7 million of that, goes directly into the Hawaii economy," he said.

Research grants to the medical school also help support overall university operations, with half of all research money the medical school brings in going to UH-Manoa and the UH system, according to a JABSOM news release.