NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases plans to use up to $2.4 million next year to fund the creation of several core centers that will support scientists studying the underlying biology of muscle and bones and the range of disorders that affect them.
The Core Centers for Musculoskeletal Biology and Medicine will offer shared resources and services to currently funded researchers with the aim of enhancing and speeding up their efforts and making them more cost-effective and efficient.
NIAMS plans to fund three or four awards with up to $400,000 each in Fiscal Year 2014. The funding will support two or more research cores, an administrative core, and an enrichment program at each of the institutions receiving funding.
These core centers will provide technologies for applications such as high-throughput sequencing, genotyping, and histology that lend themselves to standardized procedures; complex instrumentation for microarray scanning, mass spectrometry, confocal microscopy, and whole animal imaging, among others; methodology cores for projects involving systems biology, bioinformatics, molecular biology, biostatistics, and cell biology; and resources for animal preparation, including transgenic and knockout services.
The resources at these cores may include personnel, equipment, supplies, services, and facilities.
NIAMS-funded researchers conduct studies aimed at improving the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases and injuries of the musculoskeletal system and its tissues, including osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and muscular dystrophy.