The Reporter: February 1996, Vol.7, No.1
P&S Receives $3.6 Million Hughes Grant

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded $80 million in grants to P&S and 29 other medical schools. P&S received a grant of $3.6 million. The grants to all schools totaled between $2.2 million and $4 million over a period of four yea rs.

"This grant will allow Columbia to continue its development of basic biomedical research in order to propel us forward with new insights and discoveries which are fundamental to understanding the mechanisms underlying physiology and disease," says Dr. Da vid Hirsh, the Robert Wood Johnson Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and principal investigator for the Columbia grant.

HHMI received 117 proposals from the nation's medical schools. This particular program was established to aid medical schools in a time of tight financial constraints. The funds will enable medical schools to support young faculty and small pilot studies , maintain and update existing research facilities, enhance scientific communication and information services, and provide for unexpected demands on their research budgets.

HHMI also supports existing programs within P&S for study devoted to the neurosciences and structural biology. The HHMI Program in Molecular Neurobiology was established in 1984 and the HHMI Program in Structural Biology began in 1986.

With more than $548 million in grants awarded since 1988, HHMI is the nation's largest private philanthropy.