In one of the largest grants ever given to South Carolina higher education, seven colleges and universities will share a $17.3 million federal award to establish a statewide bioengineering research and education network.

Each institution will match its portion of the grant, bringing the total value of the five-year award to almost $35 million.

The funds will be used to support and hire faculty and buy equipment to boost research at the seven schools and get more South Carolina students interested in science. Officials also said they believe the improved infrastructure will help the state attract other grants.

" South Carolina doesn't receive a fair share of support, on a per-capita basis, for biomedical research," said John Baynes, a biochemistry professor at the University of South Carolina and the grant's principal investigator. "South Carolina gets about half as much as it should. We're trying to change that."

The grant comes from the Idea Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence program at the National Institutes of Health. The seven schools, led by USC, submitted a 960-page grant application last year to get the funds.

The College of Charleston and Winthrop University will get $325,000 a year for five years, and Furman University and Claflin University will get $300,000 a year. Those four schools were chosen over the state's other four-year institutions by a panel of national experts.

USC, the Medical University of South Carolina and Clemson University will get $200,000 a year for five years.

In addition, another $250,000 a year will be spent on an outreach program to help the state's other four-year schools improve their research efforts.

Although each institution will benefit from the grant, it will be a big boon to the four-year schools, which will receive a larger share of the money and guidance from the three research institutions.
Faculty from the research institutions will act as research mentors for faculty from the four-year schools, helping them write grants and formulate ideas.

The College of Charleston, which already has a heavy research presence for a four-year school, will spend its funds to support five faculty members, three in biology and two in chemistry and biochemistry.
Funds will also be used to pay for some big pieces of equipment that it wouldn't be able to buy otherwise, said Norine Noonan, dean of the School of Science and Mathematics at the college.

" It's a very important grant for the state, and it does reflect a recognition that the four-year institutions in South Carolina are key players in the research capacity available in the state," Noonan said.
Each of the major research institutions will use its funds to support regenerative medicine.

Clemson will use its share to improve lab space to support its development of technology for tissue and joint replacements. At USC, funds will be used to hire faculty for a program researching tissue engineering to replace damaged portions of the cardiovascular system.

MUSC will use its funds to hire faculty for its program exploring ways to use adult stem cells for tissue or genetic engineering.

The university also will expand its stem cell biology lab. Baynes believes the improved infrastructure will help all the schools bring in other federal and industry-based research grants.

" Everybody is trying to make a more competitive base," Baynes said. "We're bringing in more money and we're stimulating the economy."

Baynes also said he believes the grant will help improve the work force in the state. Students at the schools will work on research with faculty members.

And some of the funds will pay stipends to help undergraduate students do research. That could get more South Carolina students interested in research, not an easy task these days.

" One of the problems that all graduate programs are having is finding really well-trained and interested American students involved in biomedical research," Baynes said. "There is an increasing foreign presence at graduate schools across the country."

Carol Eisenberg, associate professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy at MUSC, said many four-year schools do little to give students an indication of what the research world is like.

" I go around and give lectures to potential science students, and many have no understanding of research or have had (no) exposure to it," Eisenberg said. "They really appreciate people like myself going around and telling them this is what it's like doing science."

Contact Jonathan Maze at 937-5719 or jmaze@postandcourier.com