Two partner universities in the five-state WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) consortium have received federal grants to fund a variety of research activities. The University of Idaho received $9 million and the University of Wyoming received two grants totaling $11.6 million. The grants are part of a National Institutes of Health Institutional Development Award (IdeA) program to support biomedical research in states that have received limited NIH funds in the past. The five-year grants establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) to support the work of the participating investigators.

In the largest grant ever given by the NIH to the University of Wyoming, several faculty members for first-year medical school classes in Laramie will join a university interdisciplinary team in studying the effects of nitric oxide on the human body. These include its effects on bacteria that cause human Q fever and Rocky Mountain spotted fever; retrovirus-induced central nervous system diseases; gastrointestinal function; and natural defenses keeping bacteria, dust, and pollutants from reaching the lungs. A second grant will fund a separate five-year program to study stressors contributing to cardiovascular disease.

The University of Idaho grant will create a COBRE to conduct four research projects on the molecular and cellular basis of host-pathogen interactions. These include studies of a maternal immune system protein, Escherichia coli in cattle, staphylococcus bacteria and gas gangrene. Dr. Gregory Bohach, course director for the Natural History of Infectious Disease course in the University of Idaho/Washington State University WWAMI Program, is the Idaho grant’s principal investigator.