Glue grants to tackle sticky issue

Abstract

A consortium of nearly 30 researchers of widely differing disciplines is due to receive $38 million over the course of five years to study cell migration. The consortium's investigators and collaborators, who are based mainly in the USA, include biologists, chemists, biophysicists, optical physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, geneticists and engineers. Rick Horwitz, lead investigator for the consortium commented: ‘Complex issues such as cell migration are not going to be solved quickly by single investigators working alone. We wanted to put together scientists who are particularly known for their collaborative and interactive approach to science’. ‘Science is getting more complicated’, said J. Thomas Parsons, co-principal investigator. ‘With all the technologies that are out there and the diverse experimental paradigms one has to apply with complex projects, it's impossible to center all those technologies in a single lab, or even in a single university.’ The consortium will focus on the structure of the large multi-molecular complexes that drive cell migration and on developing mathematical models of migration. ‘Our plan is to get those reagents or information or technology and put them out in the community as soon as possible’, said Horwitz. Consortium researchers will share and discuss data as they are collected, using a publicly accessible website: http://www.cellmigration.org/. The $38 million award, known as a ‘glue’ grant, is only the second of its kind awarded by the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part of the NIH. The NIGMS began the initiative last year to support multi-investigator, interdisciplinary collaborations on complex biomedical problems and will announce two more grants this year. For further information, see http://www.nigms.nih.gov/funding/gluegrants.html A.M.