Biomed receives $305,310 Kresge Foundation Science Initiatives Challenge grant to support LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport Research Core Facility
Gift supports campaign goal to raise $1.8 million for Core Facility

A $305,310 Kresge Foundation challenge grant award to the Biomedical Research Foundation will support the purchase of scientific equipment for biomedical research at the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) Research Core Facility.

“The LSUHSC-S Research Core Facility is a critical piece of infrastructure for advancing research by LSUHSC-S scientists, Consortium for Education Research and Technology of north Louisiana (CERT) faculty and InterTech Science Park company scientists. We are excited that this well-known national foundation has invested in growing biomedical research in north Louisiana,” noted Biomedical Research President Jack Sharp.

Dr. John McDonald, LSUHSC-S Chancellor said, “The Research Core Facility is making a tremendous contribution to an increase in grant competitiveness for LSUHSC-S. In fact, LSUHSC-S faculty were awarded nearly $22 million in extramural funding in 2004-2005, an unprecedented amount for this institution. We appreciate the BRF for partnering with us to make available the most up-to-date technology for the Research Core Facility.”

The Biomedical Research Foundation initially will receive $152,655 from The Kresge Foundation to purchase equipment. Upon completion of the local campaign to raise $604,000 for an equipment endowment for the LSUHSC-S Research Core Facility, the Kresge Foundation will donate an additional $152,655 to support the endowment.

Specifically, The Kresge Foundation grant will support the purchase of a flow cytometer and Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) instrumentation. Flow cytometry is the workhorse of the Research Core Facility and is utilized by more scientists and researchers than any of the other seven core technologies. It is a technique to rapidly identify, count, and classify cells. PCR is a technique that allows billions of copies of a single gene to be reproduced by the process of amplification. The new PCR system will allow experiments that now take 4 hours to be accomplished in 20 minutes.