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Originally posted by: ram
"Dang, now I've gone and learned to be skeptical: http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/news/stories/20041021/southernmissnews/1454764.html  "

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Sounds like a very positive thing...skepticism only plays into the timing.  How perfectly convenient to announce it while things are heating up at the board level.

Heck, just give up frying foods, quit goin' to Barnhills, start jogging, and everything will be fine.

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Originally posted by: truth4usm/AH
"Money quote (my bold): "Despite the impressive achievements of modern medicine, we still suffer from high levels of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses," Santangelo said. "Mississippi has a virtually untapped natural resource to help solve these problems - the bright, energetic students at our colleges and universities." Ah, yes...students as untapped resources...haven't we heard that before? "

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Truth,

Where in the heck have you been? You're not on tour with Dylan too, are you?

AE

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Originally posted by: ram
"http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/news/stories/20041021/southernmissnews/1454764.html  "

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This article seems to suggest that the funds are concerned with bioinformatics. Maybe this 9/24/04 announcement is related to the project. There is student involvement here:

 

Opportunity: Fellowships in BIOINFORMATICS, COMP BIO, MOLECULAR BIO--Hattiesburg, MS (US)
     Youping Deng - 09/24/04 12:23          

DESCRIPTION:
Several Ph. D. and Master student fellowship positions in bioinformatics, computational biology and molecular biology are available in the Department of Biological Sciences, the University of Southern Mississippi. The students will work on one of the following projects: genome and ecology database design, large-scale genome annotation and comparative genomics, evolution study at whole genome and protein family level, biochemical and gene network pathway modeling, new methods for protein motif, domain identification and structure visualization, novel data mining tools for the analysis of high throughput data such as microarray, proteomics and metabolomics data etc. The students who work in the wet lab will mainly investigate the role of hormone receptor binding proteins in cancer and diabetes, and validate the findings from bioinformatics application results.

QUALIFICATIONS:
The qualified applicants should hold a Bachelor or Master degree in any biology and (or) computer/statistics related majors. For bioinformatics and computational biology program, students with both biology and computer/statistics related backgrounds are preferred, but not required. For molecular biology program, computer/statistics background is not required. Tuition will be fully waived and competitive stipend will be offered for good students.

HOW TO APPLY:
If interested, please send your resume with names of three referees to

Dr. Youping Deng, Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Drive
Hattiesburg, MS 39401

From the looks of the announcement, it appears that Polymer Science is not the only big dog in COST insofar as extramural funding is concerned. And there appears to be nothing even remotely related to economic development in the Biology funds. Maybe there is life after economic development after all! This looks like a basic-science grant-funded endeavor rather than a contract-funded one of a purely technical nature.

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Originally posted by: Be careful
"The woman on TV was Dr. Yuan Luo. She is not a graduate student, and is in fact a naturalized American citizen who won one of the university research awards in recent years. Harvard and MIT post docs are on her CV. I know her fairly well, and I do not think she would appreciate being labeled a human interest story because of her heritage."

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Kudos to Dr. Yuan Luo, naturalized citizen with exemplary academic credentials, who now is part of the team responsible for the largest grant USM has ever received.  That such a highly qualified person ultimately works under a purported bigot who once allegedly expelled Asian graduate students for speaking their native language in his lab is ironic.  Sorry that you don't see the irony.  I'm sure that others will.  And exactly what should I be careful of?

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Originally posted by: scitamrofnioib

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bioinformatics

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Originally posted by: Irony
"Being a bigot yourself."

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???

I have no idea where you are coming from.  The story of the asian graduate students has been raised and discussed several times - never in a positive light.  The villain in that story is now vicariously claiming credit.  If you don't see the irony, then you're blind.   Get off your high horse. 

You boys take it out back. Let's not detract from some genuine good news, and a big step in the right (academic) direction.

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Originally posted by: Austin Eagle
" Truth, Where in the heck have you been? You're not on tour with Dylan too, are you? AE"

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No, but Duran Duran just announced a new tour!  Sorry, I'm a product of the MTV generation, old school.

(Really, I've been busy with my life, job, kids, etc. etc.  Thanks for asking!)

The Mississippi Functional Genomics Network (MFGN) was initially funded by an NIH iniative known as BRIN (Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network).  The BRIN program was initiated by a subdivision of NIH to assist states with a history of receiving little NIH funding to develop biomedical research networks.  Mississippi is one of the 23 BRIN eligible states.  One of the top priorities of the BRIN program is to create opportunities for historically NIH-underfunded academic institutions in the BRIN eligible states.  Each state is allowed only two BRIN grants, and the proposals submitted for NIH consideration have to demonstrate that the funding will benefit a group of historically-underfunded institutions in the state.  USM cannot receive BRIN funding as a stand-alone institution; the administrators of the grant have to demonstrate that the money will be going to assist researchers in Mississippi at historically-underfunded institutions (i.e., a network).  In order to obtain the BRIN money to establish the MFGN, USM had to recruit underfunded institutions in Mississippi as participants in this program.  The state's four major universities were designated as MFGN research centers by this grant, but other partners had to be identified in order to qualify for BRIN money.  Critical to eligibility for BRIN funding was the recruitment of  scientists at Mississippi University for Women, Delta State University, Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Tougaloo College, Mississippi College, and Millsaps College.  If these underfunded institutions had not been recruited as participants in this program, then there would have been no eligibility for the NIH BRIN funding.

After the BRIN grant was awarded to USM, the historically-underfunded institutions were almost completely left out of the money.  The first grant was for approximately $6,000,000 over 3 years, and probably $80,000 of the funding went directly to assist the scientists and students at the historically-underfunded institutions in Mississippi.  Competitive subgrants that were supposed to be generated never materialized, equipment that was supposed to be provided never appeared, and all of the pie-in-the-sky promised to the underfunded schools before the grant proposal was submitted disappeared.

In the article associated with the announcement of the latest installment, you will notice that you do not see any mention of the real purpose of the NIH BRIN program.  You will read lots of talk about how this research will help solve lots of Mississippi's health problems, help keep Mississippi's brightest minds at home, etc.  This is all propaganda.  Go to the MFGN website (http://www.usm.edu/mfgn/) and look for yourself, to see the listed partnerships, and see if you can find anything representing any actual significant support of these other participating institutions.  Better yet, call around to these other institutions and see if you can find any scientists at the underfunded institutions who can identify any of their share of this research bonanza.

Yes, it's a great day in Mississippi....another day for "business as usual".

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Originally posted by: ram
"All I get is an error message.  The Ministry of Truth got there first."

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I got an error message also. I'd sure like to read that entry. I'd also like to know why/if it has been deleted. In view of the recent media publicity I would think that would not be something they would delete.

Has the gold lost its glitter?

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Originally posted by: ram
"Dang, now I've gone and learned to be skeptical: http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/news/stories/20041021/southernmissnews/1454764.html  "

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ram seems to have been skeptical from the very first posting on this thread. was entrusting these funds to usm's care like asking the fox to watch the henhouse? just where was the money spent? i'm very confused.