Staff Report
Published Sept. 13, 2012

A federal program renewed grants for three research centers at the Medical University of South Carolina, the teaching hospital announced Wednesday.

MUSC was awarded $27 million from the Institutional Development Award program, which broadens the geographic distribution of National Institutes of Health funding for biomedical and behavioral research.

The teaching hospital now houses four NIH Centers for Biomedical Research Excellence. The centers perform health-related research and support faculty development and research.

Three of the centers focus on cardiovascular health, oral health and lipidomics research.

In 2011, MUSC received a fourth grant to establish the Center in Oxidants, Redox Balance and Stress Signaling. Redox balance and stress signaling play a role in a number of diseases, including organ damage and cancer, according to a news release.

“The programmatic initiatives involving the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence and related infrastructure development grants from the National Institutes of Health have simply been transformative for MUSC and have played important roles in the dramatic growth of research programs at the university over the last 10 years,” said Stephen Lanier, an MUSC associate provost for research.