Research funded by outside sources may be one area at the UI safe from major cuts.

A scenario in which the UI’s budget issues would affect these research projects is unlikely but not impossible, UI spokesman Tom Moore said on Wednesday.

Nonetheless, thanks to roughly $35 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, UI Health Care will hire or retain 190 people for various research projects, said Paul Rothman, the dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine.

“The money will stimulate jobs,” he said. “It’s not directly for the budget, but it will lessen the crisis a little.”

UI officials said $10 million to $12 million of the grant money will fund salaries and benefits for the additional staff members.

The grants, which are part of national stimulus funding, help support 80 new projects at UI Health Care. These projects range from genetic and molecular modification to reproductive health.

Iowa received 113 grants as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and 103 of those will fund projects across the UI.

Individual researchers from the UI Carver College of Medicine submitted hundreds of applications to the NIH for consideration. Based on a peer review of these applications, the 80 UI projects were selected. Any specific research area may have seen up to 100 multipage applications from across the nation. Therefore, most of the principal investigators from the UI did not receive feedback for months.

“People here work really hard and put in a lot of effort,” Rothman said. “Our biomedical science department is one of the best in the world, but these required a lot of work. There were many competitive applications.”

One project funded through a NIH grant takes place in UI physiologist Kevin Campbell’s laboratories. The two-year, $2.5 million project aims to identify new gene mutations underlying types of muscular dystrophy. These mutations, researchers on Campbell’s team said, occur when the modification of a cell surface protein is disrupted.

Tobias Willer, an assistant research scientist in Campbell’s lab, stressed the importance of the grant.

“It allows us to do projects we couldn’t do otherwise,” he said. “We can move the field in a new direction.”

Willer said the team’s application highlighted its preparation.

“[The project] was pitched as primed and ready to go,” he said. “They’re not the type of experiments typically funded. It includes direct patient benefit.”

Another project funded with an NIH grant is UI Professor Sarah England’s “Regulation of Uterine Smooth Muscle Excitability.” The project will focus on potassium channel alterations, something that may contribute to pregnancy-related problems such as pre- and post-term labor. The two-year project, which will use four staff members including England, received a grant for $924,818 and will likely be completed in three phases.

“It’s always exciting to get a grant like this,” England said with a smile. “Even the best ideas sometimes don’t get funded, so it’s difficult.”