US NIH to back the unconventional
This article was originally published in Scrip
The US National Institutes of Healthare providing $42.2 million for 38 research projects that it considers to be "exceptionally innovative", and represent unconventional approaches. The grants are the first to be made under the EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional, Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) programme and include the reprogramming of adult cells (fibroblasts) to resemble embryonic stem cells and an RNA-based strategy to get substances into the brain without an injection. The first is being conducted by Dr Tanja Dominko at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, and the second by Dr Beverly Davidson of the University of Iowa, Iowa City.