Board of Visitors minutes :: June 15, 2001 :: University of Virginia Library

Biology — With the May 2001 allocation of $325,000, the Biology Department has a basic account balance of $325,000. The department proposes to allocate $180,405 to fund fellowships, to support entering Ph.D. students, to provide two months of summer support for eight students, to cover tuition and fees (in part or in full) of nine students and to supplement two presidential fellowships. The department proposes to allocate $79,595 to provide partial support of the salaries of the director and associate director of the Mountain Lake program and to support a joint hire in a new field made by the departments of Biology and Physics. The department requests a transfer of $36,139 from the Biology Pratt Equipment to Biology Faculty Salaries. Finally, the department requests that $65,000 be transferred to the Arts and Sciences Pratt Special Account in partial repayment of the funds made available in 1998-1999 in support of the hiring of Janis Antonovics as the Lewis and Clark Professor of Biology.

Chemistry — The Chemistry Department proposes that $100,000 be allocated to provide fellowship support and tuition differentials to continuing graduate students and initial fellowship support to eleven graduate students. The department requests that an additional $15,000 be allocated to provide matching funds required for a National Science Foundation (NSF) summer undergraduate research award. The department proposes to allocate $80,000 to provide summer salary for new professors Lin Pu, Sergei Egerov, James Landers and Milton Brown; summer salary to the director of the Research Experience for Undergraduates program, James Demas; summer salary for two co-directors of the NSF's Integrated Graduate Education Research Training program, Ian Harrison and Brooks Pate; and summer salary for Robert Bryan for laboratory experiment development. The department requests that $25,000 be transferred to the Arts and Sciences Pratt Special Account in partial repayment of the funds made available in 1998-1999 in support of the hiring of Janis Antonovics as the Lewis and Clark Professor of Biology.

The department proposes to allocate $75,000, which in combination with Equipment Trust Fund (ETF) reimbursements, will be used for faculty start-up commitments and equipment matching commitments. The remaining $30,000 is to be left

in the basic account, reducing the deficit from ($60,000) to ($30,000) in accordance with the agreement approved by the Arts & Sciences Pratt Committee in May 1992, by which the department will reduce the basic account deficit by at least $30,000 yearly until the basic account has again achieved a positive balance (no later than 2003-2004).

Mathematics — The Mathematics Department proposes to allocate $154,076 for the following purposes: $121,076 to provide partial academic year salary and one month of summer wages for five Whyburn instructors in 2001-2002, and $33,000 for salary support for post doctoral visitor and short term visiting faculty. The department proposes to allocate $12,000 to purchase additional and replacement equipment for the department's computer laboratories. The department also proposes to allocate $133,924 for graduate fellowships. Finally, the department requests that $25,000 be transferred to the Arts and Sciences Pratt Special Account in partial repayment of the funds made available in 1998-1999 in support of the hiring of Janis Antonovics as the Lewis and Clark Professor of Biology.

Physics — The Physics Department proposes to allocate $44,820 to provide salary for a postdoctoral fellow in support of new Assistant Professor Despina Louca. The department proposes to allocate $255,180 to provide startup funds for equipment for Professor Gordon Cates and the new Condensed Matter faculty hire. Finally, the department requests that $25,000 be transferred to the Arts and Sciences Pratt Special Account in partial repayment of the funds made available in 1998-1999 in support of the hiring of Janis Antonovics as the Lewis and Clark Professor of Biology.

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE — $1,300,000 ($126,209 unallocated at this time.)

Centralized Research Support Facilities are supported predominantly by user fees. The Pratt endowment subsidy keeps costs low and provides financial stability.

The Biomolecular Research and Mass Spectrometry Facility provides a wide array of highly specialized services

including protein and DNA sequencing, peptide synthesis, amino acid and carbohydrate analyses, X-ray film processing, protein chemistry and mass spectrometry. The in-house availability of these services, which require expensive, sophisticated instrumentation and operating expertise, has contributed significantly to the spectrum of ongoing investigation at the University as well as reducing research costs. The facility's 2001-2002 operating budget is approximately $1,323,292. Pratt funds ($155,107) award for 2001-2002 will subsidize user fees and allow for the development of new techniques related to the provided services.

The Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) Facility is a research support facility providing investigators with the technology to study biological processes at the single cell level as well as isolating specific cell populations for detailed investigation. The Facility also provides advanced flow cytometric analyses. Researchers from more than 20 University departments rely on this facility, and individual laboratories equipped with similar instrumentation consult with FACS Center staff on problems or receive instruction in using their equipment. As with other core facilities, the FACS Facility generates a portion of its $126,176 operating budget through user fees. Pratt support will be $15,542.

Small Animal Multimodality Imaging Core (SAMMIC) was established in 1991 to provide magnetic resonance imaging capabilities for biomedical applications. It handles samples larger than those suitable for the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facility in Chemistry and smaller than the clinical facility, and thus is suitable for small animals and other research applications. A growing number of investigators in clinical departments as well as engineering and related fields are applying this technology to their research. In addition, the facility provides instruction for students, fellows and faculty in the basic theoretical and practical aspects of magnetic resonance imaging and related techniques. Pratt funds ($20,000) are awarded to subsidize the lab's operating budget ($81,575) in 2001-2002; user fees and departmental funds make up the balance.

The Tissue Culture Facility began as a Diabetes Center service, but has become an important service for the wider

medical school research community. It provides custom services as well as support services to meet the need for cell culture and growth media. The budget for the facility for 2001-2002 is projected to be $271,357, with $28,731 coming from the Pratt endowment.

Tissue Procurement Facility As the Health System becomes increasingly focused on translational research, the availability of specific human tissues for research purposes becomes increasingly important. This facility provides for protocol-driven collection of diseased and normal tissue, and the storage, culturing, analysis and distribution of these materials. The Pratt endowment provides $20,632.

Transgenic Mouse Core Facility This core facility was established in 1992 to support genetics research. The facility is equipped to produce transgenic and gene knockout mice for use in studies of normal gene function and altered gene expression as well as in developing animal models for human diseases. It is a multi-user core facility with an operating budget of $208,898 in 2001-2002 Pratt funds ($28,684) are awarded as a subsidy to enhance the availability of this important technology to investigators throughout the University.

The Centralized Electron Microscope Core facility continues to provide excellent service to a substantial number of investigators throughout the School of Medicine. It offers unique facilities that include two transmission electron microscopes, a scanning electron microscope and a confocal microscope. In addition, the Core provides expertise in the preparation of a wide variety of types of samples to be used with these microscopes. It has maintained a strong user base for over 20 years and has an excellent record of cost recovery. In year 2001-2002 this is projected to be approximately 85 percent. In addition to the Pratt contribution ($37,816) for the overall operating costs of the core, a one-time expenditure of $72,274 is provided for purchase of a new ultraviolet laser. This is an important instrumentation upgrade to a machine that is now eight years old, but with this upgrade will be perfectly functional for many additional years.

A new core facility, the Mouse Genetics Core, will be initiated. It will be directed by Marcia McDuffie, M.D.

The goal of this core is to provide expertise and facilities for the manipulation of the genetic background of mice that have been genetically engineered through the University's transgenic and knock-out mouse facility, or have been provided to University investigators from other sources. This initiative represents an expansion of an activity that has functioned for several years as a portion of an National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored program project in systemic lupus erythematosus. The Core Facility will interface closely with the Transgenic Mouse Core and the Biomolecular Resource Core. The initial establishment of this core will begin with a Pratt commitment of $50,000.

FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

Graduate Research Assistantships funded by the Pratt allocation are an important component of the school's research training program in the basic medical sciences. Students are compensated during the final years of their training, when primarily engaged in individual research projects. In addition, students receive support while on summer research rotations. The Pratt funds allocation of $245,000 represents approximately 13 percent of the 2001-2002 total program budget of $1.9 million.

Postdoctoral Fellowship Support The major recipients are expected to be postdoctoral fellows in the basic sciences that have received peer-reviewed external fellowships, which need supplementation to bring salary support to a competitive level. These supplements will be administered through the office of the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. Support was awarded at $24,000 for the first year, with funding for the second year rising to $48,000, $72,000 for 2000-2001 and $72,000 for 2001-2002. No further increments in this amount are anticipated.

$428,005 will be provided for research training to support the M.D./Ph.D. Program. This program plays a vital role in the School of Medicine by providing future physicians with extensive research training that shapes their subsequent careers. This program had been funded by NIH for 21 years and experienced a funding hiatus. The program will again receive NIH funding with a phasing-in period, and will therefore continue to need Pratt funding for the next several years. This support will maintain this valuable program until external support is established.

SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION

The School of Medicine requests a special distribution from the Pratt fund in the amount of $200,000 in each of three years beginning in 2001-2002 to support in the hiring of a critical faculty member in the field of combinatorial chemistry —- a joint appointment in the Departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology.