A research institute at Maine Medical Center will get $11 million from the National Institutes of Health to create a multidisciplinary research center to study human metabolism and metabolic diseases such as obesity, osteoporosis and diabetes.
Researchers at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute have been studying how fat, bone and the brain control overall metabolism in the body. Faculty scientist and Program Director Lucy Liaw says the award provides funding to young investigators to conduct cellular, molecular, biochemical and clinical research.
“It supports their research directions and it also supports novel technologies and helping us to establish state-of-the-art experimental methodologies to test these types of questions related to metabolic disease,” she says.
Liaw says fostering and maintaining talent in Maine is crucial for the growth of biotechnology in the state.