Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The University of Kansas Medical Center will receive almost $20 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health, officials announced today.

The money will be used to expand the medical school's clinical research with the goal of getting new drugs and treatments onto the market faster.

Medical school officials said the $19.7 million grant, "puts the medical center among an elite, 60-member group of universities collaborating on clinical and translational research, which transforms laboratory discoveries into treatments and cures."

"This award is recognition that KU Medical Center now stands among the national leaders in health and health care research," Dr. Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor, said in a prepared statement. "The grant will give our researchers tremendous momentum and resources as we move towards our ultimate goal of making our state and region a healthier place to live."

The grant's principal investigators are Dr. Richard Barohn, chair of the KU Medical Center Department of Neurology, and Lauren S. Aaronson, professor in the KU School of Nursing and Department of Health Policy and Management.

Most of the new operations funded by the grant will be at the new KU Clinical Research Center in Fairway, officials said. The center is scheduled to open in early 2012.