ATLANTA, Nov. 2, 2009 - Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) has been selected as one of nine research institutions across the U.S. participating in a $7.5 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) - part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - to create a "resource discovery network" known as the eagle-i Consortium.

The research inventories from the nine participating sites will be published online and connected to a federated, searchable network. As a result, the eagle-i Consortium will enable biomedical scientists and students throughout the country to connect, collaborate, share and search scientific advances better and faster - thus helping to accelerate biomedical research.

Eve Higginbotham, M.D., MSM dean and senior vice president for Academic Affairs says one of the focuses of the network is to help advance MSM's critical mission. "Minority-serving academic health centers such as MSM are strategically poised to make important scientific contributions that address the devastating problem of racial and ethnic disparities of health in the U.S. This program will enable MSM investigators to establish, collaborate and share research discoveries that translate into improvements in the health status of the minority communities they serve."

The Consortium will collect information about the resources - initially, animal models, reagents, tissue banks, core laboratories, human health study protocols, and student research opportunities - available at each of the nine participating institutions. Presently, this cannot be done because the information is not systematically cataloged or made visible to researchers outside of the labs or institutions where the resources are located. The network will be built such that resource inventories from additional sites can be added over time.

The National Center for Research Resources, a part of NIH, provides laboratory scientists and clinical researchers with the resources and training they need to understand, detect, treat and prevent a wide range of diseases. NCRR supports all aspects of translational and clinical research, connecting researchers, patients and communities across the nation.

About Morehouse School of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) recruits and trains minority and other students as physicians, biomedical scientists and public health professionals committed to improving the health and well-being of communities. MSM is a member of the largest consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the world - the Atlanta University Center (AUC). For more information about Morehouse School of Medicine, visit us online at www.msm.edu.

About the National Center for Research Resources
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of NIH, provides laboratory scientists and clinical researchers with the resources and training they need to understand, detect, treat and prevent a wide range of diseases. NCRR supports all aspects of translational and clinical research, connecting researchers, patients and communities across the nation. For more information, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The Nation's Medical Research Agency - includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.