A big push for biomedical research?
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is giving $600 million to a group of 56 scientists. Jeremy Hobson reports what this could mean for biomedical research in general, which often has to get creative to find funding.
A stethoscope sitting on a laptop (istockphoto)
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Scott Jagow: One of the country's biggest philanthropies will announce a new gift today for biomedical research. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is giving $600 million to a group of 56 scientists. Jeremy Hobson has more on what this means.
Jeremy Hobson: When it comes to funding medical research, the top dog is still the federal government. Specifically, the National Institutes of Health and its nearly $30 billion budget.
But NIH funding has been flat since 2004. And David Farb of Boston University's School of Medicine says scientists are increasingly looking elsewhere for dollars.
David Farb: Scientists are looking in all kinds of nooks and crannies for funding. Now the Howard Hughes is hardly . . . is hardly a nook or a cranny. It's more like Niagara Falls.
And like the falls, the Hughes Institute wants to be a magnet for daredevils, hoping its money can be used for ambitious -- even risky -- research.
Farb says that's one big advantage of private research funding in general.
Farb: It's freer from congressional oversight. It's freer from directives other than the purpose of ultimately the best science.
In Washington, I'm Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.
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