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UAH Chemistry Department awarded grant money for research

By Elizabeth Gentle - bio | email

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Researchers are using stimulus money to help find a cure for debilitating diseases.

UA-Huntsville received approximately $2.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Awards to fund research projects.

The grant money was allotted to specific projects.

Those proposals were submitted by UAH faculty. 

The money gained will go a long way towards cell research.

Inside a lab room is where it all happens at the Material Science Building at UAH.

Research, which can continue for the next 2 years, is made possible in part by federal stimulus dollars.

"The project we are working on is the structure of an enzyme that has some implications in Huntington's Disease and Alzheimer's," said Dr. Pamela Twigg, Assistant Research Professor at UAH.

The chemistry department where Dr. Pamela Twigg works was awarded over $220,000 to fund a project to one day cure neurodgenerative diseases.

"What we are hoping to do is understand how this protein work in this cell, what its roll might be in some of these neurological diseases," said Dr. Twigg.

Dr. Twigg's assistant is Randall Wilson, a 4th year PH. D student spends the majority of his time on-line, studying and doing research.

A portion of the grant money received will be used to pay Wilson's salary and buy supplies needed to run tests.

Wilson said the goal of this research is to understand how protein functions in the cell.

He said the research underway at UAH is just a small sample of what's being done to find a cure.

"There's no cure for it right now. Alzheimer's affects a lot of people and so we want to be able to help," said Wilson.

Another grant was given to research a chronic retinal implant.

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