McLaughlin Research Institute
McLaughlin Research Institute
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WELCOME to McLaughlin Research Institute
Dr. John Birmingham works in his lab at the McLaughlin Research Institute. He has grants for $2.3 million for his genetic work on myelin, a substance that promotes impulse transmission in the body's nervous system.
Great Falls boasts one of the nation's most respected genetic research institutes.
With its pioneering work in biomedical science and its dual mission of research and education, the McLaughlin Research Institute has lured scientists from throughout the United States, including Harvard University.
Within its hallowed halls, one can hear the pitter-patter of thousands of tiny feet -- McLaughlin scientists use mouse models to genetically engineer the human condition or disease being studied.
Through the Institute's efforts, the scientists have advanced research into neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease, congenital deafness, diabetes and other maladies.
This year, McLaughlin Research Institute received two significant grants. Institute Director Dr. George Carlson and collaborators from two other institutions were given a five-year grant of $1.4 million each year to continue researching the genetics of susceptibility to prion disease.
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Among diseases caused by prions are mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
The other grant is from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This grant of $529,000 will allow the Institute to expand its student and teacher internships and help them to work with high-school teachers in encouraging students who are interested in science.
"This expanded student program will help McLaughlin continue the tradition of fostering the next generation of biomedical researchers and physicians and encourage talented individuals to consider K-12 education as a career," Carlson says.
Last year, affiliation of the Sletten Cancer Institute and McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls with the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah was announced.
For scientists at McLaughlin Research Institute, the affiliation expands the amount of expertise and broadens the patient base for clinical studies, said Dave Crum, assistant director for development and operations.
"We see this as the beginning of an academic medical center in Great Falls," said Carlson.
McLaughlin directors also believe strongly that young people and teachers should be involved in scientific research.
Over the past five decades, dozens of interns from the private, nonprofit facility have gone on to become scientists and doctors.
Dr. Irving Weissman, a native of Great Falls who now is the Chairman of McLaughlin's Scientific Advisory Board, was the first "summer student" to work as a teenager at the institute.
Today, Weissman is a leading expert in stem-cell research and Director of Stanford University's Stem Cell Institute and Comprehensive Cancer Center in California.
"He is one of the reasons the building is here," Crum said.
With a faculty of four, which may increase to five, the institute's staff has grown to nearly 40.
Mailing address:
205 River Drive South
Great Falls, MT 59405
Switchboard:
(406) 791-1444 or (800) 438-6600
Fax:
(406) 791-1431
Copyright ©2009 Great Falls Tribune
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