Cohen Announces Nearly $650K for Research at St. Jude

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) today announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital a federal grant worth $648,075 for research into quantifying and modeling the viral dynamics and host responses of the influenza virus. The award will be distributed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

“Every year, the flu virus mutates into a form that is resistant to vaccines, requiring people across the country to get a new round of flu shots. The disease particularly affects children and the elderly,” said Congressman Cohen. “These new federal funds will enable the doctors and scientists at St. Jude to advance our understanding of influenza and find new methods to treat it.”

NIAID is one of the Institutes of the National Institute of Health (NIH), which is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of NIAID is to conduct and provide funding for research toward the treatment and prevention of infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. Its research portfolio includes bio-defense, vaccine research, childhood asthma, immunology, and infectious communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, West Nile Virus, and SARS.