MSU researchers receive stimulus money for health-care research

MSU will receive almost $400,000 in stimulus money for health-care research and training, according to a press release from U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Carl Levin, D-Mich.

According to the release, Narayanan Parameswaran, an MSU assistant professor of physiology, will receive $375,141, and Gregory Fink, an MSU professor of pharmacology and toxicology, will receive $17, 632.

Fink said the federal money came from a program to fund summer research through the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

“We will use the money to have a student work in the laboratory of (MSU professor of pharmacology and toxicology) James Galligan on a research project that concerns the causes of high blood pressure (hypertension),” Fink said in an e-mail.

“In particular, how a high salt diet affects the arteries and veins in the gastrointestinal system.”

The money comes from a total of $2.7 million given to six Michigan colleges and research institutes.

MSU spokesman Jason Cody said the university didn’t know if it would receive any more grants from the health institutes.

“Obviously we’re pleased that two of our researchers’ proposals have been funded,” Cody said. “We hope that there will be more.”