Office of Internal Communications
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August 17, 2004 SEN. HUTCHISON, REP.
CULBERSON AT UH Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Rep. John Culberson (R-Houston) will be on campus at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18, to announce federal funding for the new Alliance for NanoHealth, of which the University of Houston is a founding member. A live webcast of this press conference will be available at: www.uh.edu/streaming/live.htm. The alliance, a coalition of five Houston research institutions, has been awarded $2.8 million in federal funds as part of the recently approved Department of Defense’s appropriations bill. Hutchison and Culberson led the way in acquiring this money along with Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land). In addition to announcing the alliance funding, Hutchison and Culberson will take a brief tour of nano-related research facilities at UH. Attending the announcement will be top officials from the five member institutions: Rice University, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and UH. The Alliance for NanoHealth is a collaborative enterprise aimed at bridging the gap between biology, medicine, public health and physical science with the goal of saving lives. By developing nanoscale engineering devices that can treat the human body at a molecular level, it may be possible to prevent or even cure complex diseases. “As a member of the Appropriations Committee, my highest priority has been to provide the startup funding needed for this research endeavor, which will improve the quality of life for every American,” Culberson said. “The Alliance for NanoHealth will give Houston the opportunity to be on the forefront of this new technology.” Some portion of these funds (or additional possible appropriations currently pending) will be used to assist with the construction of a “clean room” at the Science and Engineering Research and Classroom Complex (SERCC) currently under construction at UH. The “clean room” — a facility that features a static-free environment insulated from vibrations, as well as special air filters to remove dust particles — is intended to be available to Alliance for NanoHealth researchers. For more information about SERCC, visit http://www.uh.edu/media/serc/ . For more information about the Alliance for NanoHealth, visit http://www.nanohealthalliance.org/. Eric Gerber
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