In 2004, close to one in five extramural NIH dollars went to only 10 of the 3,000 institutions that received grants. Five US states get almost half of all funding. What about everyone else?
BY ALISON MCCOOK
The ceiling in the medical school at the University of South Dakota (USD) in Vermillion is visibly water-stained and falling down in spots. Walking through the facility, researcher Robin Miskimins admits that she can't plug in two hoods and three incubators in the tissue culture room without blowing a circuit. Everyone shares key equipment, such as a confocal microscope, a cell culture facility, and an aging scanning electron microscope.
Four hundred miles due north through largely farm country, Diane Darland waited for months after moving from Boston to the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks to get equipment - a small set of cages for transgenic mice, and a $10,000 hood ...
