A proposal to create a human health innovation hub for space-based research was one of 19 new projects funded by the University of Florida’s strategic funding initiative to advance the student experience and interdisciplinary research. Siobhan Malany, Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmacodynamics in the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, along with collaborators from four other UF colleges, will receive $1.5 million over the next three years.
The funding will allow Malany’s team to conduct astrobiology experiments in space and on the ground to reveal the significant effects of low gravity on biological systems. The in-space biomanufacturing for human health innovation hub will also ensure UF has a significant role in the rapidly expanding in-space manufacturing sector.
After UF received $130 million in new funding from the State Legislature this year, President Ben Sasse established that, for the first time, more than half of the new funding must be demonstrably used for strategic purposes. The first round of the strategic funding initiative awarded $9.2 million to projects across UF.