McLaughlin Research Institute’s John Mercer receives $1.2MM grant for research into substances called myosins

McLaughlin Research Institute scientist John Mercer has been awarded a $1.2 million competitive grant by the National Institutes of Health.

One or two additional staff people will be hired, and the grant will not be shared by any outside groups, Mercer said.

By Richard Ecke
Tribune Staff Writer

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040720/localnews/878726.html

"Things are going really well," Mercer said in an interview Monday. "These are the biggest ones you can get."

Mercer will receive the grant dollars over a four-year period to pay for research into substances called myosins.

According to the institute, myosins are molecular motors that mediate many of the body’s functions, including hearing, heartbeat and movement. The types of myosins to be studied by Mercer under the new grant appear to play roles in the body’s cancer-prevention mechanism, as well as in learning and memory.

Mercer has already been examining other myosins for their roles in hearing loss and Type II diabetes.

Institute spokesman Dave Crum noted only 15 to 25 percent of applicants receive these competitive grants from the federal agency.

The award "speaks very highly of John" and of the institute in general, Crum said.

Mercer attributed his high ranking in the award process to his use of chemical genetics, an emerging field of research he has used in other myosin research involving hearing and diabetes.

"It’s an exciting approach that has given us good results," Mercer said.

Mercer cloned one type of myosin while doing postdoctoral research, and his lab at the University of Texas-Southwestern in Dallas cloned another type.

"We will follow each of these myosins and see where they take us and what diseases we run into," Mercer said.

As a scientist, Mercer acknowledged that research requires patience and painstaking work. But it has its rewards, he said.

"Our product is the data that we produce," Mercer said. Information gathered in the lab prompts formal papers that are published and help advance scientific knowledge.