Scott LaPlant

Description: Be part of a weeklong online dialogue starting October 17 that will focus on identifying the best ways to strengthen oversight of Recovery Act spending.

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The Recovery Board is teaming with the nonpartisan National Academy of Public Administration to solicit ideas from the public on how to prevent fraud, waste, or abuse of Recovery funds. The Board and the Academy are hosting the National Dialogue on Innovative Tools to Prevent and Detect Fraud, Waste, and Abuse from 8:00 A.M. on October 17 through 8:00 A.M. on October 24.

Register on the 17th, join the dialogue and provide your input to the following questions:

• What management practices, policies, programs, and incentives would improve financial stewardship and help prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse?
• What specific governmental, public, or proprietary data sources could help the Recovery Board prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse?
• What technologies or systems do you think would be effective in integrating and aggregating diverse types of data?
• What types of risk models would identify entities receiving Recovery Act funds as most vulnerable to fraud, waste, or abuse?
• What performance metrics could be applied to Recovery Act funded programs and recipients to improve oversight and accountability?

When the dialogue concludes, the ideas will be analyzed and reviewed as the Board continues its efforts to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery funds.

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Description: The new Recipient Profile Summary displays a wealth of data for all recipients of Recovery contracts, grants, or loans.

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​Want in-depth information about a particular recipient of Recovery funds? The Recipient Profile Summary, a new feature on Recovery.gov, provides a detailed view of any recipient’s awards, jobs funded, project status, and more.

Just enter the name of a recipient and/or the state where the recipient is located into the Search on the landing page. You can also search by a DUNS number, which is a standard identifier for entities doing business with the federal government from Dun & Bradstreet.

Recovery award recipients can use the Recipient Profile Summary to check and verify data. Any changes or corrections must be done on FederalReporting.gov.

An introductory video shows how easy the Profile is to use:

 

 

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Description: Recovery grants from the National Institutes of Health are funding research into a range of diseases, conditions, and other health concerns.

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​The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has designated $8.2 billion of Recovery funding toward supporting a variety of medical research projects around the country. Some of the projects are new; some already existed at the time the Recovery Act was passed but have benefited from additional money to expand or accelerate research. Similarly, some projects have been completely funded by Recovery money, while others have been partially funded.

The projects involve research into almost every human health concern, from allergies and childhood development issues to drug abuse, mental health problems, cancer, heart disease, geriatric conditions, and more.

Three projects of the more than 20,000 Recovery grants the NIH has issued to date for research are:

• Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease – Funded by a variety of sources, including $5.5 million in Recovery money, scientists have confirmed one genetic variation and have identified several others that may be risk factors for the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.  In the largest study ever conducted into possible genome-associated factors of Alzheimer’s– which affects an estimated 5.4 million Americans and costs $183 billion annually in care– investigators of the NIH’s National Institute on Aging studied DNA samples from more than 56,000 participants and analyzed data sets. Scientists expect the findings will help identify those likely to develop the disease and possibly lead to new therapies. (Details)
• Understanding ALS – Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, can run in families, but in approximately 90 percent of cases there is no known cause. Recent research partially underwritten with a $1.7 million Recovery grant has revealed that factors associated with the disease are different than previously thought. Until now, a specific genetic mutation was suspected to play the key role in the development of ALS, which is characterized by the death of nerves related to voluntary muscle movement. But the recent research by NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke identified another factor: Certain cells once thought to support voluntary muscle neurons are actually toxic to them. Scientists expect this finding, which expands their understanding of the possible origins of non-familial ALS, will lead to wider research into causes and potential treatments. Currently there is only one treatment. (Details)
• The Genetics of Ovarian Cancer – With the help of $3 million in Recovery funds, scientists at the National Cancer Institute have assembled the most comprehensive and integrated view of BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 breast cancer genes and ovarian cancer genes to date. As part of the research, scientists mapped and sequenced the protein-coding regions of the genome of 316 separate tumors involving serous adenocarcinoma, the most prevalent form of ovarian cancer. One of the key findings is that identical mutations in a single gene, TP53, were common to almost all tumors. Overall results of the research “will significantly empower the cancer research community to make additional discoveries that will help us treat women with this deadly disease,” said NIH Director Francis Collins. (Details)

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Description: Prarthana Dalal, a recent high school graduate whose research was funded by Recovery money, took top honors in an international competition for biotechnology students.

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​An 18-year-old student from Kansas City won a major international science award for research financed by Recovery Act funds from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Prarthana Dalal won the International BioGENEius Challenge, a high school competition sponsored by the Biotechnology Institute in Washington, D.C.  She received the award last summer for her work with Dr. Kenneth Peterson at the University of Kansas Medical Center on a project involving hemoglobin genetics and the way sequence changes can affect fetal hemoglobin production in mice. Results of the project will aid in the treatment of sickle cell disease.

The supplies for Dalal’s research, conducted last year when she was a senior at Shawnee East Mission High School in Leawood, Kansas, were paid for with a $42,720 Recovery Act Summer Student Experience Award that Peterson received in July 2009. The Summer Student Experience Awards were made available to institutions and scientists with active NIH grants.

In addition to funding Dalal’s project, the money provided financial support for other students who worked in Peterson’s lab over summers and holidays the past two years.

Dalal is a freshman this fall at Northwestern University, enrolled in a combined BS/MD degree program. 

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