In the Media

MDI Bio Lab secures funding to strengthen Maine’s role in regeneration science

The MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor is a leader in regeneration science and medicine.

BAR HARBOR — The MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor is a leader in regeneration science and medicine. The institution recently secured a major funding boost that researchers say reinforces the lab’s expanding role in the life sciences economy.

For decades, the MDI Bio Lab has been pioneering new approaches in regenerative medicine.

This month, the institution secured more than $4 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, ensuring ongoing research initiatives.

“This is critical to advance these studies that really create a strong intellectual relation with current modern biomedicine and how diseases are treated,” said Ian Drummond, PH.D., Scientific Director of the Kathryn Davis Center for Regenerative Biology and Aging at the MDI Bio Lab.

The latest award will support research led by Prayag Murawala, PH.D., that explores how vertebrates can regenerate tissues after injury.

“What my lab is working to understand, if they can regenerate, what is it that we lack, and why can’t we regenerate?” said Murawala.

He says thefunding provides their team with the opportunityto explorte discoveries that could help guide future approaches to repairing human tissues.

“The grant like MIRA [Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award], gives us the freedom to explore the science that we think is important,” said Murawala.

The campus itself is also experiencing major growth.

They are nearing the completion of the Neal Laboratory (renovation), which, thanks to congressional funding, will support training and development of therapeutic initiatives.

“There’s this big biotech boom in southern Maine in particular, to see that extend all the way up here to the MDI Biological Lab is really amazing,” said Cory Johnson, PH.D., a postdoctoral researcher who was involved in the design process of the Neal Lab — which is expected to be completely restored in September.

Researchers hope to see their efforts continue to strengthen Maine’s role in regeneration science and Maine’s workforce.

“Having the state behind us, having the federal government behind us, it gives us a real momentum for the future to keep going and expand,” said Drummond.