UMKC Approves For NIH Funding

U.S. Missouri Senator Roy Blunt has announced that the University of Missouri Kansas City is one of two institutions in Missouri that has been selected to receive grant funding for the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations Program. It is also known as the RADx-UP program. UMKC will receive $1.9 million dollars to improve COVID-19 testing for underserved and vulnerable communities.

Under the $2.5 billion Shark Tank-style RADx program, NIH, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and private industry are working together to develop new ways to produce tens of millions of COVID-19 diagnostic tests that are capable of providing quick, inexpensive results.

The RADx initiative is currently supporting 22 companies with manufacturing expansion contracts, which are expected to add 2.7 million tests per day by the end of the year.

Washington University was the other institution that received grant funding.