UW-Madison pediatrician receives prestigious NIH Merit award

UW–Madison pediatrician Bruce S. Klein has received a highly selective MERIT award (Method to Extend Research in Time) from the National Institutes of Health, an award that promises continued research funding for up to 10 years.

Klein, who is vice chair of the UW–Madison department of pediatrics and a UW–Madison faculty member since 1986, is a specialist in pediatric infectious disease. He also is a faculty member in the departments of medical microbiology and immunology and internal medicine. This award is tied to Klein’s ongoing research into fungal infections.

Klein says his research focuses on specific types of fungi that have the ability to change from a natural, or mold form, to a disease-causing form once they enter the human body. By better understanding how this change occurs, Klein’s research can better understand how people get sick. “Ultimately, this will help us develop better drugs and vaccines to reduce the level of infections in the first place,” Klein says.

Christopher Green, acting chair of the UW department of pediatrics, says that Klein “is among the most productive physician-scientists in the department.” Adds Green: “His work on Blastomycosis is internationally recognized. Receiving a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health is a wonderful honor and a confirmation of the importance of his innovative research.”

The NIH Merit award allows a researcher to receive funding for up to a decade without the need to re-apply and compete for the grants. According to the NIH, MERIT awards are given to investigators with impressive records of scientific achievement in research areas of special importance or promise.

Fewer than 5 percent of NIH-funded investigators are selected to receive MERIT Awards.