North Shore University Hospital, Winthrop-University Hospital awarded state funding for clinical researcher training

Two Nassau County hospitals will share a portion of $17.2 million in funding for the training of new clinical researchers, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office said.

The financial awards to 26 academic medical institutions are part of the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program and will be distributed over a two-year period.

North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset will receive a team-based center award for about $1.2 million.

Each of the 12 institutions getting team-center award money has committed at least $200,000 in matching funds for their project.

The awards provide funding for teaching hospitals to form research teams focused on a specific topic, disease or condition. The funding not only helps further the development of clinician researchers, but it also gives hospitals a foundation from which they can seek additional federal funding, officials said.

Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola will get an individual award -- up to $150,000 over two years. The funding can be used to train program researchers in diverse research fields such as obesity, diabetes, lupus, kidney transplant, schizophrenia, HPV infection and hearing loss, officials said.

More than 86 physician researchers in diverse fields, including heart and kidney disease, traumatic brain injury, human cancer genomics, health information technology, population health and stem cell therapy, will be trained with this funding, according to Cuomo's office.

"This investment will help train the next generation of researchers, helping to ensure that the Empire State remains on the cutting edge of innovation," Cuomo said in a statement.