Medical School Leads UMass Research Spending

Research spending at the University of Massachusetts reached new highs in 2009, increasing 12 percent from a year earlier to total $489.1 million, the school reported.

The UMass Medical School in Worcester outpaced the university's other four campuses with $204 million in research expenditures in 2009. The next highest campus was Amherst with $160 million in spending.

The medical school's research last year focused on stem cell therapy, RNAi and gene therapy.

The federal government, mainly through the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, provide nearly 60 percent of the research money used at UMass. Ninety-six percent of the money is used to study science and engineering and 56 percent is used in life sciences research.