The Department of Health and Human Services announced today that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will invest more than $2.9 million in the University of Virginia's medical research laboratories as part of the economic recovery package.'

Funding will be provided for the enhancement of technologies used in the study of public health.

Here is the breakdown of funds:

• $500,000 for a Thermo Electron LTQ Orbitrap XL - ETD Mass Spectrometer, an instrument that will be used to perform proteomics experiments that require high resolution and mass accuracy, which range from cell control to cancer to infectious disease.

• $385,700 for a Bioluminescence/Fluorescence Imaging System for Long-Term in Vivo Recording         

• $2,000,000 for a 300 keV Liquid Helium Robotic Microscope, which can produce higher resolution structures that will have an impact on matters of public health ranging from bacterial pathogenesis to heart disease to cancer to AIDS.