NIH launches interactive map to showcase benefits of annual $1 billion in grants they award

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invest over $1 billion each year into biomedical development efforts by small businesses across the country, and has now created an interactive mapping tool to help people to understand the impact of that funding.

While the map does not show all the various entities that receive funding through the NIH, it gives short highlights regarding 50 projects that are currently receiving funding, such as efforts to find ways to use artificial intelligence to prevent blindness in people with diabetes, or a Maine-based company that is looking into treating movement disorders by developing a better understanding of the human brain.

The businesses and projects highlighted through the map are all supported by NIH grants, according to a press release from NIH.

One of the more recently relevant examples provided in the NIH post is the switch by BioMedomics of North Carolina from work on a rapid blood test for diagnosing sickle cell disease to a rapid COVID-19 blood test that provides results within 15 minutes, according to the NIH press release. 

“The company recently teamed up with BD, a global medical technology company, to distribute the test in the U.S pending authorization by the Food and Drug Administration,” NIH said in the press release. 

The map is also intended to assist potential investors in understanding ways that NIH funding can help to further research efforts, according to the NIH press release.

“It’s important to show how NIH funding and support helps innovators convert their laboratory discoveries into solutions that address some of the nation’s highest healthcare priorities,” Dr. Matthew McMahon, director of NIH’s Small Business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) office, said in the press release. “In the end, the public benefits by gaining access to a stream of innovative new therapies and cures.”