The Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University has announced a $3 million grant from the Price Family Foundation in support of a research collaboration with the University of Oklahoma that will explore the structural biology of the key proteins of anaerobic microorganisms.

The OU-Einstein Research Consortium will focus specifically on Clostridium difficile, a bacterial species that infects the intestinal tract and sickens at least two hundred and fifty thousand people and causes fourteen thousand deaths a year in the United States. The project aims to develop better treatments for C. difficile infections, capitalizing on Einstein's expertise in structural biology and its high-throughput analytic capabilities and OU's expertise in anaerobic microbiology and chemistry.

In 2001, OU alumnus Michael Price, who joined Einstein's board that year and is a former chair of its executive committee, made what was then the largest commitment in Einstein history, $25 million, to establish the Michael F. Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine/Harold and Muriel Block Research Pavilion. He also has supported the consolidation of the Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center's clinical and research units within newly renovated facilities and contributed $2.5 million to help establish the Einstein Center for Experimental Therapeutics.

"Michael Price and his family have a long history of support [for] Einstein and biomedical research around the country," said Vern Schramm, professor and chair of Einstein's Department of Biochemistry. "This new gift is an inspired way to leverage the unique talents and facilities at our two institutions to make a real advancement in an increasing danger to human health."