Rhode Island
Federal grant extends RI-INBRE program to expand region’s biotech workforce, expertise
KINGSTON, R.I. — April 9, 2025 — The Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE) program will continue training the next generation of leaders in the region’s biomedical and biotechnology industries for the next three years after receiving a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The new federal funding continues the program that was previously operated with more than $600,000 from the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.
RI-INBRE’s Workforce Development and Training program was created in 2023 to provide hands-on biomedical training for students in RI-INBRE’s well-equipped Centralized Research Core Facility on the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston Campus. The program’s mission is to provide trainees with valuable biotech skills and to make those trainees preferred new hires for the Rhode Island biotechnology industry once they graduate.
Expert faculty at RI-INBRE network institutions design and conduct 12 intensive, 2.5-day training modules for small groups of trainees, allowing instructors to provide individual attention for each participant. Students in chemical, biological, bioengineering, and other health sciences are encouraged to apply. The program is open to students at the 10 colleges and universities in the state that partner with RI-INBRE, funded by federal National Institutes of Health grants.
“We’re offering a dozen of mostly basic biomedical skill sets—enzyme assays, cell culture, drug delivery and detection, etc.,” said Bongsup Cho, director of RI-INBRE and professor of pharmacy at URI. “It’s a very intensive program. Students participate in project work by choosing a major professor during the summer and working in their lab. They learn techniques by carrying out the projects. The people who hire these students like to see that kind of additional experience.”
All training modules are offered free of charge and provide instruction on the theory and practice of operating molecular and cellular analysis equipment, as well as training in scientific methods and data analysis. Courses include basic lab skills, biological data science, cell and tissue culture, DNA manipulation, fluorescence microscopy, and more. Students also learn basic lab techniques, which Cho said are valuable to prospective employers. Participants who complete a training module earn a RI-INBRE-branded certificate.
The program is run out of the RI-INBRE core facility, which is housed in URI’s Avedisian Hall. The advanced facilities in the College of Pharmacy and RI-INBRE’s lab allow rising juniors and seniors to learn hands-on with professional equipment. Students travel to URI from one of the RI-INBRE participating schools—which include URI, Brown University, Bryant University, Rhode Island College, Providence College, Johnson & Wales University, Roger Williams University, Salve Regina University, Community College of Rhode Island, and New England Institute of Technology.
“This is possible because we have an excellent instrument core facility; we already have the equipment. If you were to run this program from scratch, it would cost millions of dollars,” Cho said. “The bottom line is this is a great activity where URI is leading, initially supported by the state government, and now supported by the federal government, which sees this as a great opportunity in workforce development. I want to thank Sen. Jack Reed and the Rhode Island congressional leaders for their help securing this important project.”
The RI-INBRE program, a statewide network, is a cornerstone in building Rhode Island institutions’ biomedical research capacity. Over the past 24 years, it has expanded its scope from basic biology, chemistry, and pharmaceutical sciences to engineering, data science, and health sciences. This expansion has increased research funding, bringing more than $100 million for biomedical research capacity to Rhode Island.
“The program allows students the opportunity to explore the basics of different research opportunities and pathways and understand what they enjoy,” said Kiera Aviles, a URI pharmacy student who has taken several of the modules. “It allows students to participate in these modules to learn, and enhance their knowledge and research skills. It empowers students in research and encourages their professional and personal development.”
‘People’s State of the State’ gather to protest homelessness at Governor’s State Of The State.
Outside of Gov. Dan McKee’s State of the State address, the ‘People’s State of the State’ was held to bring awareness to homelessness in RI.
Homelessness is too often framed as a personal failure rather than a systemic one. That framing ignores the broader systems that determine who can access and afford housing, and it fuels policies that punish rather than prevent. If Rhode Island is serious about reversing the rise in homelessness, we need an emergency brake on the soaring cost of housing. Rent stabilization is one tool Providence can use to do that.
Decades of research show that rental housing costs are a strong predictor of homelessness. A federal study found that when rent increases just $100 between communities, overall homelessness – the number of people staying in shelters and living unsheltered – increases by 9%. The impact is even more pronounced when counting just those outdoors: in my research, the same rent increase is associated with a 28% rise in unsheltered homelessness. In plain terms, rising rents push more people out of stable housing and into homelessness.
Here in Rhode Island, these numbers are not abstract. Last January, 618 people were counted living outdoors, a 15% increase from the year before and nearly five times the number in 2020. When people staying in shelters are included, nearly 2,400 Rhode Islanders experience homelessness each night, a 35% increase in just one year. These figures reflect real and preventable public health harms, including exposure to extreme weather, exacerbated chronic illness, and increased risk of injury and death.
Meeting people’s immediate needs requires adequate shelter and investments in deeply affordable and supportive housing. Those steps are essential to protect people who are already unhoused. But focusing only on emergency responses is like bailing water from a boat that is still filling. Unless we slow the flow by addressing rapidly rising rents, homelessness will continue to grow faster than shelter systems can respond.
Providence has been named the least affordable metro area in the nation, with the fastest rent growth in the country. Leaders know housing costs are a top concern for voters. In response, the City Council is introducing a rent stabilization measure that would limit how much landlords can raise rents each year. If passed, it would provide renters with predictability and protection from sudden rent hikes, the kind that often trigger displacement and homelessness.
Opponents of rent stabilization argue that it reduces rental supply and discourages new construction. But these claims rely on outdated evidence. Modern rent stabilization policies – Providence’s proposal – exempt new construction and small owner-occupied properties, allow reasonable annual increases tied to inflation, and can account for rising costs such as property taxes or repairs. These policies can reduce displacement and stabilize communities without stopping housing development. This shift in thinking was reflected when 32 economists sent a letter in support of rent stabilization to the Biden administration, pointing to newer studies and urging policymakers to move beyond assumptions.
Rent stabilization is not a silver bullet. It will take broader action to fully address Rhode Island’s housing crisis and end homelessness. But it is a critical prevention tool – one that addresses a primary driver of housing instability before people lose their homes.
Homelessness is not inevitable. It is the predictable result of a housing system that prices out people with the fewest resources and the families who support them. We know what drives the problem. The question facing leaders is whether they are willing to act on what the evidence – and the human cost – make clear.
Molly Richard is an assistant professor of public health at the University of Rhode Island.
Today marks forty-eight years since the historical storm and the iconic shirt’s first appearance.
Photograph courtesy of the Rhode Island Historical Society
On the morning of Monday, Feb. 6, 1978, snow began falling in Rhode Island and didn’t stop until the following night. Residents woke up on Wednesday to find as many as thirty-eight inches had fallen, by official counts (though some residents reported more than four feet in the northern areas of the state). Cars were abandoned, hospital waiting rooms became shelters, and on Providence’s College Hill, Angell Street was turned into a ski jump. At the State House, Governor J. Joseph Garrahy hunkered down with his staff at the Civil Defense headquarters, eschewing the traditional suit and tie in favor of a red flannel shirt. For several days, he appeared on television broadcasts wearing the red button-down, urging residents to stay home and check on their neighbors — forever cementing his image as the flannel-wearing governor of the people. After the storm, aides mounted the shirt together with “blizzard supplies,” and the Rhode Island Press Club formally presented it to Garrahy during a “Governor’s Night” event later that year. In 2000, he donated it to the Rhode Island Historical Society, where it remains in storage at the John Brown House Museum. Richard Ring, senior director of library and museum collections, says the society also maintains a copy of the diary of William Geffner, former assistant controller at Rhode Island Hospital, who detailed the events of the blizzard at the institution. “We’re always interested in firsthand accounts of historical things,” he says. Ring lived through the storm as a child growing up in Ohio, where the drifts supplied easy building blocks for massive snow forts. This month marks forty-eight years since the Blizzard of ’78.
Flames could be seen shooting from the roof of the iconic Castle Hill Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, late Thursday night.
The president and CEO of the Newport Restaurant Group, Mick Lamond, confirmed in a statement posted to Facebook that there was a fire at Castle Hill Inn, and first responders were on property actively working to put the fire out.
All guests and staff were evacuated safely, he added. There was no word on any injuries.
The Newport Fire Department tells NBC10 Boston affiliate WJAR that firefighters responded around 9:33 p.m. for the fire, with flames and smoke visible on arrival. Video obtained by WJAR shows that the smoke could be seen from the Newport Bridge.
It’s unclear what caused the fire at 590 Ocean Drive, or how much damage has been caused to the seaside resort.
Castle Hill bills itself as one of the premier luxury inns in Newport that offers oceanfront suites, beach cottages, fine dining and unmatched coastal elegance. It had just reopened for dining and lodging at noon last Friday, following their annual winter hiatus from Jan. 4 through Jan. 30.
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