In an effort to save jobs and keep America at the forefront of biomedical research, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1 billion in stimulus money to repair or build research labs across the country.

On Friday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the 146 grants to pay for new facilities and renovations in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The National Institutes of Health's National Center for Research Resources will handle the grants, a sliver of the $100 billion in federal investments in scientific research doled out through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, popularly known as the stimulus bill.

"This unprecedented Recovery Act investment in research facility construction will not only give our world-class scientists the modern facilities they need for impact research, it will also help create and maintain jobs in varied business sectors and in all regions of our country," Sebelius said in a statement.

Recipients include Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, nabbing nearly $10 million dollars to renovate labs involved in HIV-associated kidney disease research; the Indiana University School of Medicine ($8.5 million) in Indianapolis to fund a state-of the-art facility for pediatric genetics research; and a San Francisco Department of Public Health office ($9.5 million) to help with recruiting large patient studies for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

"These Recovery Act dollars will provide state-of-the-art facilities for hundreds of researchers to conduct cutting-edge science with the latest technologies," NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins said in a statement.

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