Grant of the Month

Grant of the Month | June 2008

PI: Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD
Title: Four Projects Funded by CR Bard, Inc.
Description:
  1. In vivo and in vitro evaluation of porcine dermal product for pelvic floor and body wall (hernia) reconstruction. ($90,000)
  2. Manufacturing process review and modification. ($96,000)
  3. In vitro characterization of porcine dermis ECM and products in development. ($118,000)
  4. Evaluation of gel form of porcine dermal matrix. ($60,130)
Source:

CR Bard, Inc.
Term:

05/01/08-04/30/09
Amount:

Total of $364,130

2008

May
PIs: Edward Prochownik, MD, PhD and Eric Lagasse, PharmD, PhD
Title: Function of a Glycoprotein lba, a Subunit of the von Willebrand’s Factor Receptor as a Transforming Oncoprotein
Description:

Gplb-alpha deregulation and genomic instability in stem cells.  The objective of this project is to generate mice with overexpression of Gplb-alpha in hematopoietic stem cells and their progeny.

Source: Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Term:

08/01/07-07/01/09
Amount:

$62,575 Annual

April
PIs: Alan J. Russell, PhD and Anthony Atala, MD
Title: Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Description:

The University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have been selected as co-leaders of a national $85 million program to use the science of regenerative medicine to develop new treatments for wounded soldiers.

A new federally funded institution – the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) – will be made up of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and consortia involving the McGowan-Wake Forest team and another led by Rutgers and the Cleveland Clinic. Each group was awarded $42.5 million. The Wake Forest-McGowan team includes collaborators from 15 other institutions.

AFIRM will be co-directed by Alan J. Russell, Ph.D., director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Anthony Atala, M.D., director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The massive project will be dedicated to repairing battlefield injuries through the use of regenerative medicine, science that takes advantage of the body’s natural healing powers to restore or replace damaged tissue and organs. Therapies developed by AFIRM also will benefit people in the civilian population with burns or severe trauma due to illness or injury.
The McGowan and Wake Forest team has committed to develop clinical therapies over the next five years that will focus on:

  • Burn repair
  • Wound healing without scarring
  • Craniofacial reconstruction
  • Limb reconstruction, regeneration or transplantation

Compartment syndrome, a condition related to inflammation after surgery or injury that can lead to increased pressure, impaired blood flow, nerve damage and muscle death.
Source: Department of Defense
Term:

2008-2013
Amount:

$42.5 million

March
PIs: Eric Lagasse, PhD and Joerg Gerlach (co-investigator)
Title: Ovarian Cancer, Stem Cells and Bioreactors
Description: Addressing the needs of new approaches for anti-cancer therapies by combining stem cell biology, cancer biology and bioengineering. Our central hypothesis is that cancer stem cells are initiating and sustaining the growth of ovarian cancer. In consequence, the identification of the cancer stem cells represents a major step forward in the elucidation of ovarian cancer hierarchy and could hold the key to understanding the origin and maintenance of ovarian cancer, the relapses and possibly the metastases in advanced cases. Another problem facing cancer cell biology is the access of in vitro culture models for research and study of cancer development and its pathophysiology. Here we propose to adopt bioreactors used for bioartificial livers (BAL) to provide tumor cells with a 3-D perfusion culture instrument that recapitulate vasculature and microenvironment.
Source: Department of the Army
Term:

04/01/08-09/30/08
Amount:

$111,375

February
PIs: Drs. Badylak and Gerlach
Title: Advanced Regenerative Medicine (ARM) Therapies for Combat Injuries
Description: Badylak: Digit regeneration using porcine derived scaffolds
Gerlach: Wound cap for tissue regeneration
Gerlach: Skin gun for burn therapy
Source: Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, Inc
Term: 11/01/07 – 10/31/08
Amount: $1,005,762

January
PI John A. Kellum, MD
Title Biological Markers of Recovery for the Kidney (BioMaRK)
Summary Investigate the role of inflammation, as well as other factors in recovery from acute renal failure (ARF). This project, called Biological Markers of Recovery for the Kidney, or BioMaRK, will examine how such factors influence survival as well as recovery of kidney function. The study will assess how certain inflammation markers relate to clinical outcomes and build a risk-prediction model based on clinical variables and those biomarkers. The results of this study could potentially lay the foundation for the development of ARF treatment therapies, particularly those designed to enhance organ recovery.
Source NIH- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Term 5 Years

2008 | 2007 | 2006