NIH Funds Two New Biomedical Technology Resource Centers
More Than $18 Million Will Support Development of Image Guided Therapies and
Biochemistry Studies
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that $18.2 million will be awarded
to create two new biomedical technology resource centers to develop new image
guided therapies and to further biochemistry studies of diseases such as alcoholism
and cancer.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Boston will receive $15 million over five years
in a cooperative agreement to establish a national Image Guided Therapy (IGT)
Center. The new resource will provide a unique, “one-stop-shopping” research,
training, and service center that will develop and make available to scientists
and clinicians image processing and display tools; dynamic and adaptive Magnetic
Resonance Imaging methods; novel therapy techniques; and image-guided robotics.
The funding will allow the IGT Center to expand its range of research areas to
include cardiovascular interventions and targeted drug delivery.
“We believe this collaborative, multidisciplinary center will develop innovative
image guided intervention technologies that will enable effective, less invasive
clinical treatments that are not only more economical, but also produce better
results for patients,” said Barbara M. Alving, M.D., Acting Director of NCRR.
A portion of the $15 million in NIH support to the IGT resource will come from
the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging
and Bioengineering.
Through the second award, NCRR will provide Indiana University in Bloomington
with $3.2 million over three years to launch the National Center for Glycomics
and Glycoproteomics to advance the study of carbohydrate molecules. A relatively
new field that uses sophisticated tools and methods, glycomics is the study of
complex sugar molecules that are attached to many proteins and lipids found in
the blood, on the surfaces of cells, and in other places in the human body. These
sugar chains are critical to numerous processes from normal growth and development
to the body's ability to fight infection. One way these molecules do their jobs
is through subtle changes in their structures. A better understanding of these
structures, how they work, and how changes in these molecules cause illness or
are affected by medicines could lead to the discoveries of new treatments for
a multitude of diseases.
"Until recently, glycobiology was an underappreciated and poorly understood
discipline. Scientists' increasing ability to create model systems in which carbohydrate-related
genes can be easily manipulated is allowing us, for the first time, to understand
the function of these molecules in the context of complex systems. This flood
of biological information is creating a great demand for analytical tools for
the characterization of these systems, and this new center will provide critical
resources to address that growing need," according to Michael Marron, Ph.D.,
NCRR's Director of Biomedical Technology Research and Research Resources.
The center will focus on effective coupling of high resolution molecular separations
with mass spectrometry to generate a complete analytical system for high-sensitivity
glycoprotein investigations. Its staff will facilitate collaborative investigations
of glycoprotein markers associated with cancer and alcoholism; endocrinology-centered
studies including fertilization; and comparative research involving plants and
animals.
Educational activities will be conducted to disseminate developments in instrumentation
and techniques to a wider audience via short courses, a seminar program, and
graduate and postdoctoral training.
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) provides laboratory scientists
and clinical researchers with environments and tools that they can use to prevent,
detect, and treat a wide range of diseases. This support enables discoveries
that begin at the molecular and cellular level, move to animal-based studies,
and then are translated to patient-oriented clinical research, resulting in
cures and treatments for both common and rare diseases. NCRR connects researchers
with patients and communities across the nation to bring the power of shared
resources and research to improve human health. For more information, visit
www.ncrr.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research
Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of
the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal
agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common
and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. |