Grant Funding
As external grant funding continues to be highly competitive, our faculty continue to succeed in securing grant awards in support of their research efforts. For fiscal year 2015, our faculty have received grant awards totaling almost $5 million from federal, foundation, state, industry, and other external sources. Our endowed chairs and other endowments exceed $1 million.
Micky Collins, PhD, and Anthony Kontos, PhD, were awarded a U.S. Department of Defense grant under the USAMRMC Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury (PH-TBI) Joint Program Committee 6 (JPC-6) for the project, Targeted Evaluation, Action, and Monitoring of TBI (TEAM-TBI). The total award for this project is $275,000 over two years.
Andrew Evans, MD, has received two subagreements to Johns Hopkins University for the project, The Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium, funded by U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, for $264,209.
The Ferguson Laboratory for Orthopaedic and Spine Research was selected as a winner of the Pitt Innovation Challenge and received a $100,000 award. The interACTION portable rehabilitation system was developed out of the Ferguson Laboratory by a team of clinicians and scientists from Pitt's Department of Bioengineering, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and UPMC Center for Rehab Services. The system will allow the surgeon to create a rehabilitation program based on each individual patient’s recovery from surgery. The system will allow the physician to create calculated rehabilitation steps for the patient, will report if the patient is performing these rehab steps, and gauge how well the patient is completing his or her exercises. The interACTION system tracks in real time and sends reports to the physical therapist and orthopaedic surgeon to enable remote monitoring of a patient’s progress over the course of recovery. The award will be used to further develop the platform and validate its efficacy in postoperative ACL recovery. This funding will be one of the first steps to broader implementation across a multitude of musculoskeletal injuries.
Johnny Huard, PhD, received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21 grant of $420,000 over two years for Biomimetric Coacervate Delivery of Muscle Stem Cell to Improve Cardiac Repair.
Scott Tashman, PhD, received funding from the NIH Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) to conduct phase two of a research study with C-Motion, Inc. The project, Software for Improved Accuracy and Rapid Tracking from Dynamic X-Ray, has been awarded a two-year $955,000 grant, with a $280,000 subcontract to the University of Pittsburgh. The phase two project proposes the development of a new software platform for dynamic stereo X-ray (DSX) to provide a rapid and accurate assessment of musculoskeletal function during dynamic activities. The new software platform will incorporate significant technological (and patent-pending) innovations proposed by Dr. Tashman based on his extensive experience with this imaging technology. Successful completion of the project could lead to practical clinical applications of dynamic stereo X-ray imaging for diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of orthopaedic disorders. The phase two grant proposal builds on the successful completion of phase one. The investigators hope to create a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use, and fully validated system that sets a new global standard for performance and capabilities in this emerging field.
Rocky Tuan, PhD, received a four-year, $1.34 million NIH R01 grant award for Cholesterol Sensitivity and Mechanisms of MSC Responses to 3D Substrate Rigidity.
Dr. Tuan also received four U.S. Department of Defense grant awards for the following:
Customized Fabrication of Osteochondral Tissue for Articular Joint Surface Repair, $770,000 over two years
Treatment of Orthopaedic Infections using Activated Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells, $1.14 million over three years
Cell-based Meniscal Repair Using an Aligned Bioactive Nanofibrous Sheath, $308,000 over one-and-a-half years
Adult Stem Cell-based Enhancement of Nerve Conduit for Peripheral Nerve Repair, $1.56 million over three years
Ken Urish, MD, PhD, was selected for appointment to the University of Pittsburgh’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) KL2 career development award, the Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Scholars program (CRSP). The KL2 Clinical Research Scholars Program is a multidisciplinary career development program that is supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Award through the K12 mechanism. The program prepares scientists from a broad range of disciplines, specialties, and subspecialties for independent careers in clinical or translational research. It brings together the collaborative efforts of the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences (Medicine, Dental Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy, and the Graduate School of Public Health), the many multidisciplinary research centers at the University, and the extensive clinical entities that compose UPMC.
Kurt Weiss, MD, received a NIH K08 grant award for $827,280 over five years for Exploring Sarcoma Metastatic Potential.