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MUSC poised to increase research capacity by Mary Helen Yarborough Public Relations For 26 years, much of MUSC’s clinical research effort has been facilitated by funding from National Institutes of Health (NIH) General Clinical Research Centers (GCRC) grants.   Dr. Kathleen Brady  Based on a federal program established in 1960, GCRC-certified facilities are specialized, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)-accredited patient care units that facilitate patient-oriented research in a cost-effective manner for NIH. GCRC grants range from $1 million to $6 million per year, according to Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D., the GCRC program director for MUSC.   GCRC grants have supported important research initiatives across the nation for years. At MUSC, GCRC has contributed to many research projects, resulting in hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and medical breakthroughs during the past 26 years.   Now, as MUSC seeks a renewal of GCRC grants in the fall, it also is gearing up for the next level of NIH funding, the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA), that will eventually replace the GCRC grants to be phased out nationally during the next seven to eight years.   While GCRC grants have represented a substantial NIH effort toward encouraging clinical research by institutions, they have been considered by some participants to be too narrowly focused. The next level of NIH funding, which intends to marry clinical and basic science, would come from the CTSA awards. These would expand opportunities for research, and could increase the amount of the grant award to MUSC to about $6 million a year. Within two years, MUSC hopes to have put together a successful application for CTSA funding. Most of the nation’s top research medical centers also are seeking CTSA funding.   While GCRC has resulted in significant research at MUSC, CTSA will expand the research so that treatment reaches the bedside and research findings benefit the community in a much shorter timeframe.   If MUSC is successful in obtaining a CTSA grant, the GCRC programs would be merged under CTSA, Brady said.   Brady, a 22-year MUSC veteran, is a key member of the CTSA planning committee for MUSC. She explained the significance of GCRC grants to ongoing research programs at MUSC.   “We have about 100 protocols and we have 160 investigators who use GCRC to support their research,” she said. “We are having to renew GCRC grants and also try to get CTSA funding.”   GCRC funding helps to supply laboratory, biostatistical, nursing and other support. It does not fund the salaries of the investigators or researchers.   Some of the research that has resulted from recent GCRC grant studies at MUSC include: Studies that demonstrated the protective qualities of dietary flavonoids in oral cancer and cardiovascular disease; A novel approach to the identification of changes in enzymes within the myocardium that contribute to heart failure; A study identifying a promising and novel pharmacologic approach to the treatment of  cocaine addiction; A study exploring the mechanistic connection between stress, PTSD and alcohol use disorders, demonstrating a relationship between an abnormal stress response and alcohol relapse in alcohol-dependent individuals; A study demonstrating that cyclophosphamide improved physiologic and symptom outcomes in individuals with scleroderma, restrictive lung physiology, dyspnea, and evidence of inflammatory interstitial lung disease; and Studies exploring Vitamin D during pregnancy and lactation that have had a major impact in determining recommended Vitamin D requirements.   “CTSA will be a larger, more encompassing award for a larger array of research activities,” Brady explained.     Friday, July 28, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.