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Scleroderma Foundation awards grant for research Jaspreet Pannu, Ph.D., Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, has been awarded a $150,000 new investigator’s grant from the Scleroderma Foundation for the 2006 research funding cycle.   “This crop of research proposals was the most competitive in the history of the foundation,” said John Varga, M.D., the chair of the foundation’s Medical Advisory Board. “All told we had 44 total applications from the United States and Europe. Only one-fifth of the applicants received funding.”   Pannu received a three year grant and proposes to study “The Role of IGF-1/GFBP-3 Axis in Scleroderma Fibrosis.” The new investigator’s grant is designed to help researchers develop data that can be used to seeking funding for larger, more in-depth research.   “In recent years we have seen more new investigators seeking funding through our program. We’re very happy to see this trend because it means we’re developing a rich breeding ground for our next generation of established researchers,” said Carolyn Weller, vice president for education and research at the Scleroderma Foundation. “This grant is promoting promising research in supportive environments and we’re hopeful it will to individual research project grants through the National Institutes of Health.”   This cycle’s Peer Review Committee carefully reviewed many outstanding proposals from scientists in the United States, Italy, France, Spain, and Denmark. They selected the top scoring grants based on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) criteria. The foundation is funding $1.025 million in research this year and more than $12 million since 1989. Scleroderma is a chronic, often progressive, autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks its own body. About 80 percent of those affected by scleroderma are women. Scleroderma, which literally means “hard skin,” can cause a thickening and tightening of the skin. In some cases it causes serious damage to internal organs including the lungs, heart, kidneys, esophagus and gastrointestinal tract. As these organs harden they work less effectively, perhaps leading to their failure.   Some medications and treatments can help with certain symptoms, but there is still no cure for scleroderma, which affects about 300,000 nationwide. (By way of comparison, about the same number of people are affected by multiple sclerosis.)     Friday, Feb. 17, 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 papers at 849-1778, ext. 201.