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MUSC among first in nation to win grant

This excerpt was edited and reprinted with permission from the Children’s Hospital and Darby Children’s Research Institute’s (DCRI) newsletter, Kid Connection.
 
As the race to move knowledge from the bench to the bedside quickens, MUSC continues to keep the pace and lead the way. The university is one of 10 nationwide to receive an NIH grant to fund pre-doctoral training in clinical and translational research.
 
“It is an exciting time to be in the world of medicine,” said Lyndon Key, M.D., Pediatrics chairman. “We are proud to have the responsibility of preparing the next generation of pediatric health professionals as they rise to these new challenges.”
 
Preparation for the future includes competing for and winning grants such as the T32 MUSC Southeastern Predoctoral Training in Clinical Research (SPTCR) program. “It is a great honor to have qualified for and achieved this award,” Key said.
 
Designed to create well-trained clinical researchers who will assume leadership roles in multidisciplinary clinical investigations, the T32 training grant allows undergraduates the advantage of preparing for a future in pediatric research while they are still students. Ultimately, opportunities like this will bring MUSC closer to an ideal situation in which clinicians with research skills will partner with basic scientists to manage leading causes of mortality and morbidity in children, and to prevent complications from diseases that have a lifelong impact on the quality of life.
 
“This is a very prestigious award,” said Tom Hulsey, Sc.D., co-principal investigator of the SPTCR T32 award, along with Barbara Tilley, Ph.D., Biostatics, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology chair, and Perry Halushka, M.D., Ph.D., College of Graduate Studies dean. “The need is to move knowledge learned at the bench into patient care more rapidly than has been done in past. In order to speed that process up, the NIH is putting more focused training programs, like this SPTCR grant, into place.”
 
A five-year award, the grant aims to fund 10 pre-doctoral students per year. It pays tuition and stipends, and is available to students from all six colleges at MUSC.
 
“In the past, most programs like this focused on individuals who had already received doctorate degrees. We largely ignored pre-doctoral students,” Hulsey said. “This award provides the opportunity for pre-doctoral students to become knowledgeable about career opportunities in clinical and translational research early in their careers.”
 
The new award offers a one-week introduction program for all students. In the introductory program, students are exposed to careers in clinical and translational research and meet people who have chosen those careers.
 
A summer-long program also can be part of the one-year pull-out masters program. In this program, students explore in-depth classes and workshops on clinical trial design.
 
The year long program allows these students to delve even further into clinical and translational research by pursuing a masters of science in clinical research. Students who complete this program finish with a dual degree—a doctorate from their primary college, plus a masters of science in clinical research. “The masters program has been in place since 2000, but until now was available only for post-doctoral students,” Hulsey said. “This new grant makes it possible for pre-doctoral students to participate in the program.”
 
The T32 grant has also made it possible to offer another dual program, a three-year doctorate in clinical investigation.
 
“We plan to use these options as recruitment tools for our students who are pursing a career in clinical research, since we’re one of the few medical universities that allows them to begin that career path as students, before they finish their doctoral degree. It also allows MUSC researchers who may not work with disciplines outside of their own to begin to experience a ‘cross-fertilization,’” Hulsey said.
 
The expectation is that basic science students who traditionally were mentored by scientists will also seek guidance from clinical researchers. At the same time, clinical researchers will hopefully form stronger collaborations with basic scientists in order to strengthen their research. “Having them work together with these students will help us understand how to better do it among our faculty as well,” Hulsey said.
 
Having received the SPTCR T32 puts MUSC that much closer to obtaining CTSA status. “As MUSC begins to position itself to compete for a CTSA award, having both the T32 and the masters of science in clinical research places us in a very competitive position,” Hulsey said.
 
“It will be exciting to see how the T32 SPTCR award and others like it bring together the talents of both doctors and researchers to result in the best of both worlds,” Key said. “What a great honor to prepare these future trailblazers. We at MUSC and at the Children’s Hospital embrace it.”
 
For information on the SPTCR T32 grant, go to http://www.musc.edu/sptcr.

Bioengineering advances in the DCRI
Anand Ramamurthi, Ph.D., Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering program, will receive a two-year exploratory research grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. This NIH grant will fund his research on hyaluronan scaffolds for regenerating elastin matrices.
 
“This research addresses the problem of several genetic disorders which effect elastin in connective tissues, including Marfans syndrome, Williams-Beuren syndrome and Ehler-Danlos syndrome,” Ramamurthi said. He is collaborating with Bryan Toole, Ph.D., MUSC Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Naren Vyavahare, Ph.D., Clemson University Bioengineering chair, and Benjamin Chu, Ph.D. State University of New York professor.
 
The team’s research is specifically addressing the absence, malformation and breakdown of elastin in blood vessels, a condition which can lead to aneurysm that ultimately ruptures.
 
“We are looking at vascular manifestations of these syndromes, especially in young children,” Ramamurthi said. “Often these manifestations are not present at birth but they develop over the course of time, peaking at adulthood.”
 
Most elastin is produced during the fetal stage, and elastin production in adults is highly suppressed. “After birth, there is really no way to repair or replace elastin,” Ramamurthi said. It’s very difficult and tissue-engineered technologies are showing only limited progress, he added. A promising candidate is a tissue-derived, bio-polymer hyaluronic acid.
 
“The purpose of this project is to explore novel biomaterials, which when used as or in conjunction with existing vascular graft materials will provide vascular cells the necessary stimuli and cues for regenerating elastin in pediatric as well as adult patients,” Ramamurthi said.
 
The key is the ability of these materials to induce cell responses in order to replicate the density, ultra structure, mechanics and the cell signaling characteristics of healthy, native, vascular elastin.
 
“The use of such biopolymers will more closely evoke healthy native cell response and likely prevent possible unnatural and exaggerated responses,” Ramamurthi said.
 
 The first stage of the project addresses rare vascular aneurysms in children, paving the way for future uses with far-reaching implications. “The impact of this work will be the ability to manufacture faithful mimics of native elastin on demand, which may be used to restore homeostasis in de-elasticized vessels and possibly even serve as an in vitro model to investigate elastogenesis during early morphogenesis, and wound healing in pediatric and, indeed, adult tissues,” Ramamurthi said. “This research could make it possible to regenerate elastin for all of the connective tissues - blood vessels as well as skin, pulmonary and others.”

   

Friday, Aug. 25, 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.