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Quantum Grants
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Program Overview
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) has recently begun a program in Exploratory Grants (P20) for NIBIB Quantum Projects. The NIBIB Quantum Grants Program has been developed to make a profound (quantum level) advance in healthcare by funding research on targeted projects that will develop new technologies and modalities for the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of disease.
The first of the Quantum Grants was awarded to Dr. Karen K. Hirschi, Deputy Director of the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine.
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Grant Summary
Principal Investigator/Contact
Karen K. Hirschi, Ph.D.
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX
Phone: (713) 798-7771
Fax: (713) 798-1230
E-mail: khirschi@bcm.tmc.edu
Co-Principal Investigator
Robin Lovell-Badge, Ph.D.
National Institute for Medical Research
London, UK
Phone: 011-44-2088162126
E-mail: rlovell@nimr.mrc.ac.uk
Co-Investigators
Malcolm K. Brenner, M.D., Ph.D. (Baylor College of Medicine)
Mary E. Dickinson, Ph.D. (Baylor College of Medicine)
Mike Modo, Ph.D. (King’s College, London)
Jack Price, Ph.D. (King’s College, London)
Jennifer L. West, Ph.D. (Rice University)
Thomas P. Zwaka, M.D., Ph.D. (Baylor College of Medicine)
Grant Number - 1 P20-B007076-01
Research Emphasis
The overall goal of this project is to engineer neuro-vascular regenerative units in vitro that can be implanted into the damaged cortex of stroke patients and provide a source of neural and vascular cells that will continue to develop and differentiate and lead to the repair of stroke-injured tissue.
The researchers propose the following Specific Aims:
1a. Define the specialized characteristics of the cellular and extracellular matrix microenvironment (niches) in which neural stem cells reside in vivo, and use dynamic bioimaging to understand the behavior (migration, proliferation, differentiation) of the cells within the niches. This information is needed to engineer implantable neuro-vascular regenerative units that mimic neural stem cell niches.
b. Define the neuro-vascular architecture of the cortex in normal and stroke-injured animals to determine how to tailor engineered niches for optimal implantation into stroke-injured tissues, in order to prevent loss of nerves and blood vessels and promote neuro-vascular regeneration.
2a. Measure the blood flow properties within the cortex and neural stem niches in normal and stroke-injured tissues. Blood flow and oxygen levels will then be replicated in the engineered niches to create a proper microenvironment in which to sustain and propagate neural stem cells. Understanding how these physiological parameters are changed in response to stroke injury will enable adaptation of the engineered niches for optimal function within stroke-injured tissues.
b. Determine how blood flow forces and patterns in neural stem cell niches in vivo alter the phenotype and functional properties of the endothelial cells within the microvasculature of these microenvironments and how this, in turn, regulates neural stem cell function. These studies will be aided by co-culture systems with regulatable flow in which the effects of flow parameters on endothelial-neural stem cell interactions can be examined.
c. Identify sources for human niche cells, induce their directed differentiation toward neural stem cells and endothelial cells, and test their functionality in co-culture and in the engineered niches. The generation of neural stem cells and endothelial cells from human bone marrow and human embryonic stem cells will be explored.
3. Adapt biomaterials and bioreactors to produce microvascular networks with flow properties that exist within neural stem cell niches in vivo, and enable the maintenance and propagation of neural stem cells outside of the body. The special properties of the 3D neuro-vascular units that will be created will be based on analysis of cell-cell and cell-matrix associations within neural stem cell niches in vivo.
Abstract
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Press Release
October 5, 2006
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
http://www.nibib.nih.gov/
NIBIB AWARDS FIRST QUANTUM GRANT
Baylor College of Medicine Receives $2.9 Million Three-Year Grant
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced the award of the first Quantum Grant on “Neuro-Vascular Regeneration,” to the Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Karen K. Hirschi, Deputy Director of the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine is the principal investigator on the grant. Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge, Head of the Division of Developmental Genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research in London is the co-principal investigator. These investigators will coordinate the efforts within the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively, on this multidisciplinary international collaborative project.
The overall goal of this project is to engineer neuro-vascular regenerative units in a laboratory environment, which can then be implanted into the damaged cortex of stroke patients to provide a source of neural and vascular cells that will continue to develop and differentiate and lead to the repair of stroke-injured tissue.
The NIBIB Quantum Grants Program has been developed to make a profound (quantum level) advance in healthcare by funding research on targeted projects that will develop new technologies and modalities for the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of disease.
“We are pleased to award our first Quantum Grant to Dr. Hirschi and her team for this innovative and exciting project,” said NIBIB Director Roderic I. Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D. “We look forward to witnessing the results that will be achieved in the animal studies and, later, as these studies are translated to humans. This project has the potential to profoundly improve the treatment of patients affected by ischemic stroke.”
Dr. Hirschi is an expert in the field of vascular development and she will coordinate the efforts of a highly qualified multidisciplinary project team with complimentary expertise in developmental neurobiology, stem cell biology, genetics, biomedical imaging, tissue engineering, and clinical cellular therapies.
“I am delighted and honored to be working with a world-class team of scientists, each of whom has significantly contributed to the advancement of their fields of research, and who will now be able to devote substantial efforts to integrating their work, so that we can better help stroke victims by developing units for neuro-vascular regeneration,” said Dr. Hirschi.
The Quantum Grant team within the United States includes Dr. Mary Dickinson, Assistant Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine, who was a co-developer of this project; Dr. Jennifer West, the Cameron Professor of Bioengineering and Director of the Institute for Biosciences and Bioengineering at Rice University; Dr. Thomas Zwaka, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine; and Dr. Malcolm Brenner, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, and the Director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine.
The Quantum Grant team within the United Kingdom will be led by the project’s co-principle investigator Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge, an expert in genetics and developmental biology, and includes Dr. Jack Price, Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, and the Director of the Centre for the Cellular Basis of Behaviour, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London; and Dr. Mike Modo, a Lecturer in the Centre for the Cellular Basis of Behaviour, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College.
“Progress in science often occurs when separate disciplines collide, each able to contribute something special towards solving a problem. This is why I am so excited about the research that will be supported by this award,” said Dr. Lovell-Badge. “The grant will allow us to discover new information about stem cells in the brain, how they can be manipulated within and outside the body and, we hope, facilitate the development of a treatment for stroke, one of the most common causes of disability, severely affecting quality of life of patients throughout the world.”
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is dedicated to improving human health through the integration of the physical and biological sciences. The research agenda of the NIBIB seeks to dramatically advance the Nation’s health by improving the detection, management, understanding, and ultimately, the prevention of disease through technology. Additional information and publications are available at www.nibib.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health—“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, visit http://www.nih.gov/.
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