U of L gets $1.6 million for research
U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., announced Monday $1.6 million in U.S. Department of Defense funding to support cell-transplant research at the University of Louisville.
The money, part of the federal agency’s $515 billion budget for fiscal 2009, was awarded to the National Foundation to Support Cell Transplant Research. It will be directed to the Institute of Cellular Therapeutics at U of L, led by Dr. Suzanne Ildstad.
“I’ve been astounded at the progress they’re making,” Yarmuth said Monday during a news conference in Louisville. “And this is revolutionary progress.”
The funding will advance Ildstad’s research regarding cell-transplant technology and the development of treatments for disorders such as multiple sclerosis and sickle-cell disease, among others. Ildstad was recruited to U of L in 1998 through Kentucky’s “Bucks for Brains” program.
The local institute’s work also is aimed at inducing tolerance for patients who undergo organ and tissue transplants. A goal of the research, Ildstad said at the news conference, is to eliminate the need for immunosuppressive drugs that often are required to prevent the body’s rejection of transplanted organs and tissues.
In addition to internal organs, such as kidneys, the research eventually could be applied to hand transplant patients, Ildstad said. The Institute for Cellular Therapeutics collaborates with researchers at Duke University and Northwestern University in its studies.
Dr. Paula Grisanti, chairwoman of the National Foundation to Support Cell Transplant Research, said the funding allocation is a “great example of how public-private partnerships can work to fund great research.”
“This will go a long way to helping real people,” she said.
Source: bizjournals.com
