Government Provides Grants for Medical Nukes Response

by Barbara Kram, Editor | October 18, 2005

* John Moulder, Ph.D., Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, $3.7 million

* William H. McBride, Ph.D., D. Sc., University of California, Los Angeles, CA, $2.8 million

Training and education based on your needs

Stay up to date with the latest training to fix, troubleshoot, and maintain your critical care devices. GE HealthCare offers multiple training formats to empower teams and expand knowledge, saving you time and money

* Alan D. D'Andrea, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, $2.0 million

* Joel S. Greenberger, M.D., University of Pittsburgh, $2.0 million

NIAID awarded a smaller set of grants to four other research organizations to support projects focused on protecting the immune system from radiation or restoring the immune system following radiation exposure. These 18-month accelerated product development awards total $4.0 million:

* Andrei Gudkov, Ph.D., D.Sc., Cleveland BioLabs, Inc., Cleveland, OH, $1.5 million

* George Georges, M.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, $1.5 million

* Amelia Bartholomew, M.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, $500,000

* Thomas MacVittie, Ph.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, $500,000

Two universities and two companies are receiving contracts for developing medical countermeasures products. The largest of these contracts, Medical Countermeasures Against Radiological Threats: Product Development Support Services, was awarded to the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The university will receive about $9.3 million in fiscal year 2005.

The University of Kentucky, Lexington, Nanotherapeutics of Alachua, FL, and SRI International of Menlo Park, CA, also are receiving contracts for Development of Improved DTPA for Radionuclide Chelation. DTPA (short for the chemical diethylenetriaminepentaacetate) can be used to remove certain radioactive compounds from the body. If a person is exposed to one of these compounds, DTPA can be given intravenously to help eliminate the contamination. For use following a terrorist attack, however, DTPA would be practical only in an easier-to-administer form. The contractors will seek to develop alternate ways to effectively administer DTPA, either by inhalation, oral liquid or pill.

NIAID has awarded 14-month contracts with renewal options to

* University of Kentucky, $816,115

* Nanotherapeutics, Inc., $776,314

* SRI International, $931,123

NCI, also part of the National Institutes of Health, received $1 million through a 2005 interagency agreement to develop compounds to protect against radiation exposure; conduct epidemiological studies on the medical consequences of radiation exposure; and identify compounds the body produces when exposed to radiation.

To learn more about the NIAID research program on medical countermeasures against radiological and nuclear threats, visit the program's Web site, http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/research/topics/radnuc/.

NIAID is part of the National Institutes of Health, the nation's medical research agency. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

Back to HCB News