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CIMIT Announces $4 million in Medical Research Grants
Major awards go to projects targeting brain injuries and inhalation therapies.

CIMIT has announced that it will commit over $4 million to 27 medical research teams for FY10.   

The grants will go to multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary teams that are developing innovative early-stage medical devices or clinical systems. This year there was a record 255 applications for funding, reflecting the many rich ideas throughout the CIMIT research community.

The goal of the CIMIT grant program is to bring together clinicians and engineers, often from different institutions, to accelerate medical innovation for the benefit of soldier and civilian patients. Five projects will receive continuing funding for projects initiated during FY09.  In making two-year grants , CIMIT seeks to accelerate the research process and impact patient care by assuring funding and facilitation over a two-year period.

“We were very impressed by the quality of proposals this year,” said selection committee chair Steven Schachter, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Chief Academic Officer of CIMIT. “Teams brought together by these grants have the chance to make a major difference in innovative medicine.”

Also receiving a third year of funding is the $2.1 million CIMIT Strategic Project in NOTES.  This collaboration represents clinicians and technologists from 3 institutions and the team is advancing innovation in natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery.

Innovation grants awarded

Proposals selected for funding in FY10 will receive grants up to $100,000 each. CIMIT grants will go to the following principal investigators, who are working with clinicians and engineers from institutions other than their own:

• Irving Bigio, PhD; BU, validation of colon cancer screening by optical sensing of field effect in rectal mucosa
• Elazer Edelman, MD, PhD; MIT, BWH, tissue engineering therapies for inhalation injury
• Igor Elman, MD; McLean Hospital, novel predictors of pharmaco-therapeutic outcomes using functional reciprocity between heightened stress reactivity and emotional numbing in PTSD
• Bryan McLaughlin, PhD; Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, an implantable, wireless electrode derivation for chronic EEG recording in epilepsy
• Paul Neumann, PhD; MGH, eye trauma simulator
• Leo Otterbein, PhD; BIDMC, inhalation of medicinal gases targeting new pathways for the treatment of sepsis
• Benjamin Vakoc, PhD; MGH, an image-guided laser therapy catheter for Barrett’s esophagus
• Peter Weinstock, PhD, MD; CHB, development of an integrated child circulatory system simulator to enhance patient safety via procedural skills and team training in pediatrics
• Seung-Schik Yoo, PhD, MBA; BWH, direct functional brain mapping using image-guided focused ultrasound
• Seok Yun, PhD; MGH, dynamic cross sectional and functional imaging of vocal folds (4D laryngoscopy)

Seed funding for urgent healthcare problems

Nine new collaborations will be supported with grants of up to $40,000 each. These grants will help investigators explore novel approaches in several important areas including the use of optical technologies for diagnosis, epilepsy,  trauma, and  PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

“We are determined to help improve healthcare,” said John Parrish, MD, executive director of CIMIT. “By supporting promising early-stage research, we are enabling clinicians and engineers to work together to discover new technologies and methods of delivering care.”

Recipients of FY10 CIMIT seed grants are:

• Paolo Bonato, PhD; Spaulding, combining galvanic vestibular stimulation and motor training in traumatic brain injury survivors with neglect
• Felipe Fregni, MD, PhD, MPH; BIDMC, closed loop, detect-and-treat systems for epilepsy
• Alexandra Golby, MD; BWH, a hybrid optic-electromagnetic surgical tool tip tracking system  for neurosurgery
• John Kheir, MD; CHB, use of topical oxygen mirobubbles to enhance wound healing
• Malay Mazumder, PhD; BU, electrostatic dry powder inhaler for constant dose respiratory drug delivery
• Mark Poznansky, MD, PhD; MGH, a cutaneous laser system for augmenting the immunogenicity of HIV vaccines
• Robert Redmond, PhD; MGH, a photo-activated nanofiber graft material for enhanced tendon repair
• Jonathan Spector, MD, MPH; MGH, resuscitation technology for saving newborn lives
• Stefan Tullius, MD, PhD; BWH, a system to measure continuous flow and perfusion to ensure successful kidney transplantation

Clinical Systems Innovation Program grants help to improve and advance the systems that support clinical care in real-world healthcare settings.  During FY10, two grants of up to $100,000 each will be given to support research improvements in systems operated in clinics or medical centers. One project selected is led by Debra Weiner, MD, PhD, of Childrens Hospital Boston for a handheld simulation procedure training device.  The other grant will be made to Meghan Dierks, MD, BIDMC for reshaping systems, processes and controls to optimize outcomes in sepsis.

Accelerating impact with 2-year grants

Five teams, led by the following investigators, will receive second year funding in FY10 to support innovation in the following areas:

• Yolonda Colson, MD, PhD; BWH, Expansile Nanoparticles for Tumor-Targeted Drug Delivery to Prevent Lymph Node Metastases in Breast Cancer
• Robert A. Levine, MD; BWH, Operating on the Heart from Within - A Minimally Invasive Approach to Mitral Valve Disease
• Mehmet Toner, PhD; MGH, A Label-Free Viral Detection Microchip for Point-of-Care Applications
• Donald Ingber, MD, PhD; CHB, Microfluidic Blood Cleansing Device for Sepsis Therapy
• Utkan Demirci, PhD; MGH, Disposable Filter-Based Microfluidic Chip for HIV CD4 Monitoring in Resource-Limited Settings

View FY10 Awards Chart