Initiatives
Pediatric Device Initiative
The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine is seeking Signature Grant support to leverage its substantial infrastructure and experience base to transform the status of a population that has been underserved by recent advances in treating tissue and organ failure: children. There are numerous reasons for this situation, most obviously the small size of pediatric patients, but other factors such as disease characteristics, growth, body chemistry, and technical challenges related to device scalability are problematic. Perhaps less obvious than these challenges, are market and regulatory forces that act to discourage investment in devices for the pediatric market. Most of these obstacles are “unchangeable” – pediatric development and physiology will not change nor will the significant financial and market issues faced by device developers. What has potential to change is McGowan’s ability to create an environment that nurtures and fosters an interest in this vulnerable patient population.
The McGowan Institute has launched the Pediatric Device Initiative which serves to bridge the technology development infrastructure and research activities at McGowan Institute with the clinical expertise and research at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The Pediatric Device Initiative has put in place resources and activities that are changing how potential solutions for pediatric tissue and organ failure are developed, stimulating experts to focus their efforts on this underserved population. To learn more please contact Patrick Cantini at cantinip@upmc.edu.
Learn more at https://ppdc.research.chop.edu/.
Alliance for Regenerative Rehabilitation & Training (AR3T)
The Alliance for Regenerative Rehabilitation Research and Training (AR3T), an NIH-funded resource center, is a collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh, Stanford University, Mayo Clinic, and the University of Texas at Austin. The overarching goal of AR3T is to support the expansion of scientific knowledge, expertise and methodologies across the fields of regenerative medicine and rehabilitation through education, training, research support, and funding opportunities. Regenerative Rehabilitation is an innovative field combining discoveries in tissue engineering and cellular therapies with rehabilitative protocols in order to improve treatment outcomes following injury, disease and disability.
Learn more at www.ar3t.pitt.edu.
Military Medical Research
The Center for Military Medicine Research (CMMR), Health Sciences, is focused on applications of regenerative medicine, reconstructive medicine, transplantation immunology and neuroscience, including traumatic brain injury and neuroprosthetics, with the aim of getting innovative therapies to wounded warriors. CMMR represents a formal mechanism through which the challenges and opportunities of casualty care and wound healing can be examined at an advanced research level. It enables a network of successful partnerships and collaborations between scientists, clinicians, industry and the U.S. departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to foster the most promising research technologies and therapeutic strategies. To learn more please visit www.cmmr.pitt.edu .
Engineering Research Center for Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials
The National Science Foundation funded the Engineering Research Center for Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials (ERC-RMB) in 2008 to create resorbable biomedical devices and investigate the fundamental science of novel, resorbable materials. This includes material design and achieving improved functional outcomes.
ERC-RMB is a partnership between North Carolina A&T State University, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Cincinnati, together with other global and international partners from industry, academia, state and local governments. Researchers across ERC-RMB capitalize on the expertise resident at each partner institution to advance both science and medical practice in the field of resorbable metallic biomedical implants.
Developing implantable medical devices made from resorbable metal is not a new idea. ERC-RMB is creating new alloys, processing and testing techniques that address clinical challenges related to resorbable metals to suit clinical demands. The consortium seeks to design devices that can adapt to changes in a patient’s body and dissolve once healing has occurred, eliminating the need for follow up procedures and potential complications of major orthopedic, craniofacial, cardiovascular and thoracic interventions. To learn more please visit http://erc.ncat.edu/.
