The University of Delaware has been awarded $11 million from the National Institutes of Health for leading-edge, translational research on osteoarthritis that includes a unique mentoring program to foster the development of women biomedical researchers at UD.

The grant, led by Thomas Buchanan, professor and chairperson of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is the second five-year award to UD's Center for Biomedical Engineering Research from NIH's Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence Program. The center received a $6.4 million grant in 2002.

The wearing down of cartilage, the natural cushion between the bones and joints, causes osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. The disease typically affects the knees, hips, back and hands.

According to Buchanan, the latest grant will enable UD to continue building the infrastructure and expertise to address the mechanisms of osteoarthritis, its prevention and treatment by examining the disease from the integrated perspectives of tissue mechanics, biomechanics, physical therapy and clinical intervention.

The program will involve 14 faculty in three of UD's seven colleges, including the departments of biological sciences and physical therapy in the College of Arts and Sciences, mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, and health, nutrition and exercise sciences in the College of Health Sciences. Researchers from Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and the Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Corporation will serve as collaborators.

What we have at UD that's really unique is a collection of people to address osteoarthritis across multiple levels, which is what translational medicine is all about, Buchanan said.

We have people who can look at the proteins that are important to the healing of cartilage, for example, to people who can create biomechanical models showing the movement of bones and joints, to people who
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Contact: Tracey Bryant
tbryant@udel.edu
302-831-8185
University of Delaware
15-Jun-2007