Bethesda, MD--The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has made the first two awards in a new program to establish Centers of Excellence for Research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). The purpose of these new centers is to bring the highest level of scientific rigor to research on CAM. While millions of Americans are using CAM, few of these practices have been tested for safety and effectiveness. These centers will help address this critical public health need.

NCCAM, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), established the Centers of Excellence to support established researchers in applying cutting-edge technologies to explore the underlying mechanisms and potential benefits of CAM practices, which are often used to address critical public health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and chronic pain.

"The establishment of these first Centers of Excellence is testimony to the continuing maturation of research on CAM. Highly accomplished investigators at major research institutions are dedicating themselves to exploring CAM. The field needs this enhanced level of experience and rigor to transform the promise of CAM into proven treatments," said Stephen E. Straus, M.D., NCCAM Director.

The first two 5-year grants in this program, funded using the NIH Program Project (P01) mechanism, were awarded to:

• Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, MA
  Principal Investigator: Bruce R. Rosen, M.D., Ph.D.
  Through the use of neuroimaging techniques such as functional MRI (fMRI) as well as physiological and gene microarray studies, this Center will study how acupuncture affects human brain activity. The research projects in this Center will seek to understand the neurobiology of acupuncture. The total award is $5.9 million.

• Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
  Principal Investigator: Balz Frei, Ph.D.
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Contact: NCCAM Press Office
301-496-7790
NIH/National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
29-Oct-2003


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