Pitt receives $14.5 million from NIH to improve pediatric heart transplantatio...( PITTSBURGH Feb. 13 The University of ...),Health

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 13 The University of Pittsburgh has been awarded an estimated $14.5 million from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop novel approaches that seek to improve the outcomes of pediatric heart transplant recipients. The five-year grant establishes the University of Pittsburgh as a Specialized Center of Clinically Oriented Research (SCCOR) in Pediatric Heart Development and Disease. Such a center encourages basic science research findings to be applied more rapidly to address specific clinical problems.

Steven A. Webber, MBChB, is principal investigator of the SCCOR grant, which entails three unique clinical projects and four resource cores that support the research. Dr. Webber is associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and medical director of Heart and Heart/Lung Transplantation at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

The grant has important clinical relevance because most children and infants who receive heart transplants have significantly shortened life expectancies. Immunosuppressive regimens, while offering significant improvements in short-term outcomes, have inherent risks that hinder long-term patient survival and quality of life. Negative effects include infections, cancerous growths and failure to prevent chronic rejection, the leading cause of death after heart transplantation. Nearly every patient faces bouts of acute rejection and some sort of immunosuppressive drug-related complication.

"Further improvements in clinical outcomes following pediatric heart transplantation depend on novel strategies that link basic science advances to modifications in clinical protocols," stated Dr. Webber. "We're poised to take these advances to the next level and apply them in the patient-care setting where we can best determine their promise," he added.

Each of the clinical research projects capitalizes on findin
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Contact: Lisa Rossi
RossiL@upmc.edu
412-647-3555
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
13-Feb-2004

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