Biomedical engineering at Case receives nearly $3 million from
Coulter Foundation to accelerate research to market
Private foundation dedicated to improving healthcare
provides grant over five years
November 21, 2005
| For more information: Laura M. Massie (216)-368-4442
The department of biomedical engineering at Case
Western Reserve University has been awarded $2.9 million from the Wallace H.
Coulter Foundation with the goal of accelerating the introduction of new technologies
into patient care. The foundation’s Translational Research Partnership
Award in Biomedical Engineering will provide $580,000 to the department’s
research activities each year over the next five years.
Through this award, the foundation will form a working partnership with biomedical
engineering to promote, develop and support translational research through
such activities as funding promising research projects, increasing and supporting
effective collaborations between Case biomedical engineers and clinicians,
increasing awareness of the importance of moving promising technologies to
clinical application, and developing and supporting sustainable programs and
processes that will increase, enhance and accelerate this movement.
“The goal of this partnership is to focus on outcomes which would improve
patient care,” said Patrick E. Crago, the Allen H. and Constance T. Ford
Professor and chair of biomedical engineering at Case.
Case’s department of biomedical engineering – a joint department
of the Case School of Engineering and the Case School of Medicine – plays
a strong role in translational research, taking basic scientific information
or new technologies and transforming them into something the medical community
can use at the patient’s bedside. The university has developed a highly
successful biomedical engineering research and education model, which is ranked
among the top 10 departments in the United States by U.S. News and World Report.
Biomedical engineering at Case has three research thrust areas: biomaterials,
including tissue engineering and drug delivery; neural engineering and neural
prostheses; and biomedical imaging, sensing and guided intervention. The research
involves strong collaborations with all four affiliated medical institutions:
University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Cleveland Clinic, the Cleveland VA Medical
Center and MetroHealth Medical Center.
“Researchers in these areas work diligently on new methods to prevent
disease, allow for faster and more complete recoveries and improve the quality
of life for those with chronic disease,” Crago said. “Our students – graduate
and undergraduate – work with faculty side-by-side in all of this research,
and the excellence of that research is why we are so successful in obtaining
the Coulter Foundation award and NIH funding.”
Examples of Case’s biomedical engineering research include developing
stimulation methods for treating neurological disorders such as spinal cord
injury and stroke; for example, clinical work on control of bladder functions
for those with stress incontinence and spinal cord injury. Another group of
faculty is developing systems for targeted delivery of drugs and genes for
improved cancer diagnosis and treatment without the systemic side effects associated
with standard chemotherapy. Imaging research is focused on technologies that
allow improved resolution and visualization of physiological function as well
as anatomical structure. Others are creating biosensors for measuring small
quantities of body fluids, which can help look for contaminants such as lead.
The Translational Research Partnership program is the largest and most extensive
of the Coulter Foundation, a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving
human health care by supporting translational research in biomedical engineering – research
directed at the transfer of promising technologies within the university research
laboratory that are progressing toward commercial development and clinical
practice. Through this program, the foundation is forming working partnerships
with leading biomedical engineering programs at North American universities,
and will work closely with the selected partner institutions and their communities.
Biomedical engineering research at Case also has the opportunity to be considered
for a substantial, additional endowment from the Coulter Foundation that will
be available to sustain programs that become part of the partnership, says
Crago. The endowment will be given at the end of the five-year award period
to those partners who have “exhibited outstanding performance in meeting
the program’s goals, who have made substantial institutional commitments
to the program, and who have demonstrated that the award has had a significant
institutional impact,” according to the foundation.
The Coulter Foundation, based in Miami, Fla., is named for Wallace H. Coulter,
an engineer, inventor and entrepreneur who applied engineering principles to
a biomedical problem, resulting in the discovery of the “Coulter Principle.” He
founded Coulter Corp., which developed and marketed the first automated blood
cell counters and flow cytometers – instruments that revolutionized health
care diagnostics and therapeutics.
“We are very proud of the research and teaching we do in biomedical
engineering,” said Crago. “So much of what happens in hospitals
and medical centers around the world will depend on the biomedical breakthroughs
that continue to take place at Case.”
About Case Western Reserve University
Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826
and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western
Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research,
service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally
recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering,
Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work. http://www.case.edu.
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