Multidisciplinary projects will focus on detecting and repairing heart and lung damage.
NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is shelling out $65 million to renew its Programs for Nanotechnology Research initiative, focused on the development of nanotechnologies for detecting and delivering treatments for heart, lung, and blood diseases. Four interdisciplinary contracts will be funded over five years in areas including the detection of pulmonary infections and repairing heart tissue damage. The aim is to build on work carried out through the original funding, awarded in 2005, and progress technology advanced into the clinic.
“Nanotechnology has enormous potential for faster and more sensitive detection of disease and for targeted disease treatments,” comments Susan B. Shurin, M.D., acting NHLBI director. “We are committed to harnessing these new technologies for heart, lung, and blood diseases, moving them towards application in the real world.”
The four awards will be made to teams spanning 17 U.S. institutions.
- Massachusetts General Hospital will lead a consortium focused on developing nanomaterials for diagnosing and treating cardiovascular diseases and creating a point-of-care system for rapidly detecting pulmonary infections.
- The Georgia Institute of Technology will work with Emory University and the University of California, Davis to develop nanoparticle-based tools for imaging and delivering therapeutics to atherosclerotic plaques and to enhance stem cell repair of damaged heart tissue.
- Washington University and Texas A&M University will spearhead a collaborative project focused on the nanoparticle-based diagnosis and treatment of acute lung diseases and the imaging and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
- Mount Sinai Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are heading a consortium that aims to develop treatments for early- and late-stage cardiac disease in addition to treatments for atherosclerotic plaque to prevent heart attacks and the delivery of regenerative factors to repair heart tissue damaged by infarction.