The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Cystic FibrosisFoundation (CFF) are providing $60 million over five years tofund nine gene therapy centers at U.S. universities.
They are the first gene therapy centers to be funded by NIHand will focus primarily on cystic fibrosis.
Two institutes at NIH, the National Heart, Lung and BloodInstitute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Diabetes,Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), are providing $50million, while CFF is providing $10 million specifically for thecenters to conduct pilot/feasibility studies of new approachesto gene therapy. NHLBI is funding six centers and NIDDK isfunding three.
The principal investigators and universities being funded byNHLBI are Michael Welsh, University of Iowa; Rick Boucher,University of North Carolina; Arthur Beaudet, Baylor College ofMedicine; William Guggino, Johns Hopkins Medical Center;Ronald Crystal, Cornell University Hospital; and JeffreyWhitsett, University of Cincinnati.
Those being funded by NIDDK are Y.W. Kan, University ofCalifornia, San Francisco; Dusty Miller, University ofWashington, Seattle; and James Wilson, University ofPennsylvania.
Several of these researchers have pioneered gene therapyexperiments. Crystal, formerly a researcher at NHLBI, isconducting a Phase I study to transfer the cDNA of the normalhuman cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator(CFTR) gene into CF patients. Wilson, Whitsett and Boucher arealso conducting gene therapy trials in patients with cysticfibrosis.
NIDDK and CFF issued a request for applications for the CoreCenters for Gene Therapy of Cystic Fibrosis and Other GeneticDiseases award in February. The core centers are supposed tobring together investigators from relevant disciplines toenhance their research and foster collaboration to bring genetherapy to fruition.
In NIH's fiscal 1993 appropriations bill, Congress mandatedthat NHLBI and NIDDK each fund two centers. Robert Beall ofCFF told BioWorld that the peer review panel considering theapplications felt that the scientific information was sufficient towarrant funding additional centers.
NIDDK also funds four cystic fibrosis research centers. This yearthey will again compete for funding in September 1994. Theinstitute expects to provide $2.3 million per year for all fourcenters.
-- Brenda Sandburg News Editor
(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.