Research Highlights

In 2006, the Hospital moved forward with an ambitious plan to further integrate its basic, translational, and clinical research efforts. The objective is to create a platform for insuring the translation of clinical and basic science to patient care. The program more closely aligns research and clinical priorities and activities and provides an optimal environment for education and training.

Over the years, funding for Hospital research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has steadily increased. HSS currently has more than $12 million in grants to fund basic and clinical research activities including awards to:

Adele Boskey, PhD - a five-year, $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) to continue to study the mechanism of bone and hard tissue mineralization, and three grants from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS): a four-year, $1.5 million grant to study biological calcification in vitro; a five-year, $3.5 million grant to establish a Musculoskeletal Repair and Regeneration Core Center for investigations in this field, and a four-year, $2.2 million grant to study the FT-IR microscopy of mineral structure in osteoporosis

Mary Goldring, PhD - collaborating in a five-year $1.7 million award from NIAMS to Yefu Li, PhD, MD, at Harvard Medical School to study the role of DDR2 in OA-like pathogenesis in osteochondrodysplasias

Lionel Ivashkiv, MD - a five-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study interferon regulation in systemic lupus

Theresa Lu, MD, PhD - a five-year, $1.9 million grant from NIAID to study lymphoid tissue microvessel growth

Eric Meffre, PhD - a five-year, $2.2 million grant from NIAID to study the loss of B cell tolerance in rheumatoid arthritis

Inez Rogatsky, PhD - five-year, $1.6 million grant from NIAID to study the mechanisms of immunosuppressive actions of glucocorticoids

Jane Salmon, MD - a five-year, $1.9 million award from NIAMS to study the mechanism of aPL anti-body induced pregnancy loss

Of particular note, two of our orthopedic surgeons - Jo A. Hannafin, MD, PhD, and Scott A. Rodeo, MD, have reached a milestone in their biomedical careers with the awarding of their first R01 grants from the NIH in the area of anterior cruciate ligament repair. These awards recognize not only their record of scientific achievement, but also the importance of the research of the Hospital's clinician-scientists to the field of orthopedic surgery. Dr. Hannafin's three-year, $1.1 million award supports her work to explore the effect of mechanical stimuli on the structure and function of the anterior cruciate ligament in order to facilitate ACL repair, including tissue engineering approaches. The long-term objective of Dr. Rodeo's four-year, $1.4 million award is to investigate the cellular and molecular events that control healing at the tendon-to-bone attachment site and to understand the effect of mechanical load on inflammation and healing at this site.

In addition, a five-year, multimillion-dollar grant was received from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to establish a Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERT), with a focus on therapeutic medical devices. The study is a collaborative effort between the Arthroplasty Service at Hospital for Special Surgery and clincal researchers both at Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical College. The CERT grant supports research to evaluate the uses and success of prosthetic orthopedic devices. A comprehensive prospective Total Joint Replacement Registry is being developed to collect data to address questions regarding outcomes, variations, and economic impacts of total joint surgeries. This is the first external major funding of this magnitude for clinical research at Hospital for Special Surgery and a landmark accomplishment