Hospital for Special Surgery Receives More Than $10 Million in NIH Grants

New York, NY—November 8, 2004

For Immediate Press Release

The Hospital for Special Surgery announced today that it has received more than $10 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund basic and clinical research activities. Drs.Eric Meffre, Lionel Ivashkiv and Peter Torzilli are the principal investigators for three of these grants, totaling close to $5 million. The hospital’s chief scientific officer, Dr. Francesco Ramirez, also received a five-year $6 million program project grant for research he and his collaborators at Johns Hopkins University, New York University and University of Oregon Health Sciences are undertaking on Marfan syndrome.

"These grants will help to advance current treatments in musculoskeletal disease by enabling us to conduct crucial research," said Ramirez. "Through this research, we will be able to find new ways to treat, cure and ultimately prevent musculoskeletal disease."

Lionel Ivashkiv, MD, senior scientist and director of the Arthritis and Tissue Degeneration Program, received two five-year grants totaling nearly $3.5 million from NIH for his research. With one grant, a new five-year Research Project Grant, Ivashkiv will study Fc Receptors and Cytokine Balance in Rheumatoid Arthritis. He also received a five-year renewal of a Research Project Grant to study Cytokine Regulation of RA Synoviocyte Phenotype.

Eric Meffre, Ph.D., assistant scientist in the Autoimmunity and Inflammation Program, received a new five-year $1.3 million grant from NIH as part of a Research Program Project in collaboration with colleagues at Mount Sinai School of Medicine to study Cellular and Molecular Defects in Human B Cell Development.

Peter A. Torzilli, Ph.D., Senior Scientist and Director of the Soft Tissue Laboratory, received a new two-year Exploratory/Developmental Grant for $170,000 from NIH to study Deformation-Dependent Enzyme Cleavage of Collagen.

Francesco Ramirez, Ph.D., and his collaborators at Johns Hopkins University, New York University and University of Oregon Health Sciences received a five-year $6 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, a division of the NIH, for a multi-center translational research project on Marfan syndrome, a connective tissue disorder.