NIAID announces 25 new awards to develop radiation countermeasures

• Amelia M. Bartholomew, M.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
• George Georges, M.D. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
• Andrei V. Gudkov, Ph.D., Cleveland Biolabs, Inc., Buffalo, NY
• Holger Karsunky, Ph.D., Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc., San Carlos, CA
• Kathleen E. Rodgers, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles

In addition to the Project BioShield awards, NIAID has funded 10 investigator-initiated grants focused on improving the diagnosis and treatment of individuals exposed to radiation. These five-year awards are estimated to be up to $4 million for the first year. The recipients are as follows:

• R. Shane Addleman, D.Sc., Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Richland, WA
• Susan M. Bailey, Ph.D., Colorado State University, Fort Collins
• Tao Cheng, M.D., University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh, PA
• David G. Kirsch, M.D., Ph.D., Duke University, Durham, NC
• Andrei V. Gudkov, Ph.D., Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation, Buffalo, NY
• James Palis, M.D., University of Rochester, NY
• Amanda G. Paulovich, M.D., Ph.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
• Gabor J. Tigyi, M.D., Ph.D., University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis
• Marcel R.M. van den Brink, M.D., Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, New York, NY
• Daohong Zhou, M.D., Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston

A new area of investigation being supported by NIAID is "radiation combined injury". If a nuclear weapon attack were to occur in the United States, the wounded would also be expected to have other injuries such as burns, trauma or infections, in addition to radiation exposure. However, research in the area of radiation combined injury has been lacking.

The NIAID initiative will help stimulate research in the area of treating people with radiation combined injuries. Ten grants, estimated to be up to $2 million over five years, have been awarded to the following investigators: