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Above: Dr. Ralph Dacey tests the latest technology in human magnetic surgery at Washington University. This is just one of the numerous human trials and clinical research activities underway at the university.
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The region is one of a few in the country that can boast two major medical schools, bringing to the community world class health care.
By Liese Hutchison
More than $300 million in research grants and funding are shared between the metropolitan area’s two medical campuses?Washington University School of Medicine and Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Only a handful of other metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco have more than one major medical school that concentrates on medical research, clinical trials and physician training.
“Washington University’s School of Medicine has an extremely large research portfolio,” notes William A. Peck, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of Washington University Medical Center. “We currently rank fourth among medical colleges in funding received from all sources.” The medical school uses $275 million in grant money from federal and corporate sources; it ranks fifth, with $178 million, in terms of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. Johns Hopkins University, University of California-San Francisco, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University are the top four in NIH grants received.
“We are one of the largest research engines in the world. Because it is so large, you can find almost any kind of research at the institution,” Peck points out. He notes that academic medical centers are responsible for well over 50 percent of the medical research conducted.
Robert Webster, Ph.D., associate provost for research administration at Saint Louis University Health Science Center, says even though pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies may conduct the rest of the nation’s medical research, the relationship that is built between the academic and corporate world is two-way. “For the most credible clinical trials, pharmaceutical companies want an academic center to conduct the study,” he notes. “It adds prestige and soundness to the trials.
“On the other side, we’ll have groundbreaking research that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies would want to buy from us,” Webster notes. He says that if there is commercialization of the discovery, the faculty shares in the royalties. But Webster points out that technology transfer isn’t the only benefit to a region in having two medical schools. “We’re also training scientists and future medical doctors that benefit society,” Webster remarks.
So what are these scientists and future medical doctors researching? Too many studies to name them all, but here’s a sampling of some of the groundbreaking research being conducted in St. Louis:
Washington University
The medical school received its largest award ever, $218.4 million over five years, for its Genome Sequencing Center. The center has the largest component of that project in the United States. Its purpose is to sequence the human genome by 2003. The human genome is all of the DNA in a human’s chromosomes, and it contains three billion genetic letters. By determining the exact order of these letters, researchers will be able to decipher the human genetic blueprint and its 80,000 to 100,000 genes.
A new type of brain surgery is currently under clinical trial. The Magnetic Surgery System uses computer-controlled superconducting magnets to remotely direct a small, flexible biopsy instrument into a patient’s brain. This procedure is less invasive then previous neurosurgery procedures. A St. Louis-based company, Stereotaxis, is spearheading the magnetic system into commercial development.
Joint Washington University and Saint Louis University studies
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism gave a grant to these two institutions, along with the University of Missouri?Columbia, to establish a center to study genetic and environmental factors that affect the risk of alcoholism in adolescents and young adults.
The American Lung Association provided a grant to Washington University, Saint Louis University, the American Lung Association of Eastern Missouri and private physicians to establish an Asthma Clinical Research Center. The researchers will try to develop new ways to help adults and children care for their diseases in early life.
Saint Louis University
The National Cancer Institute granted funds to the university to study and develop a customized communication system to encourage mammography and fruit and vegetable intake among 1,500 African-American women from 10 urban public health centers in St. Louis.
The university continues its Phase III study on an investigational HIV vaccine. The Center for Vaccine Development is also involved with the nasal spray vaccine that is credited in its Phase III trial of providing 93 percent protection against the flu and 98 percent protection against a common complication of the flu, ottis media.
Researchers are investigating ways to regenerate injured spinal cords. In a spinal cord injury, the axons are severed, which prevents brain signals that control arm and leg movement. Researchers are looking at a number of factors that may aid in stimulation and regeneration of these axons.
This article was written by Liese L. Hutchison, assistant professor in the department of communication at Saint Louis University and a free-lance writer.
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