Federal stimulus money invigorates medical research

By James Brice

Are you looking for a surprising source of economic power to report about in your community? Then, you would do well to look to its largest hospitals – especially academic hospitals – for institutions with real financial clout.

How about a story with a health care hook to the federal stimulus spending and jobs creation? Again, academic medical centers – especially ones that have a track record of funding from the National Institutes of Health – are a good bet.

These are lessons members of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists learned recently in a briefing with officials from the University of California, San Francisco.

The university is a major force driving the city’s economy as well as a world class center for medical science. Attendees of the event learned how funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is creating jobs while stimulating research activities at the university.

Kristen Bole, manager of biotech news with UCSF news services, explained that the university ranks second behind the city and county of San Francisco as the leading employer in San Francisco and the fifth largest employer in the San Francisco Bay area,  which is home to Hewlett Packard, Wells Fargo Bank, and Apple Computer. With revenues totaling $3.3 billion in 2009, UCSF employed more than 22,000 workers, including university and medical center staff, at 20 locations.

The university has been a magnet for ARRA subsidies supporting medical research. As of Sept. 14, UCSF was awarded 344 ARRA grants from the National Institutes of Health. The grants are valued at $151.2 million, increasing the $463 million UCSF will realize from the NIH this year by nearly a third. By June 30, the university had actually received $31.2 million, enabling it to retain or create 288 jobs, Bole said.

Nationally, $21.5 billion of ARRA funding has been allocated for scientific research, equipment, and construction. About $10.4 billion will be funneled through NIH.

At UCSF, the federal subsidies are allowing senior researchers to implement broadly based inquiries that could not have been possible without ARRA support.

“They could spur innovation and serve as the cornerstone of medical care for years,” she said.

Principal investigators from three ARRA-funded projects addressed the group.

Neil Risch, Ph.D., director of the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics, described plans for the largest genetic health care database ever undertaken. Supported by a $25 million Grand Opportunity grant, the collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Health Plan involves a genome-wide analysis of DNA samples from 100,000 volunteer members of the HMO. Genetic information will be compared with the subjects’ life style profiles and medical histories to investigate the genetic and environmental basis for common age-related diseases and their treatment as well as factors influencing healthy aging and longevity.

“[ARRA] allowed us think out of the box,” Risch said. “…  We conceived of something that we thought we could never do otherwise, and I can guarantee you that. You can imagine $25 million is not so readily available from the NIH, especially to build infrastructure.”

From an immediate economic standpoint, the project will support 22 staff and research positions at Kaiser and UCSF in the first year and provide funding to nine current faculty members and physician researchers at the university or Kaiser, Risch said.

S. Claiborne Johnston, M.D., Ph.D., director of UCSF’s stroke service, outlined his group’s plan to establish a standard for treating transient ischemic attacks.

Transient ischemic attacks are common, with up to 350,000 episodes occurring in the United States annually. Studies link TIAs with an elevated risk for stroke. Drugs to treat TIAs are available but no pivotal, randomized clinical trial has been performed to establish the appropriate standard of care. A $12.4 million ARRA grant will fund Johnston’s Platelet-Oriented Inhibition in New TIA (POINT) clinical trial to get an answer.

The multicenter study will create 35 jobs for researchers and administrative coordinators at UCSF and other academic hospitals in the trial.

Traumatic brain injury has been blamed for dementia among soldiers exposed to explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan and athletes who suffer multiple concussions playing football. Beyond these widely publicized developments, hundreds of thousands of Americans may be dealing with mental disabilities from car crashes and other accidents. Yet, effective diagnostic techniques and treatments for TBI are lacking.

“This is truly an abyss,” said Geoffrey Manley, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the UCSF Brain and Spinal Injury Center. “We have had 28 failed drug trials. It has been called the ‘valley of death’ by the pharmaceutical companies. People have just shied away from this.”

Manley plans to lay the groundwork to solve this problem with assistance from a $4.1 million Grand Opportunity award. He is leading an effort to find better ways to collect data in TBI studies to identify the true prevalence and severity of these injuries. Once the nature and extent of the accidents are understood, better emergency room testing and treatment can follow, Manley said.

The NIH has awarded thousands of ARRA-supported grants to nearly every university-based medical center in the country. Potential story ideas can be identified using the NIH’s website about ARRA.

Detailed analyses of ARRA-funded grants by state, Congressional district, principal investigator name, and organization can be performed using NIH’s Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT).

James Brice is an independent journalist in the San Francisco Bay area. Thanks to Colleen Paretty, chair of the SF Bay Area chapter, for organizing this event. To get involved with the SF Bay Area chapter, e-mail Bay.Area.AHCJ@gmail.com.