NEWS

For immediate release
From The university of california, irvine

Contact : Farnaz Khadem
(949) 824-5484
fkhadem@uci.edu

UCI RESEARCHERS RECEIVE $3.9 MILLION GRANT TO FOCUS ON WOUND HEALING

   Multi-Center Project Financed by Department of Defense Could Hold Key for Breakthroughs in Limb Regeneration Irvine, Calif., Mon. May x, 2006 — UC Irvine will take part in a multi-center program to better understand how deep wounds can be healed following traumatic injury, research that could also lead to significant advances in the field of limb regeneration. The $3.9 million grant for one year is being financed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research and development arm of the Department of Defense.
   The research team, headed by Ken Muneoka of Tulane University, is one of only two groups in the country to receive the DARPA grant aimed at tissue regeneration. Researchers from UCI involved in the project are Susan V. Bryant, Dean of Biological Sciences; David Gardiner, a research biologist in the department of development and cell biology; Elizabeth Rugg, associate researcher of dermatology; and Doug Wallace, director of the Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics (MAMMAG).
   The immediate goal of the DARPA grant is to find ways in which the body’s natural healing process can be harnessed to heal deep wounds that involve bone, muscle, nerves and other soft tissues. To achieve this, the research group involving UCI will use the salamander and the mouse as models of how these two species deal differently with a severe wound injury such as the loss of a limb. Salamanders are the only adult vertebrate that can make a blastema, a mass of undifferentiated cells that have the ability to grow and recreate a limb.
   The researchers will focus on recreating that regeneration process in a mouse model by attempting to create a blastema for the recreation of a mouse finger. UCI’s contribution to the project will include looking at how to create a surface layer, or epidermis, to cover the blastema – a crucial step for proper functioning – and how to create mitochondria that are capable of supporting the function of the blastema cells. The hope is that success in a mammalian model such as the mouse will pave the way for better understanding the regenerative process in humans.
   “The body has a great capacity for healing deep wounds, and we need to learn how to better harness this ability,” said Bryant, who has made a number of groundbreaking findings on the sequence of molecular events that lead to regeneration.

“Of course, one of the most serious wounds a person can suffer is the loss of a limb. The grant from DARPA will allow us to pursue a number of exciting research avenues that could lead to great breakthroughs in wound healing and ultimately, tissue and limb regeneration. This is particularly important given the large number of soldiers today who suffer from limb loss among major battlefield injuries.”

   Other collaborators on the project are Tanja Dominko, a researcher with CellThera, Inc., and Eugenia Wang, professor at the University of Louisville. The DARPA grant is for one year and the agency could provide further funding for up to three years.
   About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.3 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.
   Television: UCI has a broadcast studio available for live or taped interviews. For more information, visit http://today.uci.edu/broadcast.
   News Radio: UCI maintains on campus an ISDN for conducting interviews with its faculty and experts. The use of this line is available free-of-charge to radio news programs/stations who wish to interview UCI faculty and experts. Use of ISDN line limited by availability and approval by the university.

*UCI maintains an online directory of faculty available as experts to the media. To access, visit www.today.uci.edu/experts.