R.I. Hospital receives $5.8M federal grant to support cancer research program

RHODE ISLAND Hospital has been awarded $5.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to support its cancer research program.
 / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL
RHODE ISLAND Hospital has been awarded $5.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to support its cancer research program. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Hospital has been awarded $5.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to support its cancer research program.

The grant supports the third phase of an Institutional Development Award Center of Biomedical Research Excellence, according to a news release from Lifespan.

The Center for Cancer Research Development, which was established at the hospital in 2002, previously earned two NIH grants of $8.6 million and $10.8 million, which supported the first two phases of activity.

With this additional support in funding, the center will launch several pilot programs and extend the sustainability of its programs beyond Phase III. Funding will be spread over five years.

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“Rhode Island Hospital hosts three separate National Institutes of Health COBREs – for stem cell biology, skeletal health repair and for cancer discoveries,” Dr. Timothy J. Babineau, president and CEO of Lifespan, said in a statement. “Our biomedical research enterprise advances patient care through groundbreaking discoveries while simultaneously creating skilled job opportunities, new products and advanced technologies. It’s an undeniable economic driver with numerous benefits to the city of Providence and to the state.”
U.S. Sen. Jack F. Reed said the federal funds will help the center’s researchers upgrade their biomedical infrastructure and continue “cutting-edge research.”

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said the entire congressional delegation “fights hard for these funds, and we’re all very gratified when Rhode Island wins big grants like this one.”

Dr. Bharat Ramratnam, medical director of Lifespan’s Clinical Research Center and head of CCRD, is serving as the principal investigator of the grant.

He that a portion of the federal monies is designated for a new program that fast-forwards cancer-related research initiated by junior investigators.

“The mission of the COBRE CCRD is to create, interpret and apply new knowledge based on original, collaborative, multidisciplinary laboratory studies to uncover the cellular and molecular pathways leading to cancer arising in the liver, intestine, pancreas and colon,” according to the news release, which said Rhode Island is ranked 13th in the nation for cancer mortality rates.

Cancer and cancer-related disease cost the state approximately $900 million per year in combined losses from medical care and decreased productivity and place a heavy emotional and mental burden on patients and their families, the release said.

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