PROVIDENCE – Lifespan Cancer Institute researcher Dr. Peter Quesenberry and his team announced Tuesday a $10 million, five-year Phase II Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence stem cell biology research grant powering insight into treatments for leukemia, lymphoma and neurodegenerative disorders.
Lifespan research leadership gathered with federal and local officials to announce the support of ongoing research in stem cell biology at the institute’s Hoppin Street location Tuesday afternoon.
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Quesenberry, principal investigator in the study of neural and hematopoietic stem cells at the institute, joined Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, Lifespan President and CEO Dr. Timothy J. Babineau, Lifespan Sr. Vice President and Chief Research Officer Peter J. Snyder, Lifespan Cancer Institute Chief of Hematology/Oncology Dr. Howard P. Safran.
Quesenberry said his team’s research stands to gain insight into bone marrow malignancies, cancer, neuro-degenerative disorders, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Also, “It potentially relates to aging, to both reverse and stop aging, which would be nice for all of us,” Quesenberry said.
Whitehouse praised the research and the cooperation with Lifespan that made winning it possible.
“Healthcare is a field where there is enormous opportunity for ideas and innovation,” Whitehouse said. “It is a moment of national significance and pride that we are doing this work.”
Whitehouse said securing the grant was easier due to local control over hospitals, warning against recent moves toward healthcare consolidation.
“I think we will all rue the day when these events have to be held in New Haven, or Boston or California or somewhere else,” Whitehouse said.
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences’ COBRE grants support themed, multidisciplinary centers that augment institutional biomedical research capacity. The grants are awarded in three phases: Phase I provides mentoring and funding for preliminary data; Phase II focuses on research infrastructure and continuing development, allowing them to compete successfully for new grants; Phase III supports the progress made in previous phases.
Lifespan is a five-partner not-for-profit health system based in Providence, R.I. Formed in 1994, Lifespan includes three teaching hospitals of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University: Rhode Island Hospital and its Hasbro Children’s Hospital; The Miriam Hospital; and Bradley Hospital, the nation’s first psychiatric hospital for children. It also includes Newport Hospital, a community hospital offering a broad range of health services, and Gateway Healthcare, the state’s largest provider of community behavioral health care.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Borkowski@PBN.com
