$6.37 million from National Institutes of Health to find new ways to treat...( The National Institute of Arthritis ...),Health

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a research center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center a $6.37 million award to establish a Center of Research Translation (CORT) for the skin disease psoriasis.

This is one of the largest grants ever given to a medical institution in the United States for the study of psoriasis.

With a five-year grant from NIAMS, the Psoriasis CORT will bring a multidisciplinary team of translational physicians scientists, nurses, community clinicians, laity and basic scientists from different departments and disciplines together. This team will apply the intellectual and scientific resources of their institutions to new therapies to provide relief to patients with the skin disease that has long-term health and psychosocial consequences.

Our goal is to find ways to rebalance the human bodys immune system and skin cells to restrain the expression of this skin disease, said Kevin Cooper, M.D., department chair of dermatology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center (UHCMC) and professor of dermatology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. It is very important to obtain safe and durable remissions from disease because psoriasis has significant impact on patient health, spanning psychosocial effects, and risk for long-term cardiovascular complications and cancers.

The CORT grant complements a $5 million gift to University Hospitals Case Medical Center (UHCMC) from The Murdough Foundation that was received in December 2006 designed to advance the research and treatment of psoriasis. The gift remains the largest known in the United States for dermatology at an academic medical center. The Murdough Family Center for Psoriasis supports and stimulates clinical research and treatment for, and education about, psoriasis and creat
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