$6.37 million from National Institutes of Health to find new ways to treat...(es a critical base for the CORT research...),Health

Together with the recently awarded $64 million NIH Clinical Translational Services Award to Case Western Reserve University and the NIH NIAMS Skin Diseases Research Center at Case Medical Center, the Psoriasis CORT concentrates a remarkable array of interactive research resources that we expect to change patient care with safer and better therapies, said Pamela Davis, dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

This CORT award reinforces University Hospitals Case Medical Centers dedication to, and progress with both the treatment and research of psoriasis, said Fred C. Rothstein, M.D., president and CEO of University Hospitals Case Medical Center. Our unique interdisciplinary approach to psoriasis therapy and study places us at the forefront of eventually curing this debilitating disease.

The NIAMS grant will allow research teams to focus on three projects that simultaneously utilize different strategies to study the disease.

• PROJECT ONE: Researchers will test and explore the potential use in psoriasis of PC4, a novel photodynamic therapy (PDT), developed as a treatment for skin cancer at Case Western Reserve University by Malcolm Kenney, Ph.D., from the department of chemistry; Nancy Oleinick, Ph.D; and Drs. Cooper and Elma Baron at UHCMC.

  In a clinical trial, the non-invasive photosensitizer PC4 will be applied topically and exposed to red light to active the light-sensitive chemicals. After treatment, a real-time analysis of the psoriasis tissue will take place with the aid of a newly built device to conduct optical monitoring of tissue oxygen levels during treatments. The goal is to control inflammation that eventually brings on T-cell damage.

• PROJECT TWO: Another focus of the Psoriasis CORT is to understand the role that S100A8/9, a pro-inflammatory protein, has in initiating the biochemical
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