FAIRFAX, Va.—The Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation recently awarded 13 grants totaling more than $191,000 to encourage the development of interventional radiology research. Grant proposals were reviewed during SIR's 34th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Diego.
"SIR Foundation is proud to be able to contribute to the advancement of interventional radiology research. The SIR Foundation grant program is designed to benefit researchers at all levels—from medical students to established practitioners—and the grant program provides an excellent return on investment," said Mike Darcy, M.D., FSIR, Foundation chair. "SIR Foundation has awarded more than $2 million in grant funding over the past 15 years, and Foundation grant recipients have subsequently received more than $50 million in all source grant funding, with nearly $40 million being awarded by the National Institutes of Health," added the interventional radiologist at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, St. Louis, Mo.
Dr. Ernest J. Ring Academic Development Grant Clifford R. Weiss, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Md., has been named the recipient of the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation's Dr. Ernest J. Ring Academic Development Grant for his research in "MR-guided Transplantation of Magnetoencapsulated Human Pancreatic Islet Cells in a Diabetic Swine Model." This grant, named after the founder of the SIR Foundation, is designed to provide support to junior interventional radiology faculty members early in their academic careers to allow time for the conduct of research. The goal of this program is to have the grant recipient subsequently obtain additional funding from other sources—for example, NIH grants.
Pilot Research Grant The Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation's Pilot Research Grant is open to full-time interventional radiology faculty and trainees with an M.D., DO, Ph.D. or equivalent degree. Post-doctoral candidates may also apply. This grant is designed to fund research in areas identified by the SIR Foundation as important to the advancement of interventional radiology and patient care. This grant generally addresses a specific hypothesis and generates preliminary data that could be used to justify or strengthen subsequent comprehensive applications to national peer-reviewed funding agencies. Grants may be issued to support the initial research efforts of faculty as well as those who have limited research experience.
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This year's three recipients are
- Rajoo Dhangana, M.D., Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, R.I., "The LEAD Interventions Study (Lower Extremity Peripheral Arterial Disease Interventions: Percutaneous-first Approach vs. Surgical-first Approach and Their Impact on Amputation Volumes Among Medicare Beneficiaries)";
- Joseph Erinjeri, M.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center, New York City, N.Y., "Mediators Underlying Local Inflammation and Treatment Response Following Thermal Ablation of Tumors"; and
- Weibin Shi, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Va., "Identification of Yin Yang-1 as a Major Gene Contributing to Neointimal Formation."
Student Research Grant The Student Research Grant is designed to foster an interest in research by funding a summer research project conducted by an undergraduate medical student in an area identified by SIR Foundation as important to the advancement of interventional radiology and patient care.
The nine recipients of the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation's Student Research Grant are
- Brad Barnett, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md., "Evaluation of MR-visible ThermaSphere® Microspheres for Simultaneous Chemoembolization and Thermal Therapy for Liver Cancer";
- Eugene Duke, "Correlation of Quantitative MR Perfusion Parameters With Pathology Following Chemoembolization of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)," and Brian Jin, "The Correlation of Angiographic Endpoints With Perfusion and Clinical Outcomes During Chemoembolization of Hepatocellular Carcinoma," both at Northwestern University, Chicago, Ill.";
- Lydia Kuo, Georgetown University Medical Center, "Biochemical Markers of Recurrence of Fibroids," Washington, D.C.;
- Waleed Brinjikji, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., "Analysis of Crossover and Blinding in the Investigational Vertebroplasty Efficacy and Safety Trial (INVEST)";
- Valentin Lance, "Radiologic and Microarray (Radiogenomic) Analysis of Gastric Adenocarcinoma: A Novel Classification of Tumor Subtypes and Prognosis," Natanel Jourabchi, "Microarray Analysis of Outcome of RFA and TACE in HCC Patients," and Christina Ma, "Evaluation of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Monitoring Tumor Ablation Efficacy of Irreversible Electroporation (IRE) on Rabbit VX2 Liver Tumor," all at the UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, Calif., and
- Shantanu Gaur, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., "Hepatic Arterial Chemoembolization (HACE), Yttrium-90 Radioembolization and Drug-eluting Bead-HACE in Carcinoid Metastases to the Liver."
Application deadline for the Dr. Ernest J. Ring Academic Development Grant and the Pilot Research Grant is Dec. 15. Application deadline for the Student Research Grant is Feb. 1, 2010. For more information on the SIR Foundation and all its grants programs—including the Academic Transition Grant and the Resident Research Grant—visit online at www.SIRFoundation.org.
About the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation SIR Foundation is a scientific foundation dedicated to fostering research and education in interventional radiology for the purposes of advancing scientific knowledge, increasing the number of skilled investigators in interventional radiology and developing innovative therapies that lead to improved patient care and quality of life.
Interventional radiologists are vascular experts who invented angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease. They provide vascular disease management and specialize in minimally invasive treatments. Visit www.SIRFoundation.org.