February 21, 2005|
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February 21, 2005 |
Hopkins, lechnion collaborate on biomedical research. Barbara Pash Dr. Mizrahi's research is one of two projects initiated under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins University-Technion Collaborative Program in Bioengineering and Biomedicine. More projects are expected as the program proceeds. Co-directors of the program are Dr. Rafael Beyar, director of the division of invasive cardiology at Technion's Rambam Medical Center who recently ended a six year tenure as dean of Technion's medical school, and Dr. Murray Sachs, chair of Hopkins' biomedical engineering department in the Whiting School of Engineering, on the Homewood campus. About six years ago, Dr. Beyar, who did a post-doctoral fellowship in cardiology at Hopkins in the mid-1980s, approached Hopkins with the idea of a joint program. Such collaborative efforts are becoming increasingly common, and Hopkins has similar ties with other institutions, according to Dr. Sachs, whose laboratory has conducted projects in his specialty - hearing -with Hadnssah medical school, in Israel. Dr. Sachs was delighted with the offer. He said he had long wanted an exchange with another biomedical engineering department "and Technion is as close to our program as possible." But it didn't happen lightly, not with Hopkins' biomedical engineering department being ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report magazine for the past 15 years, an enviable record. "We did due diligence. It took at least two years before the [programs] documents were signed," said Dr. Sachs, a member of Beth Am Congregation. But even brilliant scientists run into circumstances beyond their control, and the timing for the official kickoff of the Hopkins-Technion program couldn't have been more inauspicious. The initial meeting was set for fall of 2000 in Haifa, but was canceled when the intifada broke out. It was rescheduled for the following year, 2001, on Sept. 11 in Baltimore, to begin with a 9 a.m. presentation by Dr. Sachs. "At 9:30, as I was finishing my opening remarks, I was handed a sheet of paper, like President Bush, with the news," said Dr. Sachs, who, with permission from Hopkins officials, decided to proceed with the two-day meeting even though the university immediately shut down. Security guards surrounded the building on the Homewood campus where the 20 Technion and 20-plus Hopkins scientists met. Afterward, some of the Israelis made their way to New York, where they stayed with relatives or friends but others were stuck in Baltimore for several days before flights resumed. "It was a bonding experience," Dr. Sachs said, putting a positive spin on the situation. Despite this rocky beginning, the program issued a request-for-proposals. Of the 13 responses, three research projects were chosen. One was Professor Mizrahi's; a second was a project on stopping the formation of blood vessels in tumors, especially brain tumors, important for cancer therapy. (The third project, on sudden cardiac death, was suspended after the researcher left Technion.) Besides providing initial funding for the research projects, the Hopkins-Technion program involves biennial workshops, alternating between the two schools, as well as graduate/medical student and faculty exchanges. Thanks to grants from the American Society for Technion and Hopkins of $100,000 each, the three projects each received one-year $35,000 grants. The grants were renewable for another year but the aim from the start has been for the projects to get independent funding to continue. It is also expected that the program will eventually become self-funded through the development and licensing of commercial products. Dr. Sachs says a management committee runs the program and uses three criteria for selecting projects. They are: scientific importance, researchers at both institutions, and the commercial/ niclinical potential. "I don't want to make it sound as if that's all-important," he said of the latter, "but our mission is to improve human health, and that doesn't happen if my research stays in my lab." Dr. Sachs said the joint program provides Hopkins with access to Technion's intellectual property and expertise in translating research into practical terms like actual companies. But that aspect of the program has been carefully, and legally, worked out among the individual researchers and the two universities. Dr. Beyar's office is located at Rambam hospital, on Technion's medical campus. In a room barely big enough for his desk and two chairs for visitors, Dr. Beyar, who has made important discoveries for heart surgery, says that the program had hoped to fund two to three projects annually but money availability may reduce that schedule. In any case, Dr. Boyar said he wants the program to "broaden the spectrum" of research projects, "to look into other areas" beyond the first two projects, on artificial cartilage and tumor biology. He also plans to seek other funding sources so the program can be expanded. "There's a high motivation to expand. In the [Technion] medical faculty, this Hopkins program is one of the most important ones," said Dr. Beyar. Even though Technion has collaborative efforts with such prestigious American medical institutions as the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Beyar calls the Hopkins-Technion program "unique" and the "first of its kind" to combine medicine and the biomedical sciences. "It's the new frontier in medicine," he said. Indeed, Professor Mizralu, a slight man with, as he admits to a group of American journalists, a trick knee himself, says there are only 120 registered biomedical engineering programs, "in as many institutions of higher education institutions worldwide." "Whenever cartilage is damaged, it cannot be repaired," said Dr. Mizrahi, who is experimenting with producing artificial cartilage from two sources, cow cartilage and stem cells that have been specialized as cartilage. "We're talking local replacement [of cartilage] only. We're not talking about replacing the whole joint. For that, you have to go to things like knee replacement," he said. Professor Mizrahi explains the replacement process, which involves inserting the cartilage cells via incision into the knee and a "scaffold" to hold them. The scaffold is made of a polymer material that is compatible with living cells and is degradable. His lab has developed a bioreactor, a machine that produces the mechanical signals for degradability. The bioreactor has been sent to Hoplans as part of the joint program. Dr. Mizrahi has made cartilage tissue in his lab, and is currently testing it on animals. He figures it might take 10 years before an approved product reaches the market, but he has just received a grant from the Binational Science Foundation, a joint Israeli-United States group, for $200,000 for four years to continue the research. Although the program has financed only one round of research projects, Dr. Sachs is already calling it a success. Besides Dr. Mizrahi's, the other project, on tumors, has also gotten independent funding. A workshop last October at Technion will be followed by one in Baltimore in 2006. The program is getting ready to issue its second request-for-proposals. "T o Dr. Sachs, the program has special meaning because it is with an Israeli institution: "I'm delighted" with the connection, he said. "But we wouldn't have done it if it wasn't die right thing to do. We've been pleased with the results so far." © Copyright 2005 Baltimore Jewish Times
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