Maine Medical Center Research Institute gets $15M

Two researchers at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough have received a total of $15 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health.

According to an MMCRI statement, Director of Clinical and Translational Research and Senior Scientist Dr. Clifford J. Rosen, along with his colleagues at Yale, Harvard and the University of Michigan, was awarded an $8,048,101, five-year renewal grant to study how bone marrow fat cells affect other tissues.

“This is the first time researchers are looking at the link between osteoporosis and obesity in the bone marrow,” Rosen said. “There is tremendous potential for this study to affect the diagnosis and treatments of two very common conditions.”

Dr. Leif Oxburgh, a principal investigator at MMCRI’s Center for Molecular Medicine, was awarded a five-year grant of $6,855,225 for what MMCRI called a groundbreaking study to rebuild kidney tissue for people with kidney disease. The study includes collaborators from Tufts University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The study could lay the groundwork for a solution to kidney transplant organ shortages, Oxburgh said in a statement.

MMCRI’s research includes basic laboratory-based research and translational research, which works to apply basic discoveries to medical problems. Mainebiz wrote about the research institute in a June article.