2010 Biomedical
Research Collaboration Award
Memphis, TN, December 21, 2010 --
The Hartwell Foundation officially
announced the third winners of
a
Biomedical Research
Collaboration Award,
which provides
funding to expand the frontiers of early-stage,
innovative, and cutting-edge applied biomedical research
through special collaboration.
Sean B.
Fain,
Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin Madison and
Talissa Altes, MD,
University of Virginia, will receive $300,000 in
combined direct cost over three years to pursue their
proposed research for "MRI to Monitor Early
Intervention in Cystic Fibrosis: Non-Invasive Imaging of
Lung Function in Neonates and Young Children"
Dr. Fain was a 2006
Hartwell Investigator from Wisconsin, while Dr. Altes
was a 2008 Nominee for a Hartwell Individual Biomedical
Research Award from Virginia. Both Universities made The Hartwell Foundation’s
2010 Top Ten Centers of
Biomedical Research.
Despite widespread newborn screening and significant
improvements in the management of Cystic Fibrosis (CF),
the severity of associated lung disease continues to
increase with age, culminating in life-threatening acute
complications and 90% mortality by age 25. While it is
possible to genetically identify babies born with CF,
there are essentially no safe, noninvasive measures of
lung function in neonates and very young children to
evaluate the efficacy of therapies for prevention of
early and irreversible damage to the lungs. To meet this
unmet need, Fain and Altes propose to use free-breathing
helium magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the lung in
non-sedated infants and young children. If they are
successful in imaging lung function at the earliest
stages of disease, it will allow for the first time
clinically meaningful intervention and evaluation of
treatment outcomes before the disease gains a foothold.
As a 2006 Hartwell Investigator, Dr. Fain developed a
novel set of MRI-based tools for safe assessment of lung
ventilation in children. His innovative technique for
fast acquisition of 3-D images of lung using MRI of
breathable non-radioactive helium gas provided MR images
without a breath-hold to stop motion, yielding reliable
longitudinal measures of lung structure and function.
The images of ventilation and lung structure were found
to be predictive of asthma diagnosis and consistent with
early patient history of wheezing with rhinovirus
infection in the first 3 years of life.
Dr. Altes is a pediatric radiologist at the University
of Virginia who has pioneered novel applications of lung
imaging using hyperpolarized gas MRI in children with
cystic fibrosis. She contributes extensive experience in
applying functional imaging techniques in adults and
older children with cystic fibrosis.
Together, Fain and Altes propose to extend existing
dynamic MR imaging (MRI) methods previously developed
and applied successfully in children 9-10 years old at
risk for asthma to application in babies with CF. Their
effort will require developing a new gas delivery
apparatus and detector tailored specifically to babies
and capable of fast MRI without requiring sedation. The
MRI methods will initially be deployed in healthy young
children and babies diagnosed with CF and then
subsequently, extended to evaluate drug therapy
interventions early in disease progression through
collaborations with CF physicians at The University of
Wisconsin Madison and the University of Virginia.
While CF is a single gene disorder, there are varied
responses in the individual patient to a given therapy
depending on genetic and environmental factors. The
impact of CF on lung ventilation in older children and
adults has been shown by Dr. Altes to be regional, with
the appearance of more severe disease adjacent to
apparently normal areas of the lung. In recent years,
several promising new drug therapies for CF have emerged
that are either commercially available or advanced in
the development and testing phases of the drug pipeline,
but the lack of adequate longitudinal measures of lung
structure and function make therapy assessment in babies
virtually impossible.
"We want to revolutionize the clinical management of
pediatric lung disease in the CF population by imaging
the therapy response in babies already diagnosed with
the disease, which should enable early intervention to
prevent irreversible damage to the lungs due to
inflammation and infection," said Dr. Altes.
The Fain-Altes collaboration will forge the interaction
between two leaders in lung MR imaging to extend the
application of fast imaging methods to neonates and
young children with cystic fibrosis on existing clinical
MRI systems.
""Given our mutual interests and complementary
technologies, we plan to overcome current limitations
in preventing safe and accessible imaging of the lung in
babies with CF by providing a new measure for evaluation
of treatment outcomes." related Dr. Fain.
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2006 Hartwell Investigator Sean
B. Fain, Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin Madison
2008 Hartwell Nominee Talissa
Altes, MD, University of Virginia
Biomedical Research Collaboration Awards
Individual Biomedical
Research Awards
Top Ten Centers
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