Grants will fund cancer, deep-brain stimulation research at Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University

Dr. Sanford Markowitz

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine received $10.4 million in federal grants to investigate new approaches to fighting cancer and fresh applications for deep brain stimulation.

The National Institutes of Health will provide:

• $4.9 million so Case researchers can try to identify patients’ inborn genetic susceptibility to develop colon cancer from some other cancer.
• $1.5 million to the Cleveland Clinic for research into deep brain stimulation.
• $1.9 million to the Clinic to research whether viruses could be the cause of certain types of bone marrow cancers and other blood disorders.

Each of the NIH grants are over five-year periods, and are part of $348 million in NIH grants announced Thursday.

Meanwhile, a $2.6 million Department of Defense grant will fund a four-year project at the Clinic to develop an improved version of chemotherapy.

All of the NIH grants are awarded under its Common Fund’s Roadmap for Medical Research, which offer grants that have a particular emphasis on innovation and risk taking. The Case research and the Clinic’s cancer project, for example, are under the Common Fund’s Transformative R01 Program, which focus on “exceptionally innovative, high risk, original and/or unconventional research projects that have the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms,” according to the NIH.

Case researchers lead by Dr. Sanford Markowitz, the study’s principal investigator, want to identify the inborn genetic markers that make certain patients vulnerable to developing metastatic colon cancer. This could lead to new ways of managing the cancer, as well as developing more effective cancer therapies.

Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Andre Machado will test whether deep-brain stimulation, which places tiny electrodes onto the brain, can treat patients with severe chronic pain related to strokes or other lesions to the brain.

The Clinic’s Dr. Jaroslaw Maciejewski, who will research viruses as the cause of cancer, stated that the “hypothesis that viruses could be the cause of cancers challenges traditional understanding of autoimmunity, but if these viruses exist and can be identified, we could improve diagnosis and prevention.”

The Clinic’s Department of Defense grant will research chemotherapy that could stop the growth of cancer cells without stopping the growth of healthy cells. Today’s chemotherapy attacks healthy cells, lengthens recovery time and increases side effects. This development, lead by Dr. Yogen Saunthararajah, would allow for longer treatments with fewer downsides that could kill more cancer in the body. The research is scheduled to be tested in a clinical trial starting in November.