Univ. Cincinnati shares in $13.5M obesity research grant

Device firm Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. has awarded a $13.5 million grant to the University of Cincinnati and others for collaborative obesity research.

The three-year grant will be used to investigate how and why gastric bypass surgery works, according to a statement from Ethicon Endo-Surgery. Gastric bypass surgery often helps patients lose weight and can also cure type 2 diabetes. The procedure involves stapling a patient’s stomach to create a small pouch, as well as a passage for food to bypass part of the small intestine. The surgery reshapes the stomach into a tube, which restricts the amount of calories the body absorbs.

Randy Seeley will lead the research team in attempting to replicate the process what happens to the body as a result of gastric bypass surgery to find a lower-cost, less-invasive procedure that produces the same results. Gastric bypass surgery typically costs between $15,000 and $17,000.

In addition to Ethicon and the University of Cincinnati, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital will participate in the project. Including the $13.5 million grant, more than $33 million has gone to the project in recent years.

Ethicon Endo-Surgery is a division of Johnson & Johnson that develops surgical devices such as shears and staplers.