| One million dollars in research grants for nine researchers in GEMI Fund second round |
At the second international scientific seminar and grant award ceremony of the GEMI Fund (Gas Enabled Medical Innovations), nine researchers shared a total of USD one million for research into gas enabled medical innovation.
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| Increased focus on clinical benefit |
The Scientific Secretary of the GEMI Fund is Professor Jörg Weimann, MD, of the Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin. He spoke highly of the range and quality of the applicants for the 2005 round of funding, but also of the Fund in general.
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| Clinical benefit: a shared goal |
In some respects, the occasion of the second GEMI Fund Seminars and Grant Award Ceremony represents just the very tip of the iceberg.
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| Innovation with a mission |
At the heart of the GEMI Fund’s raison d’être is innovation. All nine grantees’ research projects revolve around exploration of perhaps unconventional uses of gas in a medical application.
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| New roles for gases |
Ajay Verma, MD PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA is looking at the role of xenon therapy in the treatment of traumatic brain injury.
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| Multifunctional gas use |
Dr Gaio Paradossi, Associate Professor of the Dipartimento di Scienze e Technologie Chimische at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy will be using the GEMI Fund grant to explore the use of gas carrier microballoons with diagnostic and therapeutic features.
‘We are looking to fabricate microballoons containing therapeutic gases, such as NO, and to use them in a multi-functional way - both as an ultrasound contrast agents, and also as a mechanism for releasing gases close to the tissue. For this end we will try to use some sort of ultrasound procedure as a drug delivery system.’ He describes the project as a ‘frontier project’ on the borders of physics, biology and chemistry, and cites the usefulness of the Fund in bringing together researchers from various disciplines.
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| The latest in gas enabled medical innovation |
2003 grantee Markus Rehm, MD, of Ludwig-Maximilian Universität in Munich presented the results of his work on NO and the endothelial glycocalyx. His research examined the inner layer of blood vessels and their role in maintaining vascular patency. Professor Rehm and his group demonstrated, for the first time, that this layer is protected by inhaled NO after an interruption in the blood flow.
From Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA, 2003 grantee Tadeusz Malinski, PhD, presented his work on wound healing with gases. Professor Malinski showed that several gases including NO and CO applied periodically to a wound area have a wound healing effect and can reduce the time to full recovery by around 40%.
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| Inhaled carbon monoxide State of the art research |
From Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, Professor Leo Otterbein, PhD reviewed the state of the art in inhaled CO research.
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| Practical results |
The presentation by Professor Göran Hedenstierna, MD, of the Academic Hospital, Uppsala University in Sweden both moved and impressed the audience. Recounting a rescue trial in 2003 with SARS patients in Beijing, China, he detailed how four out of six patients treated with inhaled NO in combination with steroids were discharged to their homes after 28 days. Two remained in the Intensive Care Unit. Of those not treated with NO, two out of eight went home, two died and four remained in Intensive. The hypothesis was that iNO can enhance the efficacy of steroid treatment.
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| Jan Carlstedt-Duke,Dean of Research of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden |
‘Medical gas research is an area that has been well established at the Karolinska Institute for some time, and we have enjoyed a long-term relationship with Linde Gas Therapeutics, but I think the GEMI Fund has really opened up this field even more.’ ‘This Fund brings together scientists from different countries with different areas of research and they get exposed to a broader opportunity within their field - not just in the field of their own specific interests.’
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| Dr Walter Koppensteiner,Head of Institutional Business,Linde Gas Therapeutics, Munich |
| ‘This forum is the right platform to bring together people from the industry, regulatory bodies, inventors, research people and the day-to-day practitioners who work with patients every day. These researchers are pointing to new opportunities with gas, contributing to better health care.’ |  |
