MUSC to join Clemson, USC in tissue research center

Clemson University will collaborate with the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina on a $9.3 million research program into tissue regeneration.

The new research center, which will have a presence at Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center’s Patewood campus, will be funded over five years by the National Institutes of Health.

“This research is a way of saying that none of us are getting any younger,” said Clemson President James Barker, who said the research will target organ failure and other tissue replacement issues in medicine.

The grant will establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence for Tissue Regeneration. It is not related directly to the state-funded Centers of Economic Excellence program, which has provided $200 million in lottery-generated funds for research.

But Chris Przirembel, vice president for research and economic development at Clemson, said there likely will be interaction between the NIH-funded researchers and those being supported by the state-funded projects.

The center is funded by the NIH National Center for Research Resources Institutional Development Award program, which seeks to broaden the geographic distribution of NIH funding for biomedical and behavioral research, Clemson officials said. The program aims to increase the number of NIH-funded biomedical researchers in the nation and to strengthen the biomedical research capacity of individual universities.

Barker described the collaboration with USC and MUSC on this and many other research projects as “the new normal in South Carolina,” to give the state the critical mass to attract and keep world-class researchers in medicine and other fields.

By building teams of researchers, Barker said South Carolina is making it harder for other universities and research labs to cherry-pick South Carolina’s research stars. Once they have integrated into a research team, he said, the individuals are less inclined to leave the team and start over at another institution.

Barker said the collaboration with the USC and MUSC medical schools gives Clemson the opportunity to work in fields that otherwise might not be possible for a university without a medical school.

According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, the baby boomers will expand the elderly population by 75% in the next two decades, to more than 74 million people, creating a tremendous biomedical need. Clemson officials said South Carolina already is home to a growing medical-device cluster.

“End-stage organ failure and tissue loss create health care costs of nearly $400 billion annually in the United States,” said Naren Vyavahare (pictured), Hunter Endowed Chair, Clemson bioengineering professor and chief architect of the proposal.

Vyavahare will act as principal investigator and the center’s director. “The center’s research focus will be on tissue regeneration through cell biomaterials interactions, with the goal of restoring functional tissues.”

The center will provide mentors for early-career researchers who can work toward independence as NIH-funded investigators. The first group of early-career investigators includes the following:

Bruce Gao, associate professor of bioengineering at Clemson.
Ken Webb, associate professor of bioengineering at Clemson.
Susan Lessner, assistant professor of cell biology and anatomy at USC.
Anand Ramamurthi, associate professor of bioengineering with the Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering Program and adjunct associate professor of regenerative medicine and cell biology at MUSC.

The new center “will significantly improve our collaborative efforts in South Carolina to recruit, train and retain researchers with cross-disciplinary skills in the area of regenerative medicine,” Barker said. “This recognition from NIH is a great honor for Clemson University and speaks to the rich history and outstanding quality of research from our bioengineering department.”