Grant Award: NYU Oral Cancer Center Awarded $3.1 Million

One topic I like to cover here at GrantNews is new medical research. It’s important. And every day new medical discoveries come to light. Grant funding can go towards funding those initiatives. One federal department that provides grants like thes is the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. This is done through the National Institutes for Health. The NIH is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research.

Studying Oral Care Is Important to Help Save Lives

This funding for this grant comes from the National Institutes for Health’s The National Cancer Institute. The NIH funds many similar initiatives and research.

Here are some of the goals of the National Institute For Health:

• Foster fundamental creative discoveries
• innovative research strategies, and their applications as a basis to advance the Nation’s capacity significantly to protect and improve health;
• Develop, maintain, and renew scientific human and physical resources that will assure the Nation’s capability to prevent disease;
• Expand the knowledge base in medical and associated sciences to enhance the Nation’s economic well-being
• Ensure a continued high return on the public investment in research
• Exemplify and promote the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science.

The reason that this is so important is that funding could lead to lifesaving discoveries. They could also lead to improving the quality of life over long periods of times. And there is so much we don’t know. Here’s what Donna Albertson, Ph.D., who is leading this initiative, spoke on the grant award:

“We propose to study the reciprocal sensory neuron-cancer interaction in relation to cancer promotion and oral cancer pain,” said Albertson. “There is a critical need to define the mechanism by which oral cancers and neurons interact with each other and the efficacy of disrupting this interaction to treat oral cancer and associated pain.”

Here’s What the Funding Will Go Towards

So let’s talk a bit about what this research will look like. The goal of the overall research will go towards lessening pain and improving existing oral cancer treatment. Currently, oral treatment prognosis, especially at later stages, can be poor. Patients report an excessive amount of pain even while undergoing treatment.

Both of the main researchers involved have focused on improving outcomes for over two decades. With this funding, researchers will be able to explore the “sensitization and activation of TRPV1 on nociceptors generated by cancer mediators.” Brian Schmidt, DDS, MD, Ph.D., who is tne of the lead researcher on this project spoke about this important work:

“For almost 20 years Donna and I have investigated oral cancer pain and progression,” said Schmidt. “This project is an exciting new trajectory for us as we resolve how a subset of nerves contributes to cancer progression and pain. After identifying the components of the cancer-nerve interaction with greater resolution, we seek to develop novel approaches to treat oral cancer and oral cancer pain.”

GrantWatch Understands the Importance of Medical Research

Medical research like this initiative is so critical to improving quality of life. We understand how important this kind of research is which is why we have an entire category for research grants. There, nonprofits, agencies, and organizations can apply for funding awards for their initiatives.

If you have any questions regarding this grant category or any of the others on GrantWatch.com, feel free to reach out to our customer support team by calling 561-249-4129.