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The Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine Frequently Asked Questions

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What is the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine?

The Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary network working to develop advanced treatment options for our severely wounded soldiers. The AFIRM is managed and funded through the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC), with additional funding from the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Air Force Office of the Surgeon General, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and local public and private matching funding.

 

Which institutions make up the AFIRM?

The AFIRM is made up of two civilian research consortiums working with the U.S. Army Institute for Surgical Research in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. One consortium is led by the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the other is led by Rutgers and the Cleveland Clinic.

 

How much funding is allocated to the AFIRM?

Each civilian consortium was awarded $42.5 million over a period of five years. In addition, the two consortia are bringing local public and private matching funds amounting to more than $180 million that will be added to their research budgets. In each case, the full amount of the grant was allocated to the lead institution. Those lead institutions are responsible for distributing the funds among their consortium partners according to peer-reviewed work plans that address the AFIRM objectives.

 

How were the AFIRM Consortiums chosen?

The process for awarding the AFIRM grants began in January 2007, with a Request for Information from the U.S. Army MRMC. Twenty-eight institutions responded to this RFI. In April 2007, a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) was sent to those 28 respondents for comment. In August 2007, a Program Announcement was released by the Army MRMC. Seven consortia responded to this PA. From those, two finalists were chosen for oral presentations to the Scientific Review Panel in December 2007. Ultimately, both finalists were deemed to have built excellent programs and both were recommended for funding.

 

What sorts of therapies will be developed within the AFIRM?

The AFIRM was designed to speed the delivery of regenerative medicine therapies to treat our most critically injured service members from around the world, but in particular those injuries coming from our theaters of operation in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are five major programs: burn repair; wound healing without scarring; craniofacial reconstruction; limb reconstruction, regeneration or transplantation; and compartment syndrome, a condition related to inflammation after injury that can lead to increased pressure, impaired blood flow, nerve damage and muscle death.

 

What are some specific projects?

Projects of the Wake Forest-Pittsburgh consortium include developing a product to quickly stop bleeding, developing a cartilage-covered ear implant and using modified ink-jet technology to “print” new skin directly on a burn.

 

Regenerative Medicine? Does that mean stem cells?

Adult stem cells and progenitor cells are an integral part of normal wound healing and the formation of all new tissues. Many of the strategies being developed by AFIRM seek to improve wound healing and tissue repair by increasing the number or improving the function of these cells. A patient’s own cells, or in some cases, cells from another adult, are used in conjunction with special drugs called bioactive factors, or with advanced biomaterials that serve as scaffolds for growth of new tissues.

 

Will AFIRM researchers be using embryonic stem cells?

No. All of the research now funded through the AFIRM will use adult-derived stem cells taken from the patient or from another adult donor.

 

What are tissue scaffolds?

Tissue scaffolds are the medical implants of the future: small, porous, tissue-like implants made of fully degradable, specially designed biomaterials that support cells at the site of injury and assist the body in growing new, functional tissue. When the damaged or lost tissue has been successfully replaced by new tissue, the scaffold will have completely resorbed. Examples are regeneration of damaged or missing sections of bones, nerves, ligaments, blood vessels and skin.

 


Participating AFIRM Institutions

 

USA ISR Core

  • The US Army Institute of Surgical Research, Fort Sam Houston, TX
  • Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX

 

Wake Forest/McGowan Team

  • Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
  • McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
  • Allegheny Singer Research Institute
  • California Institute of Technology
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Intercytex
  • Oregon Medical Laser Center at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center
  • Organogenesis
  • Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative
  • Rice University
  • Stanford University School of Medicine
  • Tufts University
  • University of California, Santa Barbara
  • University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • University of Wisconsin
  • Vanderbilt University

 

Rutgers-Cleveland Team

  • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • Cleveland Clinic
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Case Western Reserve University
  • Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
  • Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Mayo Clinic
  • Northwestern University
  • Stony Brook University
  • University of Cincinnati
  • University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Virginia
  • Vanderbilt University