Press Release

June 27, 2006
Contact: Melissa Campbell
(973) 972-4564
campbeme1@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ Researchers to Investigate
Why Men are More Likely to Succumb to Multiple Organ Failure
$8.1 Million NIH Grant Supports Effort of Nationally Renowned Surgeon
at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School

NEWARK — Researchers at UMDNJ have been awarded a five-year $8.1 million grant from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to investigate gender differences in response to injury and sepsis.

Surgeons at New Jersey Medical School will spend the next five years investigating the pathogenesis of multiple organ failure, the most common cause of death in the Intensive Care Unit.

The Principal Investigator is Dr. Edwin A. Deitch, Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery, a nationally regarded surgeon, well recognized in the fields of abdominal surgery, trauma and critical care as well as bloodless surgery. The project investigators include David H. Livingston, MD (Chief, Division of Trauma), George W. Machiedo, MD (Vice-Chairman, Department of Surgery), Rena Feinman, PhD, Vicki L. Kaiser, PhD, DaZhong Xu, MD, PhD and Carl J. Hauser, MD.

The grant's unique aspects are its investigation of gender and sex hormones as modulators of the susceptibility and resistance to shock and trauma, as well as the role of the gut in initiating the deleterious effects that lead to the development of multiple organ failure. This work is based on recent evidence that the response to injury and sepsis may differ between males and females, with females being more resistant to the adverse consequences of shock/trauma than males. Thus, understanding the mechanisms by which shock/trauma leads to multiple organ failure, as well as the role of sex hormones in modulating this response, could lead to major health advances in this area.

The title of the Center Grant is "Mesenteric Lymph Linking Gut and Distant Organ Injury." This is the first P50 Center Grant awarded to NJMS.

NIGMS primarily supports investigator-initiated basic biomedical research that generally is not targeted to particular diseases or disorders. However, there are certain Institute programs that support research center grants (P50). The grants are multidisciplinary in scope and may focus more on an area or discipline of science than on a specific theme or goal. Independent investigators direct the projects and cores. Center grants offer a greater opportunity for scientific interactions and overall progress than there is in individually funded projects, particularly because these centers contain basic and clinical components and promote translational research.

In addition, Dr. Deitch is also the Principal Investigator of one of about 20 post-doctoral training centers for NIGMS-funded Trauma, Burn and Peri-operative Injury Postdoctoral Research Training Programs nationwide.

To arrange an interview with Dr. Deitch, call Melissa Campbell at (973) 972-4564.

UMDNJ is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.