NIH renews research for countering nuclear threats

The National Institutes of Health has announced it will renew a major research effort to develop medical devices for diagnosing, preventing and treating victims of a radiological or nuclear terrorist attack.

The research will be conducted through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Centers for Countermeasures Against Radiation, known as the CMCR program. CMCR was established in 2006 to fund 130 pilot studies to develop methods and tools to measure radiation exposure and evaluate potential drugs to treat radiation injuries.

Under the renewed program, announced last Thursday, NIH expects to invest $105 million to support research at seven institutions from 2010 to 2015. One of those is at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where researchers will devise methods for determining physical and chemical changes in teeth, hair and fingernails resulting from radiation exposure, which could be used to develop noninvasive diagnostic tools.

"The original CMCRs formed the cornerstone of NIAID's radiation and nuclear medical countermeasures program and revitalized an area of science that had been dormant for many years," Dr. Daniel Rotrosen, director of NIAID's division of allergy, immunology and transplantation, said in a statement.

"The accomplishments of the centers are reflected in the large number of articles published, patents filed and nonradiobiology experts who have joined the field," he said. "We expect that the next phase will continue building upon these advances."

The institutions selected to conduct research are:

• Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City
• Columbia University, New York City
• Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.
• Duke University, Durham, N.C.
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
• University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, N.Y.