VCURES Awarded Surviving Blood Loss Grant from Defense Advanced Project Agency

The Defense Advanced Project Agency (DARPA) has awarded VCURES a 2-year grant totaling 1.3 million dollars to create novel means to survive devastating blood loss. The grant entitled Modulation of Oxygen Debt to Survive Blood Loss , was submitted in response to a DARPA initiative called “Surviving Blood Loss”. DARPA is the U.S. Department of Defense agency charged with funding and developing of very high-risk, high-payoff research.

The grant is led by Senior VCURES Fellow R. Wayne Barbee who is also the associate research director for the VCU Department of Emergency Medicine. The current grant will expand on work VCURES has been doing with DARPA for the last two years on a novel metabolic engineering strategy to reduce the body's need for oxygen after traumatic injury. It will also take advantage of novel discoveries and work by VCURES investigators in the areas of immunomodulation and rapid preconditioning.

Dr. Barbee states “Hemorrhage continues to be the leading cause of death on the battlefield. Since there is no golden hour for treatment, along with very limited surgical capabilities, strategies must be developed that appear almost science fiction in nature to make the huge advances that are needed to optimize chances for survival.” This project is part of the VCURES Operation Purple Heart combat casualty care program ( http://www.vcu.edu/vcures/purpleheart.htm ) and is another great example of advances that can be made using a multidisciplinary approach.

Team members include:

R. Wayne Barbee, PhD: Principal Investigator, Senior VCURES Fellow: Departments of Emergency Medicine and Physiology.

Kevin R. Ward, MD: Co-Principal Investigator: Associate VCURES Director: Departments of Emergency Medicine and Physiology

Penny Reynolds, PhD: VCURES Fellow: Department of Emergency Medicine

Rakesh Kukreja, PhD: Senior VCURES Fellow: Professor of Internal Medicine, Physiology, Emergency Medicine, and Biochemistry

Robert Diegelmann, PhD: Director VCURES Acute Tissue Injury and Repair Lab: Professor of Biochemistry, Anatomy, and Emergency Medicine

Ivo Torres Filho, MD, PhD: Director VCURES Clinical Microcirculatory Laboratory: Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Physiology and Emergency Medicine.

Roger Loria, PhD: Senior VCURES Fellow: Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Emergency Medicine

For more information contact Dr. R. Wayne Barbee at rwbarbee@vcu.edu