The University of Michigan (U-M) at Ann Arbor has received a $3.9 million grant to strengthen its existing musculoskeletal health program and speed up cross-disciplinary research throughout the university. The grant is from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Known as a P30 grant, it is given to institutions where investigators from different disciplines focus on a common research project through a joint, coordinated effort. The Michigan Integrative Musculoskeletal Health Core Center (MiMHC) will oversee the work.
$3.9 million NIH Grant to Michigan Musculoskeletal Center
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“The MiMHC was structured to accelerate science and innovation at U-M around understanding mechanisms of musculoskeletal health, injury and disease across the lifespan, ” said Karl Jepsen, Ph.D., professor and associate chair of research of orthopedic surgery, and director for the MiMHC. “This grant enabled us to establish the MiMHC and will give our researchers the ability to break down silos within the various disciplines, while encouraging research targeting interactions across musculoskeletal tissue types, such as bone, muscle, tendon, ligament and cartilage.”
According to the press release, the MiMHC has three goals:
- Enable center investigators to conduct vertically oriented science from the molecular level to the organ/functional level;
- Create new opportunities for collaboration, training and mentorship;
- Promote opportunities for novel and emerging science by focusing on research between basic scientists and clinicians, studies on sex-specific differences and interactions among tissues.
Sixty faculty members from seven schools will compromise the MiMHC research community. They are the School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, College of Engineering, School of Kinesiology, Life Sciences Institute, School of Public Health and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.
“We really want fellow researchers across campus to get to know each other and enhance collaborations, ” Jepsen said. “This is an exciting time for those of us in musculoskeletal research. Greater interactions between basic scientists and clinicians are important to the future of medicine and the care we will be able to provide to patients in the years to come.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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