FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Puget Sound Blood Center Scientists Receive $10.3 Million NIH SCCOR Grant for Research

Blood Center to Receive One of Nation’s First SCCOR Grants

Prestigious NIH award funds will support groundbreaking research at Blood Center

DECEMBER 13, 2005, SEATTLE WA — Puget Sound Blood Center has been named the recipient of a $10.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Puget Sound Blood Center becomes one of the first two agencies in the nation to receive an NIH SCCOR grant. The Blood Center will utilize the highly sought after NIH Specialized Centers of Clinically Oriented Research (SCCOR) funds to conduct ground breaking research in four separate studies over the next five years.

The Blood Center, responsible for maintaining a stable blood supply for most of Western Washington, has been committed to advancing transfusion medicine through research since its inception in 1944. That commitment continues today with our staff of nearly 40 scientists, whose specialized labs are working to better the lives of those with bleeding disorders, needing life saving transfusions, in need of bone marrow matching and more.

The Blood Center is honored to be one of the two organizations receiving a SCCOR grant amongst a highly competitive field of submissions. The new SCCOR grants are designed to fund program-based research in the clinical setting. The Blood Center’s work and research has always focused on ways to better the lives of its patients.

The four research projects are:

• Strategies to Extend Platelet Storage
  Blood platelets are the blood cells involved in blood clotting. When patients develop low platelet counts, usually as a result of cancer chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation, trauma or open-heart surgery, platelets donated by normal volunteers are transfused to prevent bleeding. Platelets can currently be stored for only five days. Dr. Sherrill Slichter, M.D., Principal Investigator, and her team will look into methods of extending the storage time of platelets while maintaining their viability, thereby increasing the supply available for patients who need platelet transfusions.
• Expansion of Megakaryocytes and “In Vitro” Platelet Production
  Megakaryocytes are the “mother cells” in the bone marrow that fragment to make platelets (described above). In this research Co-Principal Investigators Diana Gilligan, M.D.-Ph.D. and Joanna Reems, Ph.D. will determine if megakaryocytes will grow outside the body (in the laboratory) and still produce platelets that can be transfused into patients. If successful, this project would create a ready source of platelets not necessitating donors.
• Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Patients Who Lack Megakaryocytes
  Dr. Neil Josephson has identified a genetic defect that causes this disorder. His research will look at the possibility of replacing the defective gene with a normal one. This would involve inserting the normal gene into one of the defective cells. The now “normal” cell would then be transfused back, and if the research is successful, the normal cells would replicate, essentially leading to a “cure.” These studies are preliminary before proceeding to human clinical trials.
• Immunomodulation Following Transfusion
  Patients receiving transfusions of platelets or red cells often develop an immune response to the se transfusions. The purpose of this study being conducted by Principal Investigator, Karen Nelson, Ph.D. and Co-Investigators Yvette Latchman, Ph.D., Terry Gernsheimer, M.D. and Paul Warner, Ph.D., is to determine how a transfused patient’s immune system responds to transfusions that have been modified to prevent immune recognition by the recipient. The patient’s immune response to modified transfusions will be compared to his/her responses to the transfusion of unmodified (standard) transfusions. The recipients in this study will be patients undergoing open-heart surgery procedures at the University of Washington Medical Center. The University’s Co-Principal Investigator will be Gabriel Aldea, M.D.

Besides their work at Puget Sound Blood Center, each of the researchers involved in these projects are also University of Washington Medical School faculty.

The researchers are available for interview. Patients with conditions on which our research is focused are available to discuss their conditions and how successful research could impact their lives and those who share their medical conditions.

The Blood Center has a long and unique tradition of blending community volunteerism, medical science and research to improve patients’ lives. The Blood Center serves patients in more than 70 hospitals and clinics in 14 counties with blood services, provides tissue and transplantation support to 185 hospitals across the Northwest. For more information on Puget Sound Blood Center please see our Web site at www.psbc.org.

If you have any questions regarding the SCCOR grant, would like to set up interviews with the researchers involved or would like to interview any of our patients, please contact Tom Butterworth at 206-292-6511.

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