Cardiovascular Grant in its 48th year

It isn't often that a grant is older than its principal investigator. This is the case, however, with the research program titled "Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Reaction to Injury." The 48-year grant is four years older than its principal investigator, Dr. Charles Murry, associate professor of pathology.

The other two investigators are Dr. Dan Bowen-Pope and Dr. Steve Schwartz, both professors of pathology. Schwartz is the former principal investigator. Bowen-Pope is researching the origins of cells involved in wound healing and their differentiation into blood vessel and connective tissue cells. He has developed techniques to track these cells by using mouse genetics. Schwartz is looking at the genes that regulate how blood vessels change their diameter. His long-term goal is preventing arterial narrowing or helping open arteries to tissues deficient in blood flow. Murry is working on cellular therapeutics to repair the heart. He is testing the potential of stem cells to generate new muscle tissue.

"We would like to induce the injured heart to heal by regeneration of new muscle rather than scar formation," Murry said.

The grant will play a key role in establishing a Center for Cardiovascular Regenerative Biology, when the research team moves to the new South Lake Union campus in December. Murry will direct the center.

"The program project grant will be an anchor for a multi-disciplinary team working on heart repair," Murry said.

It's unusual for a research program to continue to receive funding for 48 years. Murry credits the quality of the research as the reason why funding has continued for so long.

"This research has led to two of the major hypotheses addressing the cause of atherosclerosis, the No. 1 cause of death in industrialized countries," Murry said.

The National Institutes of Health initially awarded the grant to Dr. Earl Benditt while he was at the University of Chicago. He came to the UW in 1957 and was a UW professor and chair of pathology until 1981.

The grant was then passed from Benditt to Schwartz, his trainee. Schwartz continued the grant successfully for about 20 years until passing it to Murry, his trainee, who has been the principal investigator for about one year.

"It's sort of intimidating taking over something like this," Murry said. "It's a high standard to maintain."

The grant was one of the first National Institutes of Health grants to be funded in excess of $1 million and is believed to be among the longest continuously funded National Institutes of Health grants. It was also the first program project grant at the UW. Murry said he hopes the grant will continue for as long as it can.

"My intent is to carry this on and pass it to a protege," Murry said. "After a while these things take on a life of their own."

The current award totals $9,165,970 over five years and comes from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.