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Baker awarded grant for stem cell-based PTOA research
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Beaumont Orthopedics recently announced Kevin Baker, PhD, Beaumont – Royal Oak orthopedic research laboratories director, has been awarded a $260,000 Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program grant to study post-traumatic osteoarthritis.
The grant will fund preclinical efforts to develop a stem cell-based treatment that could delay or eliminate cartilage degeneration in the knee. This would help in the treatment of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), the No. 1 cause of disability for the U.S. military, according to a press release.
Collaborating with Baker in these efforts will be Asheesh Bedi, MD, Rangaramanujam Kannan, PhD, and Sara Rankin, PhD. The stem-cell based treatment could allow clinicians to use a patient’s stem cells without processing them outside of the patient’s body, which could allow for quicker treatment of injuries and help stave off PTOA, according to the release.
“If our stem cell technique is successful, we might be able to reduce the rate of PTOA in our community. This is important because the definitive management for end-stage PTOA is joint replacement,” Baker said in the press release.
Reference: www.beaumont.edu/orthopedics.