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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
NSU Researchers Receive $4.1 Million Grant from Department of Defense to Investigate Gulf War Illness
Co-principal investigators: Nancy Klimas, M.D., director of NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine; and Mariana Morris, Ph.D., professor and director of Gulf War research at the NSU College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine.
NSU President and CEO George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., recently announced that a NSU research team led by Mariana Morris, Ph.D., and Nancy Klimas, M.D., was selected by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) as one of two DoD Gulf War Illness Research Program Consortium awardees. The award includes a $4.1 million grant to fund NSU’s research project titled “Understanding Gulf War Illness (GWI): An Integrative Modeling Approach.” The research will be housed in the Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine, part of NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.
“Projects like this help us fulfill our core value to conduct research that not only advances human knowledge, but makes a real difference for mankind,” said Hanbury.
GWI is a medical condition that affects veterans and civilians who were exposed to a number of dangers, including chemical weapons, during the 1991 Gulf War. Symptoms can include chronic headaches, widespread pain, cognitive difficulties, debilitating fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, respiratory symptoms, and other abnormalities that are not explained by established medical diagnoses or standard laboratory tests. At least a quarter of the nearly 700,000 soldiers who fought in the Gulf War suffer from GWI, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses.
“Our goal is to develop a better understanding of GWI and understand specific causes so we can find treatments to address these causes, rather than focus on the symptoms,” said Klimas. “This consortium will integrate our clinical understanding of the disease process with basic research efforts using a novel mathematical model.”
The consortium consists of co-principal investigators Mariana Morris, Ph.D., NSU professor and director of Gulf War research, and Nancy Klimas, M.D., director of NSU COM’s Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine; Gordon Broderick, Ph.D., NSU Center for Psychological Studies; Travis Craddock, Ph.D., assistant professor, NSU Center for Psychological Studies; NSU-COM’s Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine genomics core, and Mary Ann Fletcher, Ph.D., NSU-COM’s Schemel Professor for Neuro Immune Medicine. The team is affiliated with the research service of the Bruce W. Carter Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Miami VA Healthcare System. Klimas is also affiliated with the VA’s medical service.