Loma Linda University Health Wins $6.08 Million Grant from National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Loma Linda University Health (LLUH) a $6.08 million grant to develop a center for brain hemorrhage research. The NIH Program Project Grant, or PPG, which differs from typical grants because of its size, would allow the creation of the Center for Brain Hemorrhage Research at LLUH. “We are very honored to receive this grant from NIH, which will allow us to establish the Center for Brain Hemorrhage Research at LLUH,” said Dr. John H. Zhang, professor of neurosurgery and physiology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and principal investigator for the new center. “A PPG is a big grant awarded by the NIH to support a group of scientists at one university studying a singular subject. These grants are normally awarded to establish an NIH Center at a respected research institute and we are very proud and honored to have been selected,” he said. Dr. Roger Hadley, dean of Loma Linda University School of Medicine, said establishing the center solidifies LLUH’s growing role as a national player in developing cutting edge medical research. “We are very excited to have been be entrusted with developing this very important research center and we are very confident that, under Dr. Zhang’s leadership, new discoveries and breakthroughs will soon be on the way that would lead to better understanding and treatment of brain hemorrhage,” Hadley said. It’s the second time for LLUH to receive a PPG. The first similar award was given 19 years ago, allowing Dr. Lawrence D. Longo, professor of physiology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, to start the Loma Linda University Center for Perinatal Biology. Zhang’s proposal called for three projects that will study three different types of strokes and brain injuries: subarachnoid hemorrhage, intra-cerebral hemorrhage, and traumatic hemorrhagic brain injury. Zhang will serve as principal investigator for the subarachnoid hemorrhage study; Dr. Jiping Tang, professor of basic sciences at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, will be the principal investigator for the intra-cerebral hemorrhage study; and Jerome Badaut, PhD., assistant professor of pediatrics, and Andre Obenaus, PhD., associate professor of biochemistry and pediatrics, will be co-principal investigators for the traumatic hemorrhagic brain injury study. In addition to the three projects, there are three scientific cores, besides the administrative core headed by Zhang. One is focused on imaging, headed by Obenaus; a second focused on behavior, headed by Dr. Richard Hartman; and third focused on vascular biology, headed by Dr. William Pearce and Dr. John Buchholz. “There are only 10 or 15 NIH PPG centers on stroke and we are the first and only one in the entire United States to study brain hemorrhage,” said Zhang, who arrived at LLUH in 2004 and has since led a number of NIH-funded projects and authored hundreds of scientific papers on behalf of the institution. He said he is especially keen on studying the role that ethnicity plays in the demographics of stroke. “For some reason, the Chinese don’t get vasospasm (constriction of blood vessels) after subarachnoid hemorrhage,” he said. “I don’t know why, maybe it’s genetic. The two groups of people who get it the most are the Japanese and the Finns. People from Japan and Finland get it several times more often than any other nation.”