U of L prof earns $11.8 million grant renewal; has helped glean $100 million in federal grants in 17 years

A University of Louisville researcher has been awarded a $12.8 million grant to keep his adult stem cell project going.

The funds are from the National Institutes of Health and will allow Dr. Roberto Bolli, right, to continue to investigate how introducing genes into stem cells might improve stem-cell therapies; look at how diabetes affects stem cells; look at how proteins called cytokines affect stem cells during heart failure; and investigate the signaling pathways of stem cells in the body.

Bolli's project was granted $11.7 million in 2006. Since Bolli started working at U of L in 1994, he and his team have brought in more than $100 million in NIH grants. In one project, patients have reached the two-year mark after being infused with their own processed adult stem cells. That project is looking to find a way to use a patient's own cardiac stem cells to regenerate dead heart muscle after a heart attack.

"U of L has a mandate to become a national recognized metropolitan research university," President James Ramsey said. "One gauge is our faculty's ability to attract competitive grant fund from the NIH." Ramsey said the overall mission of the medical school is to improve the health of Kentuckians.