{"402191":{"#nid":"402191","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech receives $6.5 million grant from The Marcus Foundation for tumor monorail project","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe tumor monorail project, a collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology, Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University, will receive a $6.5 million grant from The Marcus Foundation. The project involves the design and testing of a novel device for more efficient treatment of brain tumors.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSupport from The Marcus Foundation will enable us to accelerate the development of a novel tumor monorail device to treat brain tumors in patients,\u201d said Ravi Bellamkonda, Wallace H. Coulter Chair in Biomedical Engineering and lead investigator of this project. \u201cResearch labs such as ours are set up to achieve scientific and engineering breakthroughs, but for these breakthroughs to reach patients, we need to follow good manufacturing practices, rigorous safety and quality testing, adhere to FDA guidelines for obtaining regulatory approvals, and design appropriate clinical trials. All of these processes are going to be greatly enhanced and accelerated with this critical and visionary Marcus Foundation support.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFunding from The Marcus Foundation will enable researchers to move this technology into clinical trials and ultimately to people who are facing these medical challenges. The grant will also enable device design and prototyping, development of an FDA-compliant manufacturing process and FDA approvals for a clinical Investigational New Drug (IND) study to be conducted in Atlanta. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECritical support for the project was provided by Ian\u2019s Friends Foundation, an Atlanta-based non-profit that supports pediatric brain tumor research. The monorail project was inspired by a desire to treat pediatric brain tumors. The research may also be applied to adult brain tumors.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver the past five years, the research team has demonstrated that the tumor monorail device is capable of significantly reducing tumor load in rodent brains, by guiding tumors to grow into a specially designed \u201cgel sink.\u201d This study, published in Nature Materials in 2014, received worldwide media attention and interest.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe interdisciplinary research team includes Bellamkonda and his laboratory based at Georgia Tech; Dr. Barun Brahma, Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta; and Dr. Tobey McDonald, Emory Pediatrics and AFLAC Cancer Center. Harold Solomon from Georgia Tech\u2019s VentureLab is providing product development leadership.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe project exemplifies Georgia Tech and Atlanta\u2019s unparalleled strength in developing innovative technologies to better child health \u2013 a burgeoning area of research known as \u201cpediatric bioengineering.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOn behalf of our lab, our collaborators and most importantly all the patients that may benefit from this therapy, I am deeply grateful to The Marcus Foundation for their vision and commitment to accelerate the development of our breakthrough research so it can reach patients faster than it would have otherwise,\u201d said Bellamkonda.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe tumor monorail project, a collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology, Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University, will receive a $6.5 million grant from The Marcus Foundation.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The tumor monorail project, a collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology, Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University, will receive a $6.5 million grant from The Marcus Foundation."}],"uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2015-05-06 10:48:06","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:13","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-05-06T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-05-06T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"290171":{"id":"290171","type":"image","title":"Ravi Bellamkonda, PhD - Chair and Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering","body":null,"created":"1449244274","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:51:14","changed":"1475894986","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:46","alt":"Ravi Bellamkonda, PhD - Chair and Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering","file":{"fid":"199211","name":"bellamkondaravinamedchairsept2013vertical.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bellamkondaravinamedchairsept2013vertical_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bellamkondaravinamedchairsept2013vertical_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2950369,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bellamkondaravinamedchairsept2013vertical_0.jpg?itok=ZTTv4EZk"}}},"media_ids":["290171"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/?id=59","title":"Ravi Bellamkonda"},{"url":"https:\/\/www.bme.gatech.edu\/","title":"Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"10365","name":"Brain Tumor"},{"id":"125661","name":"Marcus Foundation"},{"id":"2471","name":"Ravi Bellamkonda"},{"id":"125651","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Toon (404-894-6986) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) or Brett Israel (404-385-1933) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebrett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["John.Toon@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}