USC Wins NIH Grant for Inflammation Research

COLUMBIA, S.C.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of South Carolina (USC) a $10.1 million grant to establish a new national research center to study the effects of dietary supplements on inflammation. The five-year grant for the new Center for Dietary Supplements and Inflammation, which will be located in USC's School of Medicine, was awarded through the NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) program. A previously awarded $6 million NIH grant has supported USC's recent work in this area of research, which has found mechanisms of action for several dietary supplements on inflammation.  

This research has paved the way to obtain additional support from NIH that is aimed at preventing and treating chronic inflammation, said Prakash Nagarkatti, Carolina Distinguished Professor and USC's vice president for research, who will serve as director of the new center. "We believe that achieving that could completely revolutionize the treatment and prevention of clinical disorders."

Many of USC's  schools and collegesincluding the School of Medicine, the Arnold School of Public Health, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Computing, the College of Pharmacy, and the College of Nursingwill contribute faculty researchers to the center, and at least 16 new faculty members will be recruited and trained with the help of the center. Mitzi Nagarkatti, chair of the department of pathology, microbiology and immunology at the School of Medicine, will serve as co-director of the interdisciplinary center.