Introduction
This website is the home of The University of Pittsburgh Center for Medical Counter Measures Against Radiation (CMCR) Program, funded by National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Dr. Joel Greenberger serves as the Principal Investigator of this grant. The site has been developed as a online home for the project, which will document CMCR activities and provide a repository for common documents, both for the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute / University of Pittsburgh researchers and for all participating institutions.
CMCR Overview
The CMCR program was created to increase collaborative efforts between academic institutions working to develop new medical technology for the defense of the public. Growing terrorist threats have highlighted gaps in the research and development of medical countermeasures for protection of the US civilian population against radiation. Few products are currently available for prevention of radiation injury, for treatment of post-exposure injury, or for the rapid identification of exposed individuals requiring treatment.
There is an immediate need to develop new products for the biological measurement, prevention, and treatment of radiation injury caused by different levels of exposure to varied subsets of the civilian population, including healthy adults, pregnant women, young children, the elderly, and the chronically ill. The intent of the proposed CMCR program is to support multidisciplinary research groups or consortia at academic, commercial, or government institutions, providing core resources and new infrastructure where feasible, as well as support within each center for basic and translational research projects, relevant drug screen assay development, animal model development, and multidisciplinary training programs.