February 8: Kaptur Meets with Cleveland Clinic to Discuss Regenerative Medicine Research

Congresswoman Kaptur met with researchers from the Cleveland Clinic to discuss the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) program that was created by the Department of Defense. The institute works on developing clinical treatments for soldiers and veterans suffering from traumatic injuries. It also serves as a training facility to develop experts in treating trauma through regenerative medicine.

Recent achievements for the AFIRM program include:

• Significant progress in the validation of a new bone regeneration technology by ISR and Carnegie Mellon.

• Development of a living human ear replacement has advanced from rodents to sheep.

• A scar-less wound healing dressing clinical trial that has been approved for the second set of trials.

• 11 clinical trials so far involving more than 100 patients.

• 60 new products in the pipeline.

The following representatives met with Congresswoman Kaptur:

• Linda M. Graham, M.D., Staff Vascular Surgeon, Department of Surgery Staff, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic

• Dr. Paul Murray, Ph.D., Researcher, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, Government Relations Department Liaison to AFIRM

• Maureen Peckman, the Chief Emerging Business Officer of Cleveland Clinic Nevada

• Maria Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Plastic Surgery Research, Head of Microsurgery Training, Cleveland Clinic