The NIH through NIGMS has funded a multi-center investigative approach in attempt to answer clinical questions requiring a translational bench to bedside strategy.  This large scale collaborative effort, otherwise known as the Glue Grant, brings together leading trauma and burn centers from across the country and "glues" them in a collaborative effort with leading basic scientists to answer the following question:  Does the genotypic and phenotypic response to injury predict outcome?

The Glue Grant investigators are using cutting edge molecular biological techniques, including genome wide microarray analysis, to define the genotypic response to injury.  This will be matched to the patient's clinical trajectory after injury, including outcomes such as alive, dead and development of multi-organ dysfunction.  It is hypothesized that this early genetic and phenotypic response to injury will identify patients that will develop multi-organ dysfunction.  Further, once identified, those specific genes can be targeted for future interventional trials.

This NIH initiative is funded through October 2006.  For more information on the Glue Grant go to http://www.gluegrant.org