Department of Defense Awards $1.3 million Grant for Orthopaedic Trauma Research

	Shown from L to R: Patrick Norris MD, Judy Jenkins RN, John Morris MD, Erika Mitchell MD. Missing from photo Jeffrey Canter PhD.

We have received a grant funded by the Department of Defense Orthopaedic Trauma Research Program to study underlying genetic markers in orthopaedic trauma patients that may make some individuals more prone to heterotopic ossification than others. The title of the proposal is: "The Contribution of Genotype to Heterotopic Ossification after Orthopaedic Trauma". The study proposes that there is a link between autonomic regulation in trauma patients and excessive bone formation in a subpopulation of individuals with a certain genotype.  The research team is multidisciplinary involving the Division of Orthopaedic Trauma (Erika Mitchell, MD) and the Division of Trauma (John Morris, MD, Judy Jenkins RN and Patrick Norris, MD) with the assistance of the Vanderbilt Center for Human Genetics Research (Jeffery Canter) and the Department of Radiology.  The grant provides 1.3 million dollars of funding over three years.