United States
The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
(AOSSM), offers a $50,000 grant each year for scientific studies of early
osteoarthritis/prevention of OA progression. We are especially interested in
funding studies that evaluate potential chondroprotective interventions
(i.e., agents that may repair articular cartilage, or at least decelerate its
progressive degradation) in animal models of osteoarthritis. Examples of such
interventions include stem cells, PRP, and specific growth factors. We are
also interested in funding studies that use knee joint injury in humans as a
model for testing interventions that might improve the outcomes related to
cartilage health and OA. For example, an ACL tear often initiates an
immediate cascade of pathophysiological responses that can lead to cartilage
degradation and eventual OA. Studies that evaluate interventions that could
mitigate this pathophysiology soon after injury would be very relevant to
this grant. In addition, proposals that seek to identify the factors that
cause cartilage injuries to become early osteoarthritis are encouraged as are
studies that evaluate imaging of cartilage in early OA. The grant will be for
$50,000 to support either a clinical research study or a lab/basic science
project. Projects involving viscosupplementation will not be considered. The
deadline for this grant is January 15, 2015. For grant guidelines and
additional information, please visit the AOSSM website. www.sportsmed.org/Research/Research_Grants/Grants