Supported by NIH multiple times, Palmer’s research aims to save lives
Associate Dean for Research Andre Palmer—one of the world’s leading experts in blood substitute research and engineering—received four new R01 grants totaling $10.4 million from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in 2021.
Supporting health-related research and development based on the NIH’s mission, the highly competitive NIH R01 research project grant is the oldest grant awarded by the nation’s medical research agency.
In addition to leading The Ohio State University College of Engineering’s research enterprise, Palmer is a professor, Ohio Eminent Scholar and former chair of the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He has invested 20 years of his career in researching the development of safe and effective red blood cell substitutes that could tide patients over until they receive a blood transfusion. Palmer is also developing therapeutics to detoxify hemolysis byproducts, plasma substitutes and monocyte/macrophage targeted drug delivery systems.
“What’s exciting about this research is that these materials could potentially help patients who have experienced acute blood loss or anemia,” explained Palmer. “I'm making materials that could be used to keep people alive and that possibility drives me.”
Palmer’s first research project that received funding in 2021, "Engineering a novel biomaterial for oxygen transport applications,” was awarded $2.7 million to develop safer, chemically well-defined red blood cell substitutes for use in transfusion medicine. These could significantly improve the emergency treatment of accident victims and wounded soldiers, as well as patients undergoing surgery, especially when blood is in short supply.
The second project, “Bioengineering a dual function protein construct to detoxify heme and hemoglobin," received $2.6 million to develop a new therapeutic that can be used to treat the side effects associated with various hemolytic diseases. Hemolytic anemia is a blood condition that occurs when the body’s red blood cells are destroyed faster than they can be replaced. If successful, this research could help prevent or stop the progression of pulmonary cardiovascular disease caused by intravascular hemolysis.
Palmer is also one of four principal investigators awarded a $2.6 million NIH grant led by the University of Maryland Baltimore for the project, “Bioengineering a novel therapeutic protein complex to minimize the effects of medical device induced hemolysis.” It aims to develop a protein complex therapeutic to detoxify hemolysis byproducts in patients undergoing procedures requiring medical device use, such cardiac surgery with on pump cardiopulmonary bypass. Currently there are no effective treatments available to remove the toxic byproducts of hemoglobin. The burden caused by kidney injury alone accounts for approximately 300,000 deaths per year and an average increase in hospital stay of 3.5 days per patient.
He is also one of three principal investigators on a $2.5 million grant led by the University of Colorado-Denver and the University of Maryland. The project, "Aerosolized therapy for hemoglobin toxicity in the treatment of hemolytic diseases" aims to develop a protein cocktail aerosol therapeutic to detoxify hemolysis byproducts in genetic and acquired anemias.
A Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Palmer serves on the International Scientific Advisory Committee on Blood Substitutes, and is a member of the Bioengineering, Technology, and Surgical Sciences Study Section at the National Institutes of Health. His research is also supported by grants from the Department of Defense.
