The University of Louisville has been awarded a total of $14.4 million and a U of L researcher will oversee another $8.9 million to help shape the manufacture, distribution and marketing of tobacco products as they are regulated by the FDA under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

The total amount awarded to and overseen by U of L is $23.3 million.

An inter-agency partnership of the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration has awarded $3.7 million to Sanjay Srivastava, Ph.D., professor of medicine and Distinguished University Scholar at U of L, to study what, exactly, in tobacco products causes atherosclerosis with the goal of determining how the content of these constituents could be regulated in tobacco products.

Another $10.7 million from the NIH/FDA partnership is to develop the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center (A-TRAC) for multidisciplinary research to help shape the manufacture, distribution and marketing of tobacco products as they are regulated by the FDA.

Aruni Bhatnagar, Ph.D., director of the Diabetes and Obesity Center and the Smith and Lucille Gibson Chair in Medicine at U of L, will co-direct the center.

The $10.7 million award is part of a $19.6 million grant to create the A-TRAC. The remainder of the award from the NIH/FDA – $8.9 million – will go to Boston University, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Wake Forest University and the University of Mississippi.

"These two grants bring together investigators from across the country to conduct research that will greatly increase the available knowledge on tobacco and its causative role in cardiovascular disease across the full spectrum of basic and applied research," U of L President James R. Ramsey said. "The University of Louisville is both proud and well-positioned to help lead this effort."

https://louisville.edu/medicine/departments/medicine/news/u-of-l-awarded-14.4-million-to-develop-tobacco-regulatory-science