The U.S. military and a consortium of biotechnology research organizations are embarking on a program to regenerate damaged tissues and body parts of American soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.
InCytu Inc., which develops tissue healing and regeneration devices, and Rutgers/Cleveland Clinic will constitute the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM).
AFIRM will have a budget of about $250 million for the first five years, according to a statement from the Defense Department.
The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, the Office of Naval Research, the National Institutes of Health, the Air Force Office of the Surgeon General and the Department of Veterans Affairs created and is funding AFIRM to develop new therapies and products for battlefield injuries using regenerative medicine technologies.
The therapies will use adult stem cells, tissue and biomaterials engineering; and bio-restorative transplants for the repair, replacement and regeneration of damaged tissues and organs.
