Med School prof wins $4 mil. grant to fight MS

Neurology Professor Robert Grossman was given the prestigious Javits Award to continue his fight against multiple sclerosis. When Penn Chief of Neuroradiology Robert Grossman started his medical career, very little was known about multiple sclerosis. Today, researchers have made many breakthroughs concerning the disease -- and Grossman is responsible for some of the most important findings. In recognition of his work, the National Institutes of Health bestowed Grossman with the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award -- a nearly $4 million grant to further his MS research over the next four years, with the possibility of three additional years. "I was real surprised, very very pleasantly surprised," Grossman said. He added that one of the biggest benefits of the award is that it will cut down on the amount of time he has to spend writing grants. "[The award] gives you a nice opportunity to sit back and concentrate on your work," he said. Only 10 scientists throughout the country received the award, which was instituted by Congress in 1983 in honor of former Sen. Jacob Javits, who died of Lou Gehrig's disease. "It's definitely a great honor to be given this kind of award," Health System spokesperson Sue Montgomery said. "It reflects [Grossman's] life career in doing research for multiple sclerosis." Grossman, a professor of Radiology, Neurosurgery and Neurology, has spent about 20 years researching MS -- a disease that caught his attention during a fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital because "it was potentially curable." MS is a progressive disease which leaves lesions on the brain and spinal cord of victims. It strikes about one-tenth of one percent of young adults and leaves them gradually debilitated with dizziness, weakness in limbs and abnormal reflexes. The first breakthrough Grossman made was in the mid-'80s, when his research group characterized brain lesions associated with MS as active or inactive -- a discovery that is now used to determine different drugs' effectiveness on fighting the disease. Most recently, Grossman's group developed a technique to measure MS's effect on particular biochemicals in the brain. Grossman said he thinks this discovery was a large factor in his receiving the award. Grossman's grant for his MS research ranked in the top one percentile out of all of the grants submitted to the NIH, making him a prime candidate for the Javits award. "We've really sort of changed the way multiple sclerosis is looked at," Grossman said. "We've developed methods that are very important to characterize the disease and to determine treatment efficacy." He also attributed his almost 10 years of continuous funding from the NIH to making him a qualified candidate. While it is Grossman's name on the award, he was quick to point out that his research has been a team effort. "From my perspective, our group got the Javits award," he said.

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