College of Medicine receives grant to operate as data coordinating center for AsthmaNet research endeavor

The Penn State College of Medicine's Department of Public Health Sciences has received a grant of about $54 million over seven years to act as the data coordinating center for the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's AsthmaNet. This grant is one of the largest in the college's history. AsthmaNet is a research collaboration of multiple clinical centers across the nation that conducts clinical trials to address new treatments and asthma management.

"AsthmaNet is a very exciting research endeavor and should yield valuable information on the treatment and management of asthma, as well as on some of the mechanistic aspects of the disease," said Vernon Chinchilli, Department of Public Health Sciences. "In addition, it is very exciting that the NHLBI has recognized our department and Penn State College of Medicine for its research achievements and has selected us as the AsthmaNet data coordinating center."

The NHLBI Asthma Network will develop and conduct multiple clinical trials to address the most important asthma management questions and new treatment approaches in pediatric and adult populations.

"The emphasis will be on Phase II and Phase III clinical trials that help identify optimal therapies for a variety of asthma phenotypes, genotypes, and racial and ethnic backgrounds," said Dave Mauger, the study's principal investigator and division chief of biostatistics in Public Health Sciences.

AsthmaNet expands the efforts of the Asthma Clinical Research Network, started in 1993, and the Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network, started in 1999. ACRN and the CARE Network conducted multiple, multicenter clinical trials in adult asthma and pediatric asthma, respectively. The College of Medicine's Public Health Sciences department had functioned as the data coordinating center for both of those clinical research networks since their inception.

"AsthmaNet will represent an essential component in the national effort to develop, implement and refine treatment approaches that are optimal for individual patients," said Dan Notterman, vice dean of research and graduate studies. "The research that is supported by this data coordinating center will result in better care for thousands of people with asthma. We are proud that investigators at the College of Medicine are recognized as international leaders in this effort."