Ghadiali Receives $1.2M Award from NIH

Posted: 

Samir Ghadiali,  Associate Professor and Director of BME Graduate Studies, has been awarded a National Institute of Health (NIH) P50 grant for his research entitled "Patient-Scpecific Modeling of Eustachian Tube Function and Middle Ear Pressure Regulation."

This five-year award is part of a Clinical Research Center Grant to the University of Pittsburgh. Ghadiali is the sole PI on the subproject awarded to OSU and his portion totals $1.2M and provides support of post-doc and graduate student collaborators. 

Research Abstract:

Middle ear infections (Otitis media, OM) are the most common disease for which children receive medical treatment in the United States and the cost of treating OM is ~$5 billion annually. Although acute infections often resolve, a significant fraction of subjects develop chronic OM which requires surgical treatment. Unfortunately, current diagnostic tests are not able to identify patients at risk for chronic OM and many therapies for chronic OM are only minimally effective. The development of chronic OM is related to dysfunction of an upper respiratory airway (the Eustachian tube, ET) and patient-to-patient variability in the anatomical and functional structure of this airway make diagnosing/treating chronic OM difficult.

The goals of this research program are to use experimental and computational techniques to a) develop better diagnostic tests of chronic OM and b) determine which therapeutic options might be most effective in a given patient. For these studies, in-vivo and in-vitro experimental data related to airway anatomy, inflammatory signaling and mechano-transduction responses will be integrated into a unique set of computational models that simulate airway function. Feedback between computational models and clinical measurements of ET function will then be used to provide better interpretation of diagnostic tests/procedures and to identify optimal therapies. As a result, this project may lead to a more efficient way to diagnose and treat chronic OM.

Congratulations Dr. Ghadiali!