Case Western Receives $64.6 Million NIH Grant

Case Western Reserve University’s medical researchers have often labored in the shadows of the bigger and more prestigious Cleveland Clinic. They’re located just blocks away from one another in the rock ‘n roll capital.

But for the moment, Case Western has its own bragging rights: The largest federal grant ever made in Northeastern Ohio.

The $64.6 million award from the National Institutes of Health will be used by Case Western researchers to take ideas created in the laboratory and bring them to patients in the hospital.

The award Case Western received, known as a Clinical and Translational Science Award, beats out a $64 million NIH grant the Cleveland Clinic received for similar research in 2006.

In that instance, the money was used by providers throughout the region to focus on preventative care, with particular emphasis made on addressing obesity, diabetes and hypertension.

Altogether, more than 27,000 low-income Clevelanders with diabetes received some form of treatment as a result of the first grant, along with the training of hundreds of healthcare workers better focused on community care.

That grant spawned another $890 million in public and private sector funding for new initiatives, officials said.

Case Western will use the new money to further the original research, identifying more trends in disease development and management and applying them to new treatments.

“Cleveland's leading biomedical institutions came together in an unprecedented partnership that put improved health at the center of everything we do,” said Pamela Davis, dean of Case Western’s School of Medicine and the grant's principal investigator. “The National Institutes of Health sent a powerful message to all of us: Keep up the good work.”