University Times

Promoting research to advance medicine for the military is the focus of a newly established center at the Schools of the Health Sciences.

The Center for Military Medicine Research-Health Sciences will explore applications of regenerative medicine, reconstructive medicine, transplantation immunology and neuroscience, including traumatic brain injury and neuro-prosthetics. The aim of the new center is to develop innovative therapies.

The founding director of the center is Rocky S. Tuan, who holds the Arthur J. Rooney Sr. Chair in Sports Medicine. Tuan also is executive vice chair for research and director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Engineering, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, as well as associate director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Peter Strick, Distinguished Professor, Department of Neurobiology, will work with Tuan to establish the center. Strick also holds the Endowed Chair in Systems Neuroscience, and is senior research career scientist at the Pittsburgh VA Healthcare System, co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and director of the Systems Neuroscience Institute.

Retired Col. Ronald Poropatich will serve as the center’s executive director and Ann Gleeson, formerly of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, will be its managing director.