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Research program to improve battlefield
medicine slated for elimination by Department of Defense
Medical Free Electron Laser
Program funded for past 20 years
BOSTON - September 18, 2007 - Federal funding for the Medical
Free Electron Laser Program (MFEL), which develops advanced laser
and optical applications for use in the military and on the battlefield,
has been marked for elimination by the Department of Defense.
The program - with current centers at Massachusetts General Hospital,
Duke University, Stanford University, the University of California
at Irvine, and Vanderbilt University - has been funded for the past
20 years in the range of $16-$20 million a year. The Defense Department's
current budget projections show no funding for the program for the
next six fiscal years.
In a letter to Pentagon officials, eight U.S. senators, including
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and North Carolina Senator
Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina), expressed their concern about
the Defense Department's proposal. "We can attest to the excellent
research track record and the great promise represented by the research
currently supported by the MFEL program," the senators wrote.
Disbursing approximately $16 million in the current fiscal year,
the MFEL program is a merit-based, peer-reviewed, competitively
awarded research program that has funded a wide range of basic research
with ties to military medicine - including laser surgery, battle
injury monitoring and diagnosis, wound closing and healing, and
disease containment.
While the program currently funds centers at MGH, Duke, Stanford,
UC Irvine, and Vanderbilt, other institutions which have been funded
in the past include the University of Utah, Baylor University, and
Northwestern University, among others.
According to R. Rox Anderson, MD, director of the Wellman
Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in
Boston, "The MFEL program was intended to fund high-risk, potentially
high-reward research to improve military and civilian medicine.
The program has been extraordinarily productive by many measures,
as recognized by the Defense Department and Congressional staff."
Elimination of program funding will halt promising research nearing
delivery, including nerve and blood vessel bonding for limb repair
(ready for military clinical trials), and remote diagnosis and/or
treatment for blast injuries, head trauma, and Leishmaniasis, a
parasitic disease transmitted by sand flies.
"Providing the best possible care to our service men and women
includes research and development aimed exactly at solving military
medical problems." Anderson said. "The Defense Department's
funding recommendation will divert the expertise of some premier
biomedical laboratories from this mission at a critical time."
MFEL funding has supported projects that have resulted in the following
discoveries, which have both military and civilian applications:
- "Smart" laser surgery of severe skin burns.
- Laser treatment of painful and disfiguring scars.
- Laser treatment of kidney stones (lithotripsy), a common problem
made worse among military personnel with dehydration from serving
in desert environments.
- Laser treatments for Pseudofolliculitis Barbae, a condition
affecting up to 60 percent of African American men, in which hairs
grow back into the skin, causing inflammation and scarring. Close
shaving and wearing a gas mask make the condition worse.
- A light-activated drug (Visudyne®) used to treat macular
degeneration, the number one cause of blindness in the United
States.
- A safer laser treatment of glaucoma.
- Scarless removal of tattoos and foreign body pigments, needed
to ensure that qualified enlistees meet military regulations.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original
and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH
conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United
States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and
major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer,
computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human
genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative
medicine, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.
MGH and Brigham and Women's Hospital are founding members of Partners
HealthCare HealthCare System, a Boston-based integrated health care
delivery system.
Media Contacts: Valerie
Wencis, MGH Public Affairs
Physician Referral Service: 1-800-388-4644
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