Researchers at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans were working with colleagues from Tulane University and LSU to reveal how deformations in the eye’s optic nerve could lead to glaucoma – the second most common cause of blindness in the United States.
The School of Dentistry faculty members were developing new biomaterials to make cavity fillings more effective and possibly save money for millions of dental patients.
But Hurricane Katrina’s devastation has put potential medical breakthroughs like these on hold.
LSU System spokesman Charles Zewe said years of “wrecked and postponed” HSC research leaves hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding hanging in the balance.
The School of Dentistry, which received a $10.8 million grant this year, is flooded with both structural damage and water damage primarily on the ground floors.
HSC personnel attempted to save what they could during the hurricane. Some researchers stayed behind despite the mandatory evacuation. But when the levee broke and conditions worsened, they were forced to euthanize as many lab animals as they could.
“The water came up so fast, and it was toxic with chemicals,” Zewe said.
The dangerous floodwater prevented researchers from getting back in quickly.
Although some research grants are interrupted, they will not be eliminated. The LSU System plans to rebuild its southeastern Louisiana branches.
“The LSU System is fortunate in that they have other campuses where researchers can continue their work,” said Carla Fishman, special assistant to the vice president of academic affairs.
Because HSC computers are still down, System officials continue to reconstruct financial records documenting grants from federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of Naval Research.
“We are actually crafting a response to the federal agencies in allowing us to extend these research programs and carry over the funding,” Fishman said.
The LSU System spent an estimated $350 million in research expenditures in the 2004 fiscal year.
Officials continue to notify agencies with regulatory authority over live human subjects used in HSC studies, including trial tests of potential pharmaceutical drugs and devices.
The attempt to rebuild is evident on campus. HSC student and faculty volunteers, with one hand on the phone and the other rapidly writing names and phone numbers on a yellow legal pad, continue to busily answer hotline calls at the Systems Building to update fellow students and faculty on plans for fall classes.
They told medical, dental and nursing students that they will resume classes Sept. 26.
This fall, 350 HSC medical students in their first two years will take courses at Pennington Biomedical Research Center – another component of the LSU System – along with some dental students.
“We’re doing everything we can to help our colleagues,” said Pennington executive director Claude Brouchard. “Doctors for our staff continue to serve the needy in New Orleans.”
Officials from each HSC graduate school hope to return full operations in New Orleans by the beginning of 2006.
The HSC endured at least $1 billion in hurricane damages. And that number is expected to rise as the damage is further assessed.
LSU System Executive Vice President Bill Sylvia said $3.5 billion is the early estimate for total operations losses at the HSC and University of New Orleans because of the hurricane.
Sylvia said financial relief will come from “several avenues of revenue” including congressional appropriations.
HSC operations will find makeshift homes aside from Pennington this fall.
“We will be identifying different clinics across the state for the purpose of patient care,” said Dr. Eric Hovland, dean of the School of Dentistry.
Patient treatment by dental students will continue, but exactly how is still unknown.
“We’re going to have to do something. We just don’t know what yet,” Hovland said.
Leanne Thune, School of Dentistry senior and phone line volunteer, said the dental seniors will be placed at clinics around the state to treat patients.
“We’re kind of starting over,” Thune said. “We’ll have new patients and a new environment.”
The nursing students worked in New Orleans-area hospitals for their clinical studies before the hurricane. They also will be placed in hospitals around the state, said Katherine Creed, School of Nursing second year.
System officials are securing an unknown amount of mobile homes to house students and their families in this area, as well as a ship to be docked on the Mississippi River for classes.
Contact Chris Day at [email protected]