The Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation’s board of directors has approved funding for eight new research projects on problems that include foal pneumonia, laminitis, vitamin D’s role in immunity, and stem cell therapy.
A total of $845,646 has been allocated by Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation for the projects and for the second year of eight projects that began in 2011.
Two of the new projects are being undertaken at the University of Georgia, with the others to be conducted at Ohio State University, Michigan State University, University of Florida, Cornell University, University of Kentucky, and University of Pennsylvania.
Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation is traditionally the nation’s leading source of private funding for equine medical research. The new slate of projects brings the foundation’s total since 1983 to 287 projects funded for $19 million at 40 universities.
Descriptions of each project are available at grayson-jockeyclub.org.
One of the researchers, James K. Belknap, has been selected to receive the 2012 Elastikon Award, funded in part through a contribution by Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer Products Company. Belknap’s project is “Laminar Signaling in Supporting-Limb Laminitis.”
Dr. Alice Stack, who is researching exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage with Dr. Fred Derken at Michigan State University, has been selected to receive the Storm Cat Career Development Award. The award of $15,000 is named for the stallion Storm Cat and is personally underwritten by foundation board member Lucy Young Hamilton, whose family stood Storm Cat at Overbrook Farm. The Storm Cat award is in addition to the eight projects being launched in 2012.
