SOAR Award gives Samantha Brugman, PhD, reason to smile
Samantha Brugmann, PhD, recently received the Sustaining Outstanding Achievement in Research (SOAR) Award from the National Institutes of Health. The grant is for $7.5 million, paid out over a period of eight years. It will fund her research into what causes craniofacial ciliopathy, which most often manifests as cleft lip/palate.
Brugmann, an assistant professor in the Division of Plastic Surgery, will be partnering with Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft organization, to help carry out the initial phases of the research project.
According to Mackinnon Engen, vice president of Program Development at Smile Train, they will be helping to connect Brugmann’s research team with local leaders in cleft care from around the world to participate in the research initiative. “Given the scale and expertise of the international cleft care programs, this collaboration aims to ensure higher levels of participation from the cleft-affected community and hopefully enhance the opportunity for research breakthroughs and learning,” she says.
Brugmann is excited by the possibilities. “Currently, clefs are repaired by taking bone from the hip or another location to fill the hole in the roof of the mouth,” she explains. “Bone from the hip does not come from the same source as bone from the face. As a result, it doesn’t always integrate well. The same is true with prosthetic material. If we could engineer tissue from cells that naturally give rise to bones in the face, it would integrate better.”
Brugmann has already garnered several prestigious awards since earning her doctorate in genetics from George Washington University, including the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and recognition as a Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation Endowed Scholar.
The SOAR Award will help sustain her work and move it forward.
“I hope to make a significant difference in the treatment of craniofacial anomalies,” she says, whether it’s on the molecular level or through tissue engineering. When you have a craniofacial malformation, everyone sees it. People stare. You are under tremendous scrutiny, and that’s difficult.”
Brugmann loves the collaborative spirit at Cincinnati Children’s. “We’re doing basic science research in a clinical division, so it’s bench-to-bedside,” she says. “Positioned as we are, we have an opportunity to help bridge the two and make a difference in child health.”
