Rockville, MD (August 20, 2008) - Committed to finding the cause and ultimately, a cure for interstitial cystitis (IC), the Interstitial Cystitis Association (ICA) announced recipients of FY2007 ICA Pilot Research Program grants.

With the goal of providing seed dollars for IC research (a chronic, painful inflammation of the bladder), the ICA Pilot Research Program awarded funds to four multidisciplinary teams of scientists:

• Better understanding of the condition: Karen J. Berkley, PhD was awarded funding to study the Influence of Endometriosis on Bladder Function: Basic Studies in a Rodent Model
  
  
• Potential diagnostic tool: Rodriguez-Saona, PhD, Gilleran, MD, and Buffington, DVM, PhD, received grant dollars for the Validation of a Rapid and High Throughput Method of Diagnosis of Interstitial Cystitis by Infrared Microscopy
  
  
• More effective treatment: Sastry, MD, Sperling, DO, Rejba, RN, Mosiniak, AS, Whitmore, MD, were awarded a pilot grant for the Osteopathic Manipulation as a Therapeutic Intervention for Female Interstitial Cystitis Patients with High-tone Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
  
  
• Epidemiologic study: Warren, MD, Jacobs, MD, Langenberg, MD, Greenberg, MA received funding to continue efforts to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the IC population in their study Natural History of 314 Incident IC/PBS Cases.

Each research team has one year to complete their study. Funded largely by ICA patient contributions, the goal of the ICA Pilot Research Program is to provide the data required to support grant applications for larger research efforts. For example, many times researchers with new IC concepts are unable to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) because they lack the preliminary data needed for NIH grant approval. The ICA Pilot Research Program provides researchers with the initial funding required to get their projects literally "off the ground."

Founded in 1985, the ICA Pilot Research Program remains the first and only interstitial cystitis research program funded by a non-profit, patient-driven association. To date, this ICA program has funded more than 70 projects totaling over $1,000,000.