With 30,000 American soldiers wounded in the Iraq War, the federal government has chosen to fund development of advanced treatments for battlefield injuries.

And the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a partnership of the University of Pittsburgh and its medical center, has been pegged to help lead the $85 million national program to use regenerative medicine for that purpose.

Additional matching funds from academic institutions, industry and state and federal agencies will boost that total above $250 million.

"Technology is always beneficial for the lives of veterans," said Ron Conley, manager of Allegheny County Veterans Affairs. "If they can do any kind of research for burn victims, that would be tremendously helpful."

Clinical therapies for burn repair is atop the list. Other goals include wound healing without scarring; craniofacial reconstruction; limb reconstruction, regeneration or transplantation; and therapies for compartment syndrome -- a condition related to inflammation after surgery or injury that can lead to increased pressure, impaired blood flow, nerve damage and muscle death.

Regenerative therapies involve re-establishing tissue and organ function impaired by disease, trauma or congenital abnormalities. Specially-grown tissues and cells (including stem cells), laboratory-made compounds and artificial organs are used to treat injuries and restore body function.

"This field of science has the potential to significantly impact our ability to successfully treat major trauma," said Alan J. Russell, McGowan Institute director, noting that the therapies also will be used on civilians.

The newly created federal institute -- the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, or AFIRM -- will include the Army Institute of Surgical Research and two teams, one including the McGowan Institute and the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., and another involving Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and the Cleveland Clinic.

The McGowan-Wake Forest team includes collaborators from 15 other institutions. Carnegie Mellon University's Jeffrey O. Hollinger will direct the craniofacial program as part of the Rutgers team.

Each team was awarded $42.5 million, with the McGowan Institute scheduled to receive more than $20 million, said Dr. Russell, who will serve as co-director of AFIRM with Dr. Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest's institute. Multiple teams will work in each research area.

"We've been seeking this for almost a year, and a lot of work went into landing the contract," Dr. Russell said. "We were very happy when we won the contest.

"But the real win is to do great science, publish it and make it mean something in products -- and get it into people," he said. "It's a big grant, so it affords us the ability to do quite a few different things."

Research already is under way at the institute, with Pitt already working on hand transplantation. Researchers associated with McGowan have launched more than 10 human clinical trials, including three with the Army, using tissue-engineered products that have been implanted in more than a million people.

The South Oakland institute plans to partner with Intercytex in the United Kingdom, which has created skin grafts from skin cells. For now, grafts must come from the injured person's body. But Paul Kemp, founder and chief scientific officer for Intercytex, said having a ready supply of skin developed from neutral cells that won't prompt an immunological response is necessary to treat battlefield injuries. That research is being tested on humans.

"I think this could change the whole field," Dr. Kemp said, describing it as "the tip of the iceberg."

Dr. Russell said the eventual goal is regrowing arms and legs, but such research could take a decade or longer. Grants will be renewed if progress is shown, he said.

"But if we don't try now, we'll never be able to deliver it," Dr. Russell said. "We did not propose things that are dream land. These are things within our grasp."