April 17 (Bloomberg) -- A group of universities and medical centers will receive $85 million from the U.S. Army to research the use of stem cells and other biotechnology to treat soldiers maimed by explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine will receive $85 million to develop therapies to help repair and replace damaged tissues and organs, Lieutenant General Eric Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general, said today at a Defense Department press conference.

Soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have a better survival rate than those in previous wars because of advances in body armor and medical care. Still, their injuries from blasts include severe limb, head and face injuries and burns that can take years to treat.

``The new institute will work to develop techniques that will help to make our soldiers whole again,'' Schoomaker said. ``We'll use the soldiers' own stem cells to repair nerve damage, to re-grow muscles and tendons, to repair burn wounds, and to help them heal without scarring.''

The institute will receive an additional $180 million in existing federal grants and matching university and local government money, likely making it the largest U.S.-funded research group in regenerative medicine, according to S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

`No Bricks and Mortar'

The institute will be based at existing universities, leaving the money for research, said Joachim Kohn, a professor of chemical biology and chemistry at Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey, which will lead one of two groups of universities and medical centers doing the research.

``All the money will benefit the war fighters and civilian population,'' Kohn said in a telephone interview. ``There will be no bricks and mortar.''

The money will be split between two academic-led groups.

Among members of the Rutgers-led team are the Cleveland Clinic medical center in Cleveland; Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. The second group will be led by Wake Forest University's Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, according to the statement.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Aliza Marcus in Washington at amarcus8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 17, 2008 19:11 EDT