Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Loboa and her Post-Doctoral collaborator Dr. Sonya Sonnenberg on the funding of their NC TraCS grant titled “Fiber-Reinforced Extracellular Matrix Hydrogels for Skeletal Muscle Regeneration”! The North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute is home to the implementation of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program at UNC Chapel Hill. Nationally, CTSA is comprised of approximately 60 medical research institutions who are working together as a consortium to improve the way that biomedical research is conducted. The consortium envisions a future of biomedical research that expedites the process of translating laboratory discoveries into patient treatments. Dr. Loboa’s project involves the regeneration of skeletal muscle following traumatic injury. The project aims to implement acellular strategies to recruit endogenous cells and promote constructive remodeling in the area of skeletal muscle loss, rather than the more typical approach of delivering exogenous cells into the affected area. As North Carolina serves as home to the United States’ third largest military population and that population is uniquely at risk for skeletal muscle loss via trauma, this project has the potential to make a real impact on the local population of the state.