24 grants awarded
College of Medicine faculty received 24 awards representing more than $5.2 million in new funding during December.
Keer Sun, Ph.D., pathology & microbiology, has received a National Institutes of Health R01 award for $1.6 million from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Sun will investigate how oxidants produced during influenza infection contribute to the outcome of influenza and MRSA co-infection. Dr. Sun hopes that this study will provide information for the development of therapeutics to treat influenza complicated methicillin-resistant Staph aureus, a leading cause of death in influenza pandemics and epidemics.
Melissa Teoh-Fitzgerald, Ph.D., biochemistry & molecular biology, has received a National Institutes of Health R01 award for $1.5 million from the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Teoh-Fitzgerald will explore the role of oxidative stress in the extracellular environment on the development of breast cancer. Using a unique three-dimensional cell culture system to examine the role of the tumor microenvironment, Dr. Teoh-Fitzgerald and her team hope to demonstrate that epigenetic silencing contributes to breast cancer progression.
Quan Dong Nguyen, M.D., ophthalmology and visual sciences, has received two industry-sponsored contracts to serve as the principal investigator for a multi-site clinical trial as well as serving as both the reading and coordinating center for the STOP-UVEITIS study. This clinical trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability and bioactivity of an immunosuppressive humanized monoclonal antibody in the treatment of uveitis, an inflammatory eye disease.
Dr. Nguyen also is the UNMC lead on a multi-site Phase III clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an injectable ophthalmic solution for the treatment of non-infectious uveitis.
Donald Coulter, M.D., pediatrics-hematology/oncology, has received a $250,000 award from the Children's Hospital and Medical Center.