The following 23 grants representing more than $19.7 million in new funding were awarded to UNMC College of Medicine faculty during July.
Ken Bayles, Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, has received a National Institutes of Health P01 award for $11.6 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This renewal of Dr. Bayles’ program project grant will focus attention on the alteration of the host immune response which may favor an anti-inflammatory environment that is more permissive for bacterial persistence and ultimately lead to improved strategies to treat staphaureus biofilm-related infections.
Larisa Poluektova, M.D., Ph.D., and Santhi Gorantla, Ph.D., pharmacology & experimental neurosciences, have received a National Institutes of Health R24 award for $2.7 million from the NIH Office of the Director. This resource-related research project grant will be used to develop a center for the creation of mouse models with humanized immune systems which can be used for translational studies and drug discovery.
Dhirendra Singh, Ph.D., ophthalmology & visual sciences, has received a National Institutes of Health R01 award for $1.9 million from the National Eye Institute. Dr. Singh’s project will explore the mechanisms of oxidative stress and regulatory molecules on the development of age-linked disorders of the eye including cataracts.
Steven Hinrichs, M.D., pathology/microbiology, has received an industry-managed award from the Department of Defense for $1.1 million. Dr. Hinrich’s project will further his work in the development of anti-nerve agent prophylactics to protect warfighters and others from exposure to nerve agents.
James McClay, M.D., emergency medicine, has received a Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute sub-award for $250,000 from the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. McClay will serve as the UNMC PI for the GPC, he and his team have developed an Enterprise Research Data Warehouse and Analysis System to meet the needs of clinical researchers participating in PCORI sponsored comparative effectiveness studies.
Neeru Sharma, Ph.D., cellular and integrative physiology, has received an additional $77,000 Scientist Development Grant for his project titled “Post-translational Regulation of nNOS in the Paraventricular Nucleus during Heart Failure” from the American Heart Association National Association. Tyler Scherr, Pathology/Microbiology, has received a $52,000, pre-doctoral fellowship award from the American Heart Association Midwest Affiliate for his project titled “S. aureus Carbamoyl Phosphate Synthetase Enhances Immune Evasion through Ammonia Generation.”
Awards from Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services through LB 606
In 2008, the Nebraska State Legislature adopted the Stem Cell Research Act (LB 606), which established a Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee to facilitate awarding of grants to Nebraska institutions or researchers for conducting stem cell research that does not use human embryonic stem cells. The following researchers received LB 606 awards this month:
Stephen Rennard, M.D., internal medicine – pulmonary, “Reprogramming Airway Fibroblasts in Asthma.”
John Dickinson, M.D., internal medicine – pulmonary, “Autophagy is Required for Mediated MUC5AC Secretion.”
Industry-sponsored grants
Information on clinical trials enrolling patients at UNMC can be found here.
Tammy Kielian, Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, will study the effect of surgeries on the immune status in humans.
Diana Florescu, M.D., internal medicine – infectious disease, is the UNMC lead on a multi-center, Phase III clinical trial to assess the safety and effectiveness of a broad spectrum anti-viral study drug on the treatment of early and late adenovirus infections.
Matthew White, M.D., radiology, is the UNMC lead on a comparative study of multiple contrast medias on the imaging and diagnostic quality of MRI used in the evaluation of brain tumors.
Benson Edagwa, Ph.D., pharmacology & experimental neuroscience, has received a post-doctoral fellowship award for his drug development project.
Cyrus Desouza, M.B.B.S., internal medicine – DEM, has received a Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association award to support a clinical coordinator for his VAMC sponsored research studies.
Mark Rupp, M.D., internal medicine – infectious diseases, will test the effectiveness of a specimen diversion device in reducing blood culture contamination compared with that of standard laboratory practices.
Mark Carlson, M.D., surgery – general surgery, has received a DOD-DEPSCoR equipment grant for the purchase of a tensiometer. Dr. Carlson is developing novel bandages to promote wound healing. The tensiometer will be used to measure the adhesion of his bandages to wounds.
Brian Lowes, M.D., Ph.D., internal medicine – cardiology, is the UNMC lead on a multi-center, Phase IV clinical trial to determine the proportion of patients for whom treatment with LVAD and aggressive pharmacologic treatment can effect a curative alternative in severe heart failure.
Samuel Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, has received an International Life Sciences Institute toxicology risk assessment award for his project titled “Evaluation of Arsenic Induced Urothelial Cell Intracytoplasmic Inclusions.”
Shelby Kutty, M.D., pediatrics – cardiology, has received a Children’s Hospital & Medical Center Foundation award for his project titled “Assessment of Ventricular, Vascular, Exercise and Endothelial Function Late After Repair of Aortic Coarctation.”
James Talmadge, Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, will compare the impact of culture system plastics on the ability to isolate and grow certain types of blood cells from donor apheresis products.
Channabasavaiah (Guru) Gurumurthy, Ph.D., genetics, cell biology and anatomy, has received an international contract to create chimeric mice for a collaborative project at the University of Sussex.
Chris Kratochvil, M.D., psychiatry, has received an SBIR/STTR sub-contract to provide support for a project developing devices for the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents that improve the safety of the administering health care professionals.
Sheilah Snyder, M.D., pediatrics, is the UNMC lead on a sub-award to compare the effectiveness of different delivery methods for long-term antibiotic use in pediatric patients which can be used to help inform patients and parents when faced with choices of long term antibiotic use.