UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 35 grant awards representing more than $2.5 million in new funding during the month of August. Highlights included:
Changes in brain connectivity during development
Tony Wilson, Ph.D., pharmacology and experimental neuroscience, has received more than $400,000 from The Mind Research Institute for a collaborative effort that intends to understand the rapid development of human brain connectivity occurring during late childhood and early adolescence. As the UNMC lead, Dr. Wilson will be utilizing magnetoencephalography (MEG) to acquire neuroimaging data that will be paired with fMRI and genetic data obtained by the other institutions involved in the project.
Device improves blood flow in heart failure patients
John Um, M.D., surgery – cardiovascular & thoracic, has received more than $300,000 in industry-sponsored support to be the UNMC lead in a clinical trial that is assessing the safety and efficacy of a improved centrifugal-flow chronic left ventricular assist system, which would be used to improve blood flow in a broad range of advanced heart failure patients.
Neurotoxic link between glutaminase and HAND
Jialin Zheng, M.D., pharmacology and experimental neuroscience, has received more than $300,000 through a National Institutes of Health award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a study on the possible negative effects that glutaminase has on neurons in the context of HIV-associated neurodegenerative disease (HAND).
Testing of a new glycated albumin-L assay
Cyrus Desouza, M.B.B.S., internal medicine – DEM, has received more than $100,000 in industry-sponsored support to study the effectiveness of a new assay that will be used for the clinical detection of glycated albumin-L in diabetes patients. Dr. Desouza also has received a Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association award to support a clinical coordinator for his VA Medical Center-sponsored research studies.
Anatomic pathology lab to test new system using full digitization
Kirk Foster, M.D., pathology and microbiology, has received nearly $200,000 in industry-sponsored support to procure samples that can be used to validate a novel system that will allow full digitization of human tissue specimens to improve and accelerate workflows in pathological sample diagnosis.
Cystic fibrosis center gets renewed support
John Colombo, M.D., pediatrics – pulmonology, has received more than $100,000 in combined support for separate industry-sponsored projects. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has given renewed support for the Nebraska Regional Cystic Fibrosis Center, which provides diagnosis, treatment, and management of adult and pediatric cystic fibrosis, a chronic genetic disorder that affects mucus production primarily in the lungs. Dr. Colombo also is the UNMC lead on two separate phase III clinical trials that are evaluating novel treatments in cystic fibrosis.
IGF-II-based approach for pancreatic cancer therapy
Richard MacDonald, Ph.D., biochemistry and molecular biology, has received more than $100,000 through a National Institutes of Health award from the National Cancer Institute for a study using IGF-II as a novel approach for pancreatic cancer therapy.
Novel combinatory therapy for HIV-1 patients
Sara Bares, M.D., internal medicine – infectious diseases, is the UNMC lead on phase III, multicenter, industry-sponsored clinical trial that will evaluate the safety and efficacy of switching HIV-1-infected and virologically suppressed patients from their current antiretroviral regimen to a new combinatory therapy (SWORD-1 trial).
New device to provide ‘liver dialysis’ for acute hepatitis patients
Marco Olivera-Martinez, M.D., internal medicine – GI, is the UNMC lead on phase III, multicenter, industry-sponsored clinical trial that is examining the safety and efficacy of a novel treatment device that will provide continuous liver support, in a manner similar to renal dialysis, to subjects that have compromised liver function due to severe acute alcoholic hepatitis. This device provides a similar function as the liver, reducing the overall "load" on a patient’s liver and allowing the organ to recover.
Dose-escalation study involving novel drug for lymphoma
Julie Vose, M.D., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on phase I/II, multicenter, industry-sponsored clinical trial that will assess dosage requirements for a novel treatment for patients with advanced solid tumors that also have a specific type of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
Industry-sponsored grants:
The following industry-sponsored contracts and foundation grants also were received. Information on clinical trials enrolling patients at UNMC can be found here.
Apar Ganti, M.D., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical trial that evaluates whether a novel drug offers improvement over standard treatment in subjects with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer.
Aaron Barksdale, M.D., emergency medicine, is the UNMC lead on a phase III case series clinical study of the anticoagulant effects of a study drug in patients who have uncontrolled bleeding or require emergency surgery or procedures.
James Talmadge, Ph.D., pathology and microbiology, has received support to evaluate the anti-proliferative effects of a study drug as compared to analogs of the drug.
Kari Simonsen, M.D., pediatrics – infectious diseases, is the UNMC lead on a Duke University phase 1 clinical study of a new antibiotic as an add-on therapy in adolescents and children with a bacterial infection.
Krishna Gundabolu, M.B.B.S., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical study, supported by the National Marrow Donor Program, which aims to develop novel approaches for graft vs. host disease prevention.
James Harper, M.D., pediatrics – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on an observational study evaluating the effectiveness of prophylactic treatments on reducing patient treatment burden and health economic outcomes in hemophilia patients.
William Rizzo, M.D., pediatrics – metabolism, is the UNMC lead on a substudy that will evaluate executive function in the brains of subjects that are part of a phase III clinical trial which is assessing the safety and efficacy of self-injections of a study drug by patients with phenylketonuria.
Maneesh Jain, Ph.D., biochemistry and molecular biology, has received support from Iowa State University to determine whether collagen can be used as a pancreatic cancer biomarker using second harmonic generation imaging.