UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 14 grant awards representing more than $2 million in new funding during the month of December. Highlights included:
Cardiac sympathetic pathway denervation in heart failure
Irving Zucker, Ph.D., cellular & integrative physiology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $500,000 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for a study involving the denervation of cardiac sympathetic afferent pathways and their remodeling in the context of heart failure.
Preventing viral infections in kidney transplant patients
Diana Florescu, M.D., internal medicine – infectious diseases, is the UNMC lead in an industry-sponsored Phase III clinical trial to compare the safety and efficacy of novel antiviral treatment regimens for prevention of cytomegalovirus disease in patients who have received kidney transplants.
Reversing genetic errors that cause juvenile Batten disease
Tammy Kielian, Ph.D., pathology & microbiology, has received continued industry-sponsored support for ongoing and new projects involving novel AAV-based gene therapy to deliver normal copies of the defective CLN3 gene that causes juvenile Batten disease.
Improved radiotherapies for neuroblastoma
Janina Baranowska-Kortylewicz, Ph.D., radiation oncology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $200,000 from the National Cancer Institute to study the development of a more efficient and less toxic radiotherapy for the treatment of pediatric neuroblastoma.
Novel treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia
Lori Maness-Harris, M.D., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead in an industry-sponsored Phase II clinical trial to study the effectiveness of a range of doses of a novel multi-target tyrosine-kinase inhibitor for the treatment of chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML) that is resistant to other tyrosine-kinase inhibitors.
Cellular stress in obesity and diabetes
Haitao Wen, Ph.D., pathology & microbiology, has received a Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health to support his research on cellular stress responses to insulin resistance, such as increased oxidative stress, that occur as a result of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic metabolic disorders.
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.
Peter James Murphy, M.D., internal medicine – pulmonary, has received support from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute to study the use of a new intravenous drug therapy for patients with cystic fibrosis.
Krishna Gundabolu, M.B.B.S., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical study of new chemotherapy being used to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia.
Trevor Vanschooneveld, M.D., internal medicine – infectious diseases, has received support to participate in a team-based, pharmacist-led antimicrobial research team.
Quan Nguyen, M.D., ophthalmology & visual sciences, is the UNMC lead on a study on the use of a novel intravitreal drug therapy for patients with inflammation in the eye.
Daniel Monaghan, Ph.D., pharmacology & experimental neuroscience, has received funding from Creighton University for a study titled "Glutamate Delat-1 Receptor and Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Interaction."
Austin Thompson, M.D., internal medicine – pulmonary, has received support to participate in an observational drug registry for new users of a novel pulmonary arterial hypertension treatment.
Cyrus Desouza, M.B.B.S., internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, has received a Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association award to support a clinical coordinator for his VA Medical Center-sponsored research studies.
Donald Coulter, M.D., pediatrics – hematology & oncology, has received funding through the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for his work with the National Cancer Institute’s Community Oncology Research Program.