UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 21 grant awards representing more than $3.7 million in new funding during the month of February. Highlights included:
Lung injury biomarkers in agricultural workers
Jill Poole, M.D., internal medicine – pulmonary, has received a renewal of her National Institutes of Health award for more than $400,000 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to identify biomarkers and therapeutic targets that regulate lung injury caused by agricultural exposure to organic dust.
Understanding gap junction regulation in cardiac disease
Paul Sorgen, Ph.D., biochemistry & molecular biology, has received a renewal of his National Institutes of Health award for more than $300,000 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The studies funded by this grant aim to elucidate mechanisms that regulate gap junctions in various cardiac diseases in hopes of developing novel therapies for lethal cardiac rhythms.
Novel molecular pathways in cervical cancer
Cheng Wang, Ph.D., obstetrics/gynecology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for more than $300,000 from the National Cancer Institute to study the molecular mechanisms controlling the initiation and progression of cervical cancer.
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.
Matthew Lunning, D.O., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on three separate industry-sponsored clinical studies, including a phase I/II trial of a novel combinatory chemotherapy for T-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; a phase 3 comparative study of different therapies for persons with previously untreated multiple myeloma; and a phase 1 multicenter study of a novel cellular therapy for B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Howard Gendelman, M.D., pharmacology & experimental neuroscience, has received support for a study of a novel drug target for Parkinson’s disease.
Nora Sarvetnick, Ph.D., surgery – transplant, has received funding through the University of Nebraska Foundation to continue her studies on autoimmune type 1 diabetes by attempting to grow and regenerate the insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas.
Quan Nguyen, M.D., ophthalmology & visual sciences, has received funding from the Otis Glebe Medical Research Foundation, through the University of Nebraska Foundation, for the study of a new portable optical coherence tomography device.
Andjela Drincic, M.D., internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, is the UNMC lead on a multi-center clinical study comparing the dosing regimens of a novel treatment for adults with growth hormone deficiency.
Trevor Vanschooneveld, M.D., internal medicine – infectious diseases, is the UNMC lead on a study of a novel liquid microbiota suspension for the treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile infections.
Hani Haider, Ph.D., orthopedic surgery, has received industry-sponsored funding to support a New York University School of Medicine study of a novel total knee-joint prosthesis.
Anastasia Desyatova, Ph..D., surgery – general surgery, has received a National Institutes of Health award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to develop a computational tool to assess the performance of aortic trauma stent-grafts.