UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 14 grant awards representing more than $1.8 million in new funding during the month of April. Highlights included:
Decreasing CNS inflammation to protect brain development
Jessica Snowden, M.D., pediatrics – infectious diseases, has received a National Institutes of Health award for more than $300,000 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Snowden will explore whether decreasing inflammation in response to infections caused by cerebrospinal fluid shunts, used to treat hydrocephalus in children, provides protection to the developing brain.
Role of BDNF in chronic heart failure
Hanjun Wang, Ph.D., cellular & integrative physiology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for more than $300,000 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study the effects of BDNF in mediating the exaggerated exercise pressor reflex in chronic heart failure.
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.
Yasir Sepah, M.B.B.S., ophthalmology & visual sciences, has received support to provide image reading and sample analysis for a clinical study.
Apar Ganti, M.D., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical trial that evaluates the safety and efficacy of a novel combination therapy for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.
Carol Toris, Ph.D., ophthalmology & visual sciences, has received support to test the effectiveness of a novel treatment, which allows adjustable eye pressure control using an external shunt, to reduce glaucoma disease progression.
Keshore Bidasee, Ph.D., pharmacology & experimental neuroscience, has received support from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln to study the role a protein (VCAP-1) has on sympathetic nervous system excitation in type 1 diabetes.
John Dickinson, M.D., internal medicine – pulmonary, has received support from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to evaluate the role of autophagy and gene variants in cystic fibrosis disease pathology.
John Colombo, M.D., pediatrics – pulmonology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical trial that is evaluating a novel long-term treatment in pediatric cystic fibrosis patients.
Ann Anderson-Berry, M.D., pediatrics – newborn medicine, is the UNMC lead on a clinical study of a novel aerosolized drug delivered by inhalation to preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome.
Diana Florescu, M.D., internal medicine – infectious diseases, has received support to study C. difficile colitis in pediatric patients that have received small bowel transplants.
Cyrus Desouza, M.B.B.S., internal medicine – DEM, has received a Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association award to support a clinical study associate for his glycemia reduction study.
Matthew Zimmerman, Ph.D., cellular & integrative physiology, has received support from the University of Texas at Arlington to study the mechanisms behind sympathetic nervous system overactivity in Chronic Kidney Disease.
John Halgren, M.D., ophthalmology & visual sciences, is the UNMC lead on a phase II clinical study of the safety and efficacy of different doses of topical ophthalmics in patients with dry eye disease.
William Rizzo, M.D., pediatrics – metabolism, has received support from the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute, for the "Inborn Errors of Metabolism Collaborative" study through the Heartland Genetics Service. The project is a retrospective study on the clinical progress of patients that have metabolism conditions detected by newborn blood spot screening.