UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 34 grant awards representing more than $3.8 million in new funding during the months of September and October.
Here are some of the research highlights:
Using cART and CRISPR/Cas9 to eradicate HIV in animal model
Howard Gendelman, MD, pharmacology & experimental neuroscience, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $779,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health for a study that utilizes an animal model of HIV infection to determine if combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) and gene delivery of a CRISPR/Cas9 would eradicate HIV from its central nervous system and peripheral reservoirs. He also has received support from UNeMed, the technology transfer & commercialization office for UNMC, for a study titled, "Long acting GM-CSF for Parkinson’s disease."
Effects of altered renal function on chronic heart failure
Kaushik Patel, PhD, cellular & integrative physiology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $412,000 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study the epithelial sodium channels involved in altered sodium and water balance that may contribute to altered renal function, which is linked to chronic heart failure progression.
Multiple awards for hormone research on human development
John Davis, PhD, obstetrics/gynecology, endocrinology and metabolism, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $320,000 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the metabolic regulators of corpus luteum function. He also has received support from Wichita State University to study the role of glycosylation in follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) signaling in FSH target cells, as well as additional support from Massachusetts General Hospital to assist on their study titled, "The Hippo/YAP Signaling Pathway in Ovarian High-grade Serous Carcinoma."
Function of endosomal tubular carriers in receptor recycling
Steven Caplan, PhD, biochemistry & molecular biology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $317,000 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study the mechanisms and functions of endosome-derived tubular carriers to enhance the understanding of the endocytic mechanisms that regulate receptor recycling.
Role of alcohol and smoking on chronic pancreatitis
Sushil Kumar, PhD, biochemistry & molecular biology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $179,000 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to determine the mechanistic role of alcohol in combination with smoking on the progression of chronic pancreatitis.
Graduate student awarded NCI cancer research grant
Shrabasti Roychoudhury, a PhD candidate in the department of genetics, cell biology & anatomy, has received a National Institutes of Health Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award from the National Cancer Institute for her project titled "Cancer Therapeutic Resistance: Implication of AcAPE1 Mediated DNA Repair and T-Cell Based Immunotherapy."
Industry-sponsored grants:
The following industry-sponsored contracts and foundation grants were received. Information on clinical trials enrolling patients at UNMC can be found here.
Julie Vose, MD, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on an expanded access clinical study of a novel treatment for patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma.
Chittibabu Guda, PhD, genetics, cell biology & anatomy, has received support from Wichita State University to assist on their "Aging Pituitary/Gonadal Axis" study, which aims to determine the effects of an age-related change in follicle-stimulating hormone glycosylation on fertility, osteoporosis, and obesity.
Muhammad Ashraf, MBBS, internal medicine – infectious diseases, has received support to evaluate the effect of training consultant pharmacists for promoting optimal antibiotic use in long-term care facilities.
John Colombo, MD, pediatrics – pulmonology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical study of an antibiotic inhalation powder for the treatment of persistent MRSA in patients with cystic fibrosis.
Mark Rupp, MD, internal medicine – infectious diseases, is the UNMC lead on a clinical study of a novel antibacterial therapy for Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections.
Mark Mailliard, MD, internal medicine – GI, is the UNMC lead on a phase IIIb clinical study of the safety and efficacy of a novel combination therapy in treatment-naive adults with chronic hepatitis C virus infection and compensated cirrhosis.
Michael Feely, MD, internal medicine – rheumatology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a combination therapy in improving disease activity in adults with active idiopathic inflammatory myopathy.
Soonjo Hwang, MD, psychiatry, has received support from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to determine the impact of oxytocin on the neural mechanisms of irritability and emotional dysregulation in the pediatric population.
Robert Spicer, MD, pediatrics – cardiology, is the UNMC lead on a clinical study of the safety and tolerability of a novel drug in pediatric patients with heart failure due to systemic left ventricle systolic dysfunction.
Carol Toris, PhD, ophthalmology & visual sciences, has received support to study intraocular pressure changes in an animal model treated with an anti-glaucoma drug. She also has received support for a separate study of the intraocular pressure-lowering activity of various nitric oxide donor compounds in an animal model.
Andre Kalil, MD, internal medicine – infectious diseases, has received support from Duke University to assist in a study through the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group.
Kari Simonsen, MD, pediatrics – infectious diseases, is the UNMC lead on a phase IIb clinical study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a novel monoclonal antibody with an extended half-life against respiratory syncytial virus in preterm infants.
Dmitry Oleynikov, MD, surgery – general surgery, has received support to conduct a cost comparison of mesh usage in laparoscopic hernia repair.
Shirley Delair, MD, pediatrics – infectious diseases, is the UNMC lead on an expanded access investigational new drug (IND) program that will provide vaccines against yellow fever.
Chad LaGrange, MD, surgery – urologic surgery, has received support to assess a novel fluorophore tracer agent for the laparoscopic visualization of the ureters in an animal model.
Cyrus Desouza, MBBS, internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, has received technical salary support for his clinical trials sponsored by the Veterans Affairs Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association.
Suzanne Haney, MD, pediatrics – administration, has received support from Pennsylvania State University’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies.
Shailender Singh, MBBS, internal medicine – GI, has received support from the University of Pittsburgh to assist in their development of a pancreatic cystic reference set, which evaluates biomarkers aimed at determining whether a patient would benefit from surgical resection of their cystic lesion.
Kaustubh Datta, PhD, biochemistry & molecular biology, has received support for a study titled "Elucidation of the biology of Resokine/Neuropilin2 axis."
Jason Johanning, MD, surgery – general surgery, has received support from the University of Utah to assist with their study of implementing a pre-operative frailty assessment in the vascular surgery clinic.
Stephen Obaro, MBBS, PhD, pediatrics – infectious diseases, has received support from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to assist in the molecular characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae cultures from febrile Nigerian children following the introduction of pneumococcal vaccine. He also has received support from Case Western Reserve University to assist with their "HemeChip" study, which aims to develop a point-of-care sickle cell disease diagnosis in low resource settings.
Joseph Fernandes, MD, neurological sciences, has received support from Columbia University to assist with their study of the test/retest reliability and validity of a Pain Limitation Scale as a new clinical functional rating scale.
Tony Wilson, PhD, neurological sciences, has received a NASA Nebraska Space Grant Fellowship.