UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 38 grant awards representing more than $7.2 million in new funding during the months of April and May.
Here’s a brief summary of nine of the largest grants received:
Transforming en route respiratory care for soldiers
Keely Buesing, MD, surgery – general surgery, has received a task order award from the Department of Defense through the National Strategic Research Institute. Dr. Buesing has received more than $2.1 million to support studies on how to transform the military’s En Route Care System, which provides clinical and casualty care for injured warfighters from the point of injury until receiving definitive care in a hospital, by improving care specifically for cases of acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Continued support for NeuroAIDS Data Coordinating Center
Howard Fox, MD, PhD, neurological sciences, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $927,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health to continue the support for the Data Coordinating Center (DCC), which is a part of the National NeuroAIDS Tissue Consortium (NNTC). Since 2013, the NNTC has provided well-characterized specimens with quality antemortem and postmortem data to the NeuroAIDS research community, with the DCC providing a rich bioinformatics database that serves as a resource both to the consortium and nationally.
Developing a new pancreatic cancer model
Mark Carlson, MD, surgery – general surgery, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $568,000 from the National Cancer Institute to develop a porcine animal model of pancreatic cancer, which would facilitate the development of new anti-cancer therapeutics and serve to be useful in the development of devices and techniques to detect, diagnose, and monitor these tumors.
Understanding anti-inflammatory activity in chronic brain infections
Tammy Kielian, PhD, pathology & microbiology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $411,000 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study how lactate production by S. aureus biofilm can promote an anti-inflammatory cytokine that is unique to the brain. This may contribute to the chronic nature of craniotomy and craniectomy infections, with the aim to guide future immune-based treatment strategies.
Alternative antimalarial drug combinations to combat resistance
Caroline Ng, PhD, pathology & microbiology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $228,000 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study proteasome inhibitors that are specific to Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria. These studies aim to develop alternative antimalarial drug combinations, as there is a global increase of malaria strains that have become resistant to current therapies.
Developing 3D vascularized bone model to study chikungunya virus
St Patrick Reid, PhD, pathology & microbiology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $228,000 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study the viral pathogenesis of the chikungunya virus, as well as develop a 3D vascularized bone model to characterize viral-induced bone pathology, in order to identify therapeutic targets.
Identifying novel targets to prevent secondary bacterial infections
Keer Sun, PhD, pathology & microbiology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $190,000 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study how a specific protein, which acts as a feedback inhibitor of cytokine signaling, can cause subsequent bacterial infections following viral infections, such as influenza.
Using mobile devices to improve infectious disease care in Nigeria
Stephen Obaro, MBBS, PhD, pediatrics – infectious diseases, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $176,000 from the Fogarty International Center to study the use of mobile device support to implement improved early diagnosis and implementation of preventive sickle cell disease care in Nigeria. Dr. Obaro also has received support from Case Western Reserve University to assist with the validation of a point-of-care screening tool for children with sickle cell disease.
Mechanisms behind spread of pancreatic cancer cells
Andrew Cannon, a MD/PhD student in the department of biochemistry & molecular biology, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $32,500 from the National Cancer Institute to study the underlying cell signaling mechanism that contribute to the aggressive behavior and spread of pancreatic cancer cells.
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.
James Sullivan, MD, anesthesiology, is the UNMC lead on a clinical interventional trial that will combine treatment with xenon by inhalation to the standard-of-care for post-cardiac arrest intensive care in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
Ted Mikuls, MD, internal medicine – rheumatology, has received support from the Rheumatology Research Foundation to study driving performance and safety in rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Mikuls also has received support from the University of Alabama – Birmingham to assist with its Center of Research Translation, focused on research in gout, hyperuricemia, and various comorbidities.
Samuel Cohen, MD, PhD, pathology & microbiology, has received support from Michigan State University to study the effects of dietary, food-grade titanium dioxide on the rat colon and on intestinal and systemic immune homeostasis.
Tony Wilson, PhD, neurological sciences, has received support from Creighton University to assist with a randomized clinical trial of attention control training for symptoms of PTSD in children.
Matthew Lunning, DO, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on a phase 1 clinical study of an investigational drug in patients with certain lymphomas and leukemias. Dr. Lunning also has received support for a long-term, follow-up study of subjects treated with gene-modified T cell therapy.
Ruben Quiros, MD, pediatrics – gastroenterology, is the UNMC lead on a clinical study of the efficacy of combining the probiotic Lactobacillus and chamomile in treating infantile colic in breastfeeding infants.
Thomas Porter, MD, internal medicine – cardiology, has received support to assist with a study using an animal model to test the use of a drug in preventing ischemia reperfusion injury in acute myocardial infarction management.
Hani Haider, PhD, orthopaedic surgery, has received support for a wear study of a novel coating on femoral hip replacement components.
Kelly Stauch, PhD, pharmacology & experimental neuroscience, has received funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to study the mechanisms of synaptic energetic failure with mitochondria not functioning as they should in the brain due to deficiencies of two proteins implicated in Parkinson’s disease.
Matthew Rizzo, MD, neurological sciences, has received support from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln’s Nebraska Transportation Center to conduct studies on driver safety under various conditions using a virtual driving simulator.
Carol Toris, PhD, ophthalmology & visual sciences, has received support to study the effects of a novel drug compound on intraocular pressures in an animal model of glaucoma.
Harold Schultz, PhD, cellular & integrative physiology, has received support to assist on their protocol.
Peter James Murphy, MD, internal medicine – pulmonary, is the UNMC lead on a phase I study that will evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of a novel drug compound in healthy subjects and in adult patients with cystic fibrosis.
Russell Mcculloh, MD, pediatrics – hospitalists, has received support from Duke University to assist with a pharmacokinetic assessment of a number of drugs that are currently under-studied but are administered to children per standard of care.
Richard Gumina, MD, PhD, internal medicine – cardiovascular, has received support from the national office of the American Heart Association to study the effect of nucleotidases in atherothrombosis. Dr. Gumina also has received support through the University of Nebraska Foundation, in the form of a Nebraska Bankers Association Equipment Grant, to purchase a RoboSep-S, which is a fully automated cell separator that will perform all the steps necessary to magnetically label and separate any cell type.
Kathleen Grant, MD, internal medicine – pulmonary, has received support from the Nebraska Administrative Office of Probation to study substance abuse in the context of evaluating probation and the parole process.
Vinicius Ernani, MD, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, has received support through the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium to become the UNMC lead of their phase II clinical study of a novel consolidation immunotherapy as a follow-up to concurrent chemoradiotherapy for unresectable, stage III, non-small cell lung cancer.
Marisa Fisher, MD, pediatrics – pediatrics endocrine, has received support from the University of South Florida to serve as the UNMC lead of a type 1 diabetes study, which is looking at finding new ways of prevention and involves screening relatives of people with the disease to see if they are at risk.
Mark Rupp, MD, internal medicine – infectious diseases, has received support to develop a fully autoclavable respirator.
Kari Simonsen, MD, pediatrics – infectious diseases, has received support from the University of California – San Diego to assist in a comparative effectiveness trial involving cases of Kawasaki disease.
Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD, pediatrics – newborn medicine, has received support from the University of Arkansas to assist with a data collection study of infant exposure and treatment of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.
Deepak Madhavan, MD, neurological sciences, has received support to conduct a retrospective chart review of pediatric patients that received a specialized implant system as a treatment for medically intractable epilepsy.
Zachary Bauman, DO, surgery – general surgery, is the UNMC lead on a clinical trial of surgical stabilization of rib fractures in patients with severe, non-flail fracture patterns.
Sidharth Mahapatra, MD, PhD, pediatrics – critical care, has received support from Children’s Hospital – Boston to assist in identifying protein and lipid biomarkers in critically ill children with influenza.
Shahab Abdessalam, MD, surgery – pediatric general, received support from Vanderbilt University Medical Center to assist with a study titled "Timing of Inguinal Hernia Repair in Premature Infants: A Randomized Trial."