Research highlights

UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 17 grant awards representing $3.5 million in new funding during the month of May.
 
Nine of the research grants highlighted this month include:
 
Yiannis Chatzizisis, MD, PhD, internal medicine – cardiovascular, has received an award for $824,164 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to investigate optimal stenting techniques for coronary bifurcations on a patient-specific basis. Dr. Chatzizisis will be utilizing advanced mathematics to model ideal strategies for stenting to prevent stent restenosis – renarrowing of the coronary artery following a stent procedure. The study seeks to improve outcomes for those patients who receive stents by using an individualized approach.
 
Andrew Dudley, PhD, genetics, cell biology and anatomy, has received an NIH award for the purchase of a new, highly advanced electron microscope that will be housed in UNMC’s Electron Microscopy facility.  The new instrumentation, a serial blockface imaging scanning electron microscope, will generate ultra-high resolution three-dimensional images of cells and tissues.
 
Saraswathi Viswanathan, PhD, internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolism, has received an award for $202,561 from the National Cancer Institute to investigate the role of histidine in altering the progression of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Viswanathan hopes to identify novel regulators of pathogenesis, with the goal of increasing clinical effectiveness of gemcitabine, the first-line therapy for pancreatic cancer.
 
Michele Plewes, PhD, obstetrics/gynecology, has received a $165,000 award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for her post-doctoral research investigating the “Hormonal regulation of mitochondria and luteal function.”
 
Sushil Kumar, PhD, biochemistry and molecular biology, will be a co-investigator on an NIH-sponsored Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to evaluate the therapeutic potential of a molecule for targeting pancreatic cancer.
 
Sara Bares, MD, internal medicine – infectious diseases, has received supplemental funding for her work as the UNMC lead investigator on an NIH-funded clinical trial, “Evaluating the Use of Pitavastatin to Reduce the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in HIV-Infected Adults” (REPRIEVE).
 
Sarah Holstein, MD, PhD, internal medicine – oncology/hemtology, has received an award from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for research into cancer and smoking disease, “Geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase inhibitor therapy for multiple myeloma.”   
 
Susan Swindells, MBBS, internal medicine – infectious diseases, has received federal funding through the University of California, Los Angeles as a protocol development facilitator for the AIDS Clinical Trials Group.
 
Shan Fan, MD, ophthalmology and visual sciences, will collaborate with University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers on the development on an eyeglass-free vision correcting display system.
 
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.
 
David Mercer, MD, PhD, surgery – transplant, will act as the UNMC lead on a clinical trial establishing a multi-center registry for patients with short bowel syndrome.  The registry has the goal of better evaluating long-term clinical outcomes for this patient population.
 
Julie Vose, MD, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, has received funding as the UNMC lead on a phase I clinical trial evaluating various treatment agents for relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
 
James McClay, MD, emergency medicine, will be the principal investigator expanding UNMC’s membership in the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet 2.0). The goal of PCORnet is to conduct people-centered research that answers questions important to patients, caregivers and medical professionals. 
 
Pavankumar Tandra, MD, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, will be the UNMC lead investigator on a phase III clinical trial investigating the efficacy of a novel drug in previously treated metastatic breast cancer patients.
 
Benjamin Teply, MD, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, has received support to act as the UNMC lead on a phase I/II trial to evaluate a novel drug in the treatment of metastatic urothelial carcinoma.
 
Matthew Lunning, DO, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, will serve as the UNMC lead on a phase II clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of a novel drug in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
 
Diego Torres-Russotto, MD, neurological sciences, has received support to serve as the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical trial to study the long-term efficacy of a drug for adult patients with isolated cervical dystonia.
 
Amy Cannella, MD, internal medicine – rheumatology, has been awarded the Rheumatology Research Foundation Amgen Fellowship Training Award to support her work with the UNMC rheumatology fellowship program.