UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 42 grant awards representing $5.3 million in new funding during the months of June and July.
Here’s a brief look at 14 of the largest awards:
Scot Ouellette, PhD, pathology/microbiology, has received funding from the NIH in the form of a $229,000 award through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Ouellette will be refining tools developed to better investigate the mechanisms and biology of chlamydia in the pursuit of helping to identify novel diagnostics or therapeutics for chronic chlamydial diseases.
Benson Edagwa, PhD and Howard Gendelman, MD, pharmacology/experimental neuroscience, have received a multiple PI award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to translate existing antiretroviral drugs into long-acting medications. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded the UNMC team $748,000 to formulate slow-release, long-acting nanocrystal medicines to improve safety and efficacy in targeting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
Keer Sun, PhD, pathology/microbiology, was awarded a $419,000 grant from the NIH. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will support this high priority, short-term project award that will investigate the factors responsible for influenza-induced bacterial pneumonia in the pursuit of identifying potential therapeutics.
Shyamal Roy, PhD, obstetrics/gynecology, has received an NIH award from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The $320,000 award will support an investigation into the development of the ovarian follicles to better understand the development process and inform management of ovarian defects in the future.
Vimla Band, PhD, genetics, cell biology and anatomy, has received an award from the NIH for $207,000 supported by the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Band will investigate the role of a certain protein in therapy-resistant prostate cancer to better understand its molecular mechanism with the intention of creating a basis for future clinical investigations.
Kishor Bhakat, PhD, genetics, cell biology and anatomy, has received an NIH award for $80,000 from the National Cancer Institute to investigate the role of a certain protein in resistance to chemotherapy drugs in colon cancer.
James Hammel, MD, cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, will be the UNMC lead on a federally funded clinical trial through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences investigating a drug to reduce inflammation after neonatal heart surgery.
Brandon Lew, MD/PhD student in pharmacology/experimental neuroscience, has received an NIH award through the National Institute on Drug Abuse to support his research plan and program of study.
Andrew Goldsweig, MD, internal medicine – cardiovascular, will be the UNMC lead investigator on a federally funded clinical trial through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to compare two red blood cell transfusion strategies in patients who have had an acute myocardial infarction and are anemic.
Scott Westphal, MD, internal medicine – nephrology, will be the UNMC lead investigator who will bring UNMC into a consortium of transplant facilities studying the role of the APOL1 gene in kidney transplant recipient outcomes.
Sowmya Yelamanchili, PhD, anesthesiology, has received funding through the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute to support its NIH-funded study to investigate the role of extracellular vesicles in inflammation during chlamydial infection.
Merry Lindsey, PhD, cellular/integrative physiology, has received technical salary support to support her Veterans Affairs-sponsored research projects.
Cyrus Desouza, MBBS, internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolism, has received technical salary support for his Veterans Affairs Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association-sponsored clinical trials.
Vijay Shivaswamy, MD, internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolism, has received technical salary support for his Veterans Affairs Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association-sponsored clinical trials.
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services – Cancer and Smoking Disease Research Grants
Six College of Medicine faculty investigators have received support through the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NE DHHS) Cancer and Smoking Disease Research Grant competition. Funded by LB506, this program focuses on reducing cancer and smoking-related diseases. Recipients include:
- Kishore Challagundla, PhD, biochemistry and molecular biology, for a project titled, "Exosomic PD-L1 protein and therapy resistance in neuroblastoma."
- Pi-Wan Cheng, PhD, biochemistry and molecular biology, for a project titled, "Altered O-glycans on prostate-specific antigen in advanced prostate cancer."
- Katherine Hyde, PhD, biochemistry and molecular biology, for a project titled, "Investigation of mechanisms regulating leukemia cell survival."
- Naava Naslavsky, PhD, biochemistry and molecular biology, for a project titled, "Repurposing screens for drugs to enhance antibody-dependent cancer treatment."
- Gurudutt Pendyala, PhD, anesthesiology, for a project titled, "Nicotine addiction and sex differences: Role of extracellular vesicles."
- Saraswathi Viswanathan, PhD, internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolism, for a project titled, "Altered Amino Acid Metabolism: A Novel Therapeutic Target for Pancreatic Cancer."
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.
Wuttiporn Manatsathit, MD, internal medicine – gastroenterology and hepatology, will be the UNMC lead investigator on a phase III clinical trial investigating the safety and efficacy of a drug in reducing the risk of fibrosis progression in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease.
Daniel Murman, MD, neurological sciences, will be the UNMC lead on a phase II/III clinical trial investigating the use of a novel therapeutic drug targeting cognition and overall clinical status of individuals at risk for the onset of clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Brian Lowes, MD, PhD, internal medicine – cardiovascular, has received funding as the UNMC lead on an observational patient registry for heart transplant patients to help clinicians more effectively monitor transplant recipients for allograft rejection.
Ioannis Chatzizisis, MD, internal medicine – cardiovascular, has received funding to investigate the design and mechanics of a novel stent.
Angela Hewlett, MD, internal medicine – infectious diseases, is the UNMC lead on a study of an expanded access treatment protocol for an investigative drug used for the treatment of Ebola virus disease and Ebola virus exposure.
Sarah Holstein, MD, PhD, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, has received bridge grant funding from the American Society of Hematology for a project titled, "Development of geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase inhibitor therapy for multiple myeloma."
Douglas Stoller, MD, internal medicine – cardiovascular, will be the UNMC lead on a clinical trial investigating the impact of a drug in cardiac transplant patients with coronary allograft vasculopathy.
Shaheed Merani, MD, transplant surgery, has received support to serve as the UNMC lead assessing the safety and effectiveness of an organ care system used to preserve and assess livers prior to transplantation.
Carol Toris, PhD, ophthalmology and visual sciences, has received support to study the effect of a novel drug on aqueous humor dynamics.
Daniel Monaghan, PhD, pharmacology/experimental neuroscience, has received a task order from the National Strategic Research Institute to investigate non-opioid countermeasures.
Jeffrey Delaney, MD, pediatrics, has received funding as the UNMC lead of a post-approval study to confirm the safety and efficacy of a novel occluder.
Shyam Nandi, PhD, cellular/integrative physiology, has received funding through the American Heart Association for her project titled, "Neurogenic mechanism for mitochondrial abnormality in hypertensive cardiomyopathy."
Matthew Lunning, DO, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, will be the UNMC lead on a phase II clinical trial of a drug as a possible treatment for aggressive lymphoma or a histiocyte or dendritic cell neoplasm.
Olga Taraschenko, PhD, neurological sciences, has received funding from the American Epilepsy Society to investigate the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of seizures in anti-NMDAR encephalitis.
Rana Zabad, MD, neurological sciences, has received funding as the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical trial investigating the safety and efficacy of a novel drug targeting patients with multiple sclerosis and walking impairment.
Jitu George, PhD, obstetrics/gynecology, has received support from the Society of Reproductive Investigation for his project titled, "Role of CBX family proteins in uterine fibroid proliferation and fibrosis."