Research highlights

Palsamy Periyasamy, PhD

The UNMC College of Medicine received new grant awards representing $4,131,159 in new funding in the months of June and July.

  • Zaid Al-Kadhimi, MD, internal medicine-oncology/hematology, received a grant of $41,960 from the National Marrow Donor Program for a work order on “Clinical Transplant-Related Long-term Outcomes of Alternative Donor Allogeneic Transplantation.”
  • Vijaya Bhatt, MD, internal medicine-oncology/hematology, received a grant of $20,832 from the Nation Marrow Donor Program for a work order on “Composite Health Assessment Model for Older Adults: Applying Pre-transplant Comorbidity, Geriatric Assessment, and Biomarkers to Predict Non-Relapse Mortality after Allogeneic Transplantation.”
  • Don Coulter, MD, pediatrics, received a grant of $155,857 from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for a work order on “A single arm phase II trial to assess the efficacy and safety of CTL019 in first line high-risk (HR) pediatric and young adult patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B- ALL) who are minimal residual disease (MRD) positive.”
  • Rebekah Dawson, PhD, cellular and integrative physiology, received a $100,000 grant from the American Heart Association for her proposal, “Harnessing Glycomics to Understand COVID-19 and Cardiovascular Disease.”
  • Yunlong Huang, PhD, pharmacology/experimental neuroscience, received a grant of $228,750 from DHHS/NIH/NIMH for the proposal “Eradication of CNS HIV reservoirs through a first-in-class anti-tumor agent ONC201.”
  • Soonjo Hwang, MD, psychiatry, received a grant of $248,000 from Duke University for a “Long-term Antipsychotic Pediatric Safety Trial.”
  • Brian Lowes, MD, PhD, internal medicine-cardiovascular, received a $129,630 grant from Massachusetts General Hospital for the proposal “Targeting Inflammation and Alloimmunity in Heart Transplant Recipients with Tocilizumab.”
  • Roslyn Mannon, MD, internal medicine-nephrology, received a grant of $1,284 from the University of Alabama-Birmingham for the “Long-term Kidney Transplantation Outcomes Network (APOLLO) Clinical Center.”
  • Palsamy Periyasamy, PhD, pharmacology/experimental neuroscience, received a grant of $382,500 from DHHS/NIH/NIDA for the proposal “HIV Tat and morphine-mediated pyroptosis activates astrocytes: Role of NLRP6 inflammasome in HAND.”
  • Shyamal Roy, PhD, obstetrics/gynecology, received a grant of $324,063 from the DHHS/NIH/NICHD for the proposal “A novel regulation of early follicle formation.”
  • Susan Swindells, MBBS, internal medicine-infectious diseases, received a grant of $468,599 from the University of Liverpool for the proposal “LONG acting pipeline to establish medicines for malaria, tuberculosis and Hepatitis C virus with Infrastructure for sustainable translational capacity.
  • Heather Thomas, MD, pediatrics, received a grant of $152,076 from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for the proposal “Cystic Fibrosis Care, Teaching and Research Center.”
  • Rana Zabad, MD, neurological sciences, received a grant of $14,560 from Johns Hopkins University for the proposal “Traditional Versus Early Aggressive Therapy For Multiple Sclerosis.” Dr. Zabad also received a grant of $7,340 from the State University of New York at Buffalo for a data use agreement “Creation of a multi-center database registry to study real world thalamus volume changes by use of artificial intelligence in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).”

Industry-sponsored grants and contracts:

The following industry-sponsored contracts and foundation grants were received. Information on clinical trials enrolling patients at UNMC can be found here.

  • W. Scott Campbell, PhD, pathology/microbiology, received funding for his FDA shield project.
  • Cyrus Desouza, MD, internal medicine-diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolism, has received technical salary support for his Veterans Affairs Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association sponsored clinical trials.”
  • Hani Haider, PhD, orthopaedic surgery, received funding for a prototype of his external tool tracking system.
  • Sarah Holstein, PhD, internal medicine-oncology/hematology, received funding for the proposal “A Phase I/II Study of Human Placental Hematopoietic Stem Cell Derived Natural Killer Cells (CYNK-001) in Multiple Myeloma Patients Following Autologous Stem Cell Transplant in the Front-Line Setting.”
  • Kelsey Klute, MD, internal medicine-oncology/hematology, received funding for “A Phase III, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Multi-Center Study of Durvalumab Monotherapy or in Combination with Bevacizumab as Adjuvant Therapy in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma who are at High Risk of Recurrence.” Dr. Klute also received funding for “A Phase III, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, Multicenter Study of Transarterial Chemoembolization (TACE) in Combination with either Durvalumab Monotherapy or Durvalumab plus Bevacizumab Therapy.”
  • Scott Koepsell, MD, PhD, pathology/microbiology, received funding for “HemosIL Chromogenic Factor IX Assay Diagnostic Performance Evaluation – Matrix Comparison (Fresh vs Frozen).”
  • Daniel Murman, MD, neurological sciences, received funding for “A 12-month double-blind, randomized, controlled study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Deep Brain Stimulation of the fornix (DBS-f) in patients with mild probable Alzheimer’s Disease.”
  • 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.”
  • John Um, MD, surgery, received funding for a “Clinical Trial to Evaluation the Safety and Effectiveness of the Portable Organ Care System (OCS) Heart for Resuscitation, Preservation, and Assessment of Hearts from Donors after Circulatory Death (DCD Heart Trial).”
  • Ashley Wysong, MD, dermatology, received funding for the proposal “Development and Validation of a Gene Expression Assay to Predict the Risk of Recurrence Disease in Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma (CBI_cSCC).”
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