Research highlights

UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 17 grant awards representing more than $4.2 million in new funding during the month of November.
 
Here’s a brief summary of the largest grant received:
 
Tony Wilson, PhD, neurological sciences, has received a National Institutes of Health award for $2.4 million from the National Institute of Mental Health to use magnetoencephalography to study the role that spontaneous spiking activity of human cortical neurons plays in information processing.
 
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.
 
Cyrus Desouza, MBBS, internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, is the UNMC lead on a clinical study of a novel use for a type-2 diabetes drug to determine if it could be used to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in overweight or obese patients with prior cardiovascular disease.
 
Matthew Lunning, DO, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical trial that will compare the current standard of care against the use of a new treatment in patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
 
Joshua Santarpia, PhD, pathology & microbiology, has received three separate task orders through the National Strategic Research Institute for studies on biological countermeasure development, biological sampler development, and perimeter defense.
 
Weining Zhen, MD, radiation oncology, is the UNMC lead on a phase I/II clinical trial of a combination radiation and drug therapy in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer.
 
Zaid Al-Kadhimi, MD, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, is the UNMC lead on a phase III clinical study of a novel drug to be used prior to allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia.
 
Xiaowei Li, PhD, neurological sciences, has received funding from the American Heart Association for a study titled, "Promoting Organization and Integration of Transplanted Stem Cells for Brain Tissue Regeneration after Stroke."
 
Philip Bierman, MD, internal medicine – oncology/hematology, has received funding through the Mayo Clinic to serve as the UNMC lead on their phase II clinical trial of a combination therapy in patients with early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma.
 
Hani Haider, PhD, orthopaedic surgery, has received support to perform strength and constraint testing on a total knee replacement system.
 
Bracha Goldsweig, MD, pediatrics – endocrine, has received support from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for a study that will measure beta cell death in individuals with cystic fibrosis.
 
Jeffrey Cooper, MD, emergency medicine, has received support from the University of Minnesota to assist with their hyperbaric oxygen brain injury treatment trial.
 
Gwenn Skar, MD, pediatrics – infectious diseases, has received support through the University of Arkansas to study whether attenuated inflammation is protective in a certain type of bacterial infection of the central nervous system in infants.
 
Scott Koepsell, MD, PhD, pathology & microbiology, has received support to validate the clinical performance of new diagnostic assays on fresh and frozen tissue samples.
 
Shelby Kutty, MD, PhD, pediatrics – cardiology, has received support from the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center Foundation for a study titled, "Inhibition of Drp1 Improves Diastolic Function in a Porcine Model of Right Ventricular Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury."
 
Marshall Hyden, MD, internal medicine – cardiovascular, has received support through the Centre of Excellence for the Prevention of Organ Failure to assist in their clinical study of a novel multi-marker blood test for acute cardiac transplant rejection.