UNMC received $9.7 million in federal research grants during the second quarter of fiscal year 2003-2004. The second quarter included the months of October, November and December.
“As of February 2004, the university’s annual funding from the National Institutes of Health is $44.3 million,” said Thomas Rosenquist, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research at UNMC. “In the past two years, our NIH funding has increased by more than 47 percent, going from $30 million to $44.3 million. This is an exciting trend for UNMC since NIH funding is considered the gold standard for research funding. UNMC is fortunate to have a growing corps of investigators whose work attracts this prestigious funding. This puts us on pace to meet our goal of $50 million in annual NIH funding by the end of fiscal year 2004-2005.
“In addition, our record-breaking pace for extramural funding continues, following our $26 million first quarter for this fiscal year. The second quarter is similar to last year’s but we anticipate an excellent third quarter, based upon the large number of new research grant proposals that were submitted by our energized research force.”
Dr. Rosenquist said the new $77 million Durham Research Center is now open and many investigators have moved into the lower levels. The new facility will allow researchers to better collaborate on research projects and should greatly enhance UNMC’s research efforts, he said.
Some of UNMC’s research highlights during the second quarter included:
Kristine McVea, M.D., associate professor in the department of family medicine, received $485,550 to train teen peer group counselors for smoking cessation. Teen smoking is a significant cancer control problem that is currently not being addressed adequately, Dr. McVea said. Although 75 percent of high school smokers have tried to quit, almost all interventions designed to help teens break their habit have failed simply because teens do not seek help.
In preliminary studies, peer counseling intervention has shown great promise. Project staff members give four hours of training to teen peer counselors who then deliver supportive, respectful smoking cessation messages to their friends at school. The project goal is to do a randomized, controlled trial to test teen counseling effectiveness in 24 schools in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa over the next three years.
Surinder Batra, Ph.D., professor, department of biochemistry and molecular biology, received $310,000 to study how the bodily absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs with genetically-engineered antibodies are affected when the drugs are used to increase the penetration of cancer fighting antibodies into tumors. The use of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy either alone or in combination has met with only modest success for advanced cancer, Dr. Batra said.
Radio immunotherapy (RAIT) is a “smart” way of delivering radiation to cancer cells and is independent of drug toxicity and/or hormone resistance. But even targeted RAIT has met with limited success against advanced tumors. One form of therapy has been demonstrated to improve the efficiency of RAIT, but its use is limited by its high systemic toxicity. Dr. Batra’s study explores how to enhance vascular and tumor penetration while minimizing the harmful potential from toxicity.
Bela Toth, DVM, professor at the Eppley Institute, received $220,000 to study the use of extract from the CV mushroom in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer – a therapy already approved in Japan. Recently, hot water extracts from the CV mushroom have been used as nutritional supplements by cancer patients in the United States. Dr. Toth’s study will compare the bioactivity of the clinical preparation to the nutritional supplement to better understand the CV mushroom’s ability to boost the immune system. His project seeks to prove that the extract can enhance the immune system and lead to preventative and therapeutic activity in mice with colorectal cancer.
John Davis, Ph.D., professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, and director of research and development for the Olson Center for Women’s Health, received $121,074 to study how primary cells will provide information on the cellular events that control survival and proliferation of ovarian cells. This information is expected to translate into more effective treatments for enhancing reproductive potential in domestic farm animals. This research may also provide insight into abnormal conditions such as premature ovarian failure, ovarian disease and cell tumors of the ovary.
Gloria Borgstahl, Ph.D., associate professor at the Eppley Institute, received $104,964 to develop a picture of what protein machines look like in order to understand how they work and how to fix them when they are broken. DNA – the biological molecule that holds the genetic code – encodes all the proteins used by the cell. When the DNA becomes damaged, the resulting proteins are abolished or become nonfunctional. Disease can result when proteins responsible for repairing damaged DNA are not working properly. The pathway of DNA repair studied in this project is thought to be of particular relevance to breast cancer.