Research highlights, March 2024

Danita Velasco, MD

Danita Velasco, MD

The UNMC College of Medicine received grant and funding awards totaling more than $800,000 in January. Awards included:

Danita Velasco, MD, pediatrics-genetics, received a grant of $140,300 from the Baylor College of Medicine for the Brittle Bone Disorders Consortium of the Rare Disease Clinical Research Network.

Flobater Gawargi, cellular and integrative physiology, received a grant of $67,388 from the American Heart Association for a study of cardiac iron regulation to prevent myocardial cell death in T1DM.

Gabrielle Watson, pathology, microbiology and immunology, received a grant of $67,388 from the American Heart Association for a study on the identification of arginine transporters in Staphylococcus aureus.

Delia Omar, cellular and integrative physiology, received a grant of $67,388 from the American Heart Association for a study of regulation of Lipid droplets by endosomal sorting complexes in liver steatosis.

Eric Langewisch, MD, internal medicine-nephrology, received a grant of $50,000 from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for assessment of biomarker-guided CNI substitution in kidney transplantation.

Trevor Van Schooneveld, MD, internal medicine-infectious diseases, received a grant of $19,999 Johns Hopkins University for a diagnostic stewardship intervention to improve blood culture use among adult patients in acute care hospitals.

Helen Song, MD, ophthalmology and visual sciences, received a grant of $2,000 from the VitreoRetinal Surgery Foundation for a study of clinical and molecular characteristics of CMV retinitis phenotypes.

Industry-sponsored grants and contracts:

Andrew Huang Pacheco, MD, pediatrics-gastroenterology, received funding for a study to investigate the efficacy and safety of Dupilumab in adult and adolescent patients with eosinophilic gastritis with or without eosinophilic duodenitis.

Curtis Hartman, MD, orthopaedic surgery, received funding for a study of subjects with the REDAPT System Monolithic Sleeveless/Sleeved Stem and/or Fully Porous Acetabular Shell and/or Modular Shell Components previously implanted.

Tammy Wichmann, MD, internal medicine-pulmonary, received funding for a study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of Liposomal Treprostinil inhalation suspension (L606) in certain subjects.

Mara Seier, MD, neurological sciences, received funding for a study of Altropane (123I) injection for striatal dopamine transporter visualization using SPECT brain imaging.

Fedja Rochling, MBChB, internal medicine-GI, received funding for a study of Linerixibat for the treatment of cholestatic pruritus in participants with primary biliary cholangitis.

Hani Haider, PhD, orthopaedic surgery, received funding for three million-cycle wear testing.