The UNMC College of Medicine faculty received 36 grant awards representing $6.64 million in new funding during the months of February and March.
M. Jana Broadhurst, M.D., Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, has received a $1.68 million pass-through award from the Department of Defense for work on a project to develop a system that identifies previous exposure to materials that could be associated with weapons of mass destruction.
Kenneth Bayles, Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, has received a $733,000 award from the National Strategic Research Institute for a drug discovery and development project for medical countermeasures.
Rey Carabeo, Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, has received an NIH R01 investigating the regulatory role of tandem tryptophan codons in chlamydial persistence. The $598,000 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease will fund an investigation that will attempt to understand the processes that allow asymptomatic chlamydiae to survive. A better understanding of these organisms may lead to novel diagnostics or therapeutics for chronic chlamydial diseases.
Irving Zucker, Ph.D., cellular/integrative physiology, has received a renewed NIH R01 award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for $570,000. The project will study the role of certain cardiac reflex pathways on the development of kidney failure in individuals with heart failure.
Katherine Hyde, Ph.D., biochemistry and molecular biology, has received a $394,000 R01 award from the National Cancer Institute for a project, “The Role of the CBFB-MYH11 Complex in Leukemia Maintenance.”
Rebekah Gundry, Ph.D., cellular/integrative physiology, has received two R01 awards, both from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The awards, totaling $706,000, are for two projects: “Cell Surface Phenotyping Human Primary Cells,” and “Cell Surface Proteins in Human Cardiomyocytes.”
Erika Boesen, Ph.D., cellular/integrative physiology, has received a $338,000 R01 award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for the proposal, “Mechanisms of iron-mediated renal injury in lupus nephritis.” The project will investigate the mechanisms by which kidney injury occurs in populations with lupus to understand whether blocking these processes could serve as a new or complementary treatment strategy for lupus nephritis.
Jason MacTaggart, M.D., vascular surgery, has received pass-through funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for his work on a project, “Effects of aortic compliance and Windkessel reduction on cardiac and aortic pathophysiology.” The project seeks to develop a new stent-graft to prevent damage to the heart.
Maegen Wallace, M.D., orthopaedic surgery, has received pass-through funding from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for work to support the Brittle Bone Disorders Consortium, focusing on rare bone diseases.
Matthew Rizzo, M.D., neurological sciences, has received pass-through funding from the Department of Transportation for a project, “Deep InSight: Deep Extraction of Driver State from Naturalistic Driving Dataset.”
Surinder Batra, Ph.D., biochemistry and molecular biology, has received funding from the Veterans Administration for lab services for Mucin signatures and molecular imaging for the early detection of colorectal cancer.
Julie Vose, M.D., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, has received pass-through funding from the National Cancer Institute for work with the City of Hope Lymphoma SPORE investigating therapy-related leukemia following autologous transplantation for lymphoma.
Joshua Santarpia, Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, has received funding from the National Strategic Research Institute to develop an aerosol collection system to be deployed on an unmanned aircraft.
Kari Simonsen, M.D., pediatrics – infectious disease, has received pass-through funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for a clinical trial as a part of the Acute Flaccid Myelitis Congenital and Perinatal Infections Rare Diseases Clinical Research Consortium through the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Pierre Fayad, M.D., neurological sciences, has received pass-through funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a clinical trial as a part of the ARCADIA-CSI study through Stanford University.
Ted Mikuls, M.D., internal medicine – rheumatology, has received technical salary support for his Veterans Affairs Nebraska Educational Biomedical Research Association rheumatology trials.
Justin Cramer, M.D., radiology, has received pass-through funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for work supporting a project, “The influence of 3D printed prostheses on neural activation patterns of the primary motor cortex in children with unilateral congenital upper limb reductions.”
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.
Cyrus Desouza, M.D., internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolism, will be the UNMC-lead investigator on an industry-sponsored, phase III randomized controlled trial investigating the safety and efficacy of a drug for individuals with moderate to advanced diabetic kidney disease.
Vinicius Ernani, M.D., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, will be the UNMC-lead on a phase I study investigating a novel therapeutic drug for patients with untreated extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer.
Krishna Gundaboulu, M.B.B.S., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, has received a work order to investigate the efficacy of certain drugs in patients with FLT3 mutated acute myeloid leukemia.
Andrea Zimmer, M.D., internal medicine – infectious disease, will be the UNMC-lead on a phase III randomized controlled trial investigating the safety and efficacy of a novel therapeutic drug for immunocompromised individuals with lower respiratory tract parainfluenza infection.
Robert Bociek, M.D., internal medicine – oncology/hematology, will be the UNMC-lead on a phase II study evaluating a certain therapeutic drug in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Carol Toris, Ph.D., ophthalmology and visual sciences, received two industry-sponsored awards to investigate how certain compounds affect aqueous humor dynamics.
Austin Thompson, M.D., internal medicine – pulmonary, will be the UNMC-lead on a study investigating the efficacy and safety of a certain drug to improve treatment outcomes in patients with pulmonary hypertension.
Shaheed Merani, M.D., transplant surgery, has received funding to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel device to monitor and preserve donor livers for transplantation.
Marcus Snow, M.D., internal medicine – rheumatology, will be the UNMC-lead on an industry-sponsored phase III randomized controlled trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of a certain drug in systemic sclerosis patients.
Andrew Goldsweig, M.D., internal medicine – cardiovascular medicine, has received industry funding to collect evaluate performance and procedural outcomes associated with a novel transcatheter aortic heart valve.
David Mercer, M.D., Ph.D., transplant surgery, will be the UNMC-lead on a randomized controlled trial evaluating a solution to keep intravenous vascular access devices unobstructed.
Paul Fey, Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, has received industry support for his project, “Recombinant Expression of Fusion Proteins for Vaccine Applications.”
Danish Bhatti, M.D., neurological sciences, has received industry-sponsored funding to compare the usage of objective measurement using a monitoring device compared to standard-of-care in treating individuals with Parkinson’s Disease.
Priscila Rodrigues Armijo, M.D., general surgery, has received funding from the American Hernia Society for her proposal, “Ergonomics of Inguinal Hernia Repairs with Mesh Fixation between Robotic, Laparoscopic and Open Procedures.”
Baha Abdalhamid, M.D., Ph.D., pathology/microbiology, has received funding to participate in a bone mineral density monitor registry.
Christopher Ashwood, Ph.D., cellular/integrative physiology, received a postdoctoral researcher award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.
Rebecca Oberley-Deegan, Ph.D., biochemistry and molecular biology, received an award for her proposal, “Developing Pro-NP Nanoparticles for Prevention of Radiation-Induced Skin Reactions.”