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Tag: Grant Funded News

  • TTUHSC El Paso Receives $6 Million CPRIT Grant for Research on Cancer in Hispanics

    TTUHSC El Paso Receives $6 Million CPRIT Grant for Research on Cancer in Hispanics

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    Newswise — EL PASO, Texas — When it comes to Hispanic health care, cancer is not just a disease; it’s an epidemic.

    Coming to the aid of this underserved population, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso has received a landmark $6 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). The grant will fund the Impacting Cancer Outcomes in Hispanics (ICOHN) project, which examines cancer and cancer-related health disparities in Hispanic populations along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    “The award for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso is transformational for cancer research in this region,” said CPRIT CEO Wayne Roberts. “This grant, along with other cancer research grants for the university, are not only a recognition of the significant development of cancer research here at TTUHSC El Paso, but an endorsement of the long-lasting impact this research will have in Texas. It is only the beginning, and CPRIT is proud to help support this vital effort here in El Paso.”

    Rajkumar Lakshmanaswamy, Ph.D., dean of the Francis Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at TTUHSC El Paso, is principal investigator for the ICOHN project. Dr. Lakshmanaswamy said the CPRIT grant provides an opportunity to build on the university’s research strengths and investments in cancer research.

    “We’re situated in a unique position to address the growing cancer burden among the Hispanic community,” said Dr. Lakshmanaswamy, a biomedical science professor who directs the university’s Center of Emphasis in Cancer. “Our goal is to improve access to health care for our Hispanic community members by developing novel biomarkers and therapeutics, grounded in an improved understanding of the biological, cultural and behavioral determinants of cancer.”

    The Centers for Disease Control reports cancer as the leading cause of death in U.S. Hispanics, accounting for 20.3% of all deaths among this group. One in three Hispanic men and women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and distinct disparities are evident, such as high rates of leukemia and liver cancer compared to other populations. Breast cancer, a common occurrence in all communities, is a notable concern among Hispanics, who make up 83% of the population of our Borderplex.

    Benefitting the university’s Center of Emphasis in Cancer, the grant is part of CPRIT’s Texas Regional Excellence in Cancer (TREC) initiative, of which TTUHSC El Paso is one of the first 5 grant recipients. The TREC initiative aims to decrease the impact of cancer in communities by developing new diagnostic markers and treatments. In addition to the biological aspect of cancer, the TREC initiative will also consider cultural and behavioral aspects of the disease, which are often overlooked but crucial in understanding the overall cancer burden.

    The Hispanic population carries a heavy cancer burden, but according to a 2020 study, Hispanics made up less than 4% of patients participating in cancer clinical trials nationwide.

    “Hispanic communities are largely underrepresented in cancer research and clinical trials,” said Dr. Lakshmanaswamy. “This grant allows us to bridge this gap and ensures the benefits of our research reach those who need it most. As researchers, we aim to bring hope to our community, and to continue building the path toward improving cancer outcomes and eliminating health disparities.”

    The ICOHN project will establish three comprehensive research areas, with an initial focus on leukemia, breast and liver cancer. The researchers will be supported by a mentoring and professional development program in collaboration with seasoned researchers from six other medical schools and specialists from five National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated comprehensive cancer centers. This collective effort aims to form a concentration of successful researchers devoted to improving cancer outcomes in the Hispanic population.

    Since 2011, CPRIT has invested over $34 million in our Borderplex region through TTUHSC El Paso, funding a range of cancer-related initiatives. From facilitating essential diagnostic testing, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, to promoting early cancer detection, CPRIT’s investment has proven instrumental in the community’s fight against cancer. Moreover, through their support of education and free vaccination programs targeting human papillomavirus (HPV), CPRIT has significantly contributed to reducing HPV-related cancers in West Texas, leaving a lasting impact on the community.

    The announcement of the grant follows the recent awarding of $65 million by the Texas Legislature to build a comprehensive cancer center at TTUHSC El Paso. Together, both projects will ensure TTUHSC El Paso and our Borderplex region become a leading cancer education, research, and patient care hub for the Southwest, and further solidifies the university’s standing as a health care change agent.

    About Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)

    As the second-largest public funder of cancer research in the nation, CPRIT provides funding for projects that deliver invaluable breakthroughs in cancer research, create high-quality jobs, and reduce cancer mortality rates across the state.

    To learn more about CPRIT, visit www.cprit.texas.gov.

    About Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso

    TTUHSC El Paso is the only health sciences center on the U.S.-Mexico border and serves 108 counties in West Texas that have been historically underserved. It’s a designated Title V Hispanic-Serving Institution, preparing the next generation of health care heroes, 48% of whom identify as Hispanic and are often first-generation students.

    Established as an independent university in the Texas Tech University System in 2013, TTUHSC El Paso is celebrating 10 years as a proudly diverse and uniquely innovative destination for education and research. According to a 2022 analysis, TTUHSC El Paso contributes $634.4 million annually to our Borderplex region’s economy.

    With a mission of eliminating health care barriers and creating life-changing educational opportunities for Borderplex residents, TTUHSC El Paso has graduated over 2,000 doctors, nurses and researchers over the past decade, and will add dentists to its alumni beginning in 2025. For more information, visit www.ttuhscepimpact.org.

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  • New algorithm may fuel vaccine development

    New algorithm may fuel vaccine development

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    Newswise — LA JOLLA, CA—Immune system researchers have designed a computational tool to boost pandemic preparedness. Scientists can use this new algorithm to compare data from vastly different experiments and better predict how individuals may respond to disease.

    “We’re trying to understand how individuals fight off different viruses, but the beauty of our method is you can apply it generally in other biological settings, such as comparisons of different drugs or different cancer cell lines,” says Tal Einav, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and co-leader of the new study in Cell Reports Methods.

    This work addresses a major challenge in medical research. Laboratories that study infectious disease—even laboratories focused on the same viruses—collect wildly different kinds of data. “Each dataset becomes its own independent island,” says Einav.

    Some researchers might study animal models, others might study human patients. Some labs focus on children, others collect samples from immunocompromised senior citizens. Location matters too. Cells collected from patients in Australia might react differently to a virus compared with cells collected from a patient group in Germany, just based on past viral exposures in those regions.

    “There’s an added level of complexity in biology. Viruses are always evolving, and that changes the data too,” says Einav. “And even if two labs looked at the same patients in the same year, they might have run slightly different tests.”

    Working closely with Rong Ma, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, Einav set out to develop an algorithm to help compare large datasets. His inspiration came from his background in physics, a discipline where—no matter how innovative an experiment is—scientists can be confident that the data will fit within the known laws of physics. E will always equal mc2.

    “What I like to do as a physicist is collect everything together and figure out the unifying principles,” says Einav.

    The new computational method doesn’t need to know precisely where or how each dataset was acquired. Instead, Einav and Ma harnessed machine learning to determine which datasets follow the same underlying patterns. 

    “You don’t have to tell me that some data came from children or adults or teenagers. We just ask the machine ‘how similar are the data to each other,’ and then we combine the similar datasets into a superset that trains even better algorithms,” says Einav. Over time, these comparisons could reveal consistent principles in immune responses—patterns that are hard to detect across the many scattered datasets that abound in immunology. 

    For example, researchers could design better vaccines by figuring out exactly how human antibodies target viral proteins. This is where biology gets really complicated again. The problem is that humans can make around one quintillion unique antibodies. Meanwhile a single viral protein can have more variations than there are atoms in the universe. 

    “That’s why people are collecting bigger and bigger data sets to try and explore biology’s nearly infinite playground,” says Einav. 

    But scientists don’t have infinite time, so they need ways to predict the vast reaches of data they can’t realistically collect. Already, Einav and Ma have shown that their new computational method can help scientists fill in these gaps. They demonstrate that their method to compare large datasets can reveal myriad new rules of immunology, and these rules can then be applied to other datasets to predict what missing data should look like.

    The new method is also thorough enough to provide scientists with confidence behind their predictions. In statistics, a “confidence interval” is a way to quantify how certain a scientist is of a prediction.

    “These predictions work a bit like the Netflix algorithm that predicts which movies you might like to watch,” says Einav. The Netflix algorithm looks for patterns in movies you’ve selected in the past. The more movies (or data) you add to these prediction tools, the more accurate those predictions will get.

    “We can never gather all the data, but we can do a lot with just a few measurements,” says Einav. “And not only do we estimate the confidence in predictions, but we can also tell you what further experiments would maximally increase this confidence. For me, true victory has always been to gain a deep understanding of a biological system, and this framework aims to do precisely that.”

    Einav recently joined the LJI faculty after completing his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Jesse Bloom, Ph.D., at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. As he continues his work at LJI, he plans to focus on the use of computational tools to learn more about human immune responses to many viruses, beginning with influenza. He’s looking forward to collaborating with leading immunologists and data scientists at LJI, including Professor Bjoern Peters, Ph.D., also a trained physicist.

    “You get beautiful synergy when you have people coming from these different backgrounds,” says Einav. “With the right team, solving these big, open problems finally becomes possible.”

    The study, “Using Interpretable Machine Learning to Extend Heterogeneous Antibody-Virus Datasets,” was supported by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (grant DRQ 01-20) and by Professor David Donoho at Stanford University.

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crmeth.2023.100540

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    La Jolla Institute for Immunology

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  • Virginia Tech awarded grant to study lingering Lyme disease symptoms

    Virginia Tech awarded grant to study lingering Lyme disease symptoms

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    Newswise — An estimated 1,200 Americans, on average, are diagnosed with Lyme disease each day. Some of those patients continue to experience negative effects, even after treatment.

    Lyme disease researcher Brandon Jutras, associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and affiliated faculty of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, recently received a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study what causes the disease to linger long after treatment.

    “Using a series of sophisticated molecular techniques, in combination with both bacterial and host genetics, we’re working to understand why and how some patients respond to therapy, while others do not,” said Jutras, the lead investigator in the Department of Biochemistry and an affiliate faculty member in the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens. “Our two-pronged approach looks at this problem from both sides: What unique chemical features of the bacterium’s cell wall are responsible for causing symptoms and what genetic factors from the host-response side play a role in sustained pathology”.

    Previously, Jutras discovered that:

    This research builds upon the previous discoveries and will determine what about the cell wall makes patients sick and define new strategies, such as monoclonal antibody therapy, to improve Lyme disease patient health when previous treatments have failed.

    “We recognize this is an issue and that patients have these long-term symptoms, but we don’t know why,” said Mecaila McClune, who is a key member of the research team and a graduate student in the Jutras lab. “This is what my research is trying to determine what’s going on and how we can treat the persistent effects of the disease, which will improve quality of life going forward.”

    These new studies were facilitated by earlier support from the Global Lyme Alliance and Bay Area Lyme Foundation and continue an active collaboration with GlycoMIP, and both the University of Virginia and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

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  • KU Cancer Center receives historic $100 million gift from Sunderland Foundation to support new cancer research and care facility

    KU Cancer Center receives historic $100 million gift from Sunderland Foundation to support new cancer research and care facility

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    Newswise — The University of Kansas Cancer Center has received a $100 million lead gift to build a new, state-of-the-art destination cancer center. This gift is both the largest gift ever given by the Sunderland Foundation and the largest ever received by the University of Kansas and The University of Kansas Health System.

    This gift raises the total to $143 million for a building to bring together cancer research, treatment and patient care teams, transforming cancer care in the region.

    “We believe The University of Kansas Cancer Center is poised to change cancer research and care for generations,” said Charlie Sunderland, trustee of the Sunderland Foundation and former chair of The University of Kansas Hospital Authority Board’s Quality Committee. “Giving people the opportunity to receive such a high level of quality cancer treatment close to home is a gift like no other. I’m grateful for the foundation’s role in making this possible.”

    The Sunderland Foundation gift is one of several significant investments in the new building. Earlier this year, it was announced that U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (Kan.) — a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations — secured $43 million in congressionally directed spending to plan and help build research aspects of the new facility.

    “After years of hard work and dedication, The University of Kansas Cancer Center was awarded the NCI’s comprehensive cancer center designation, opening up new possibilities and greater federal investment,” said Moran. “The KU Cancer Center is already a nationally recognized leader in the fight to treat and cure cancer. With a new, state-of-the-art cancer center, The University of Kansas Cancer Center can expand its legacy and capabilities to conduct a greater number of innovative research projects, which will undoubtedly lead to improved treatments for patients.”

    University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas A. Girod, M.D., recognized the importance of such investments to the future of the cancer center.

    “The funding provided by the Sunderland Foundation, combined with the appropriation secured by Senator Moran, will enable the KU Cancer Center to enhance its work in research and patient care while fulfilling its duty to provide public education and outreach programs, especially to diverse communities and high-risk populations,” said Girod. “More broadly, by strengthening the KU Cancer Center, this funding elevates the entire university and strengthens KU’s position as a leading national research institution and proud member of the Association of American Universities. We deeply appreciate the Sunderland Foundation and Senator Moran’s continued support of the KU Cancer Center and the university, and we look forward to partnering with them in the future on initiatives that benefit Kansas.”

    KU Cancer Center leadership has long had a vision to bring the entire cancer community — from physician-scientists to researchers to physicians and clinical staff — all under one roof. Doing so enables spontaneous and serendipitous collaborations, which often lead to fresh, new thinking needed to solve cancer’s most complex puzzles, a belief closely held by Roy Jensen, M.D., vice chancellor and director of the KU Cancer Center.

    “Our vision is for The University of Kansas Cancer Center to be a beacon of hope and a global destination for both those with cancer and for scientists and clinicians seeking to cure cancer,” Jensen said. “This building will be a hub that brings together leading-edge patient care and innovation as we seek to transform both cancer care and cancer research in our quest to cure cancer — together. Patients treated at NCI-designated cancer centers have a 25% greater chance of survival compared to other cancer centers because of the enhanced relationship between patient care and research. This building will advance our goals even further, serving as a catalyst for breakthroughs that will change cancer care on the national level.”

    Currently, The University of Kansas Cancer Center’s labs and researchers are scattered across multiple campuses in the Kansas City metro area and Lawrence, Kansas. There is a need to provide options to expand space for patient care and cancer research, as well as foster multidisciplinary collaborative research efforts. On the heels of the KU Cancer Center’s NCI comprehensive cancer center designation, a world-class research and clinical space putting patients at the center of science and clinical care will make it a global destination for the best cancer treatment.

    “Advancing the KU Cancer Center through this funding and this new building will continue to benefit the University of Kansas Medical Center, its researchers and its students,” said Robert D. Simari, M.D., executive vice chancellor of KU Medical Center. “It also means more collaboration, more cutting-edge research and more opportunities to pursue team science with researchers, scientists and faculty members throughout our schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions.”

    “The University of Kansas Cancer Center is a transformative engine, which will not only reshape how cancer care is delivered but also our community as a destination for the very best cancer care available anywhere,” said Tammy Peterman, M.S., FAAN, president, Kansas City division, and health system executive vice president, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer. “We are doing things at the cancer center not done anywhere else in the country. With our nationally recognized specialists and world-class care teams, we will deliver even more groundbreaking treatments and innovations.”

    The new facility will be located on the 39th and Rainbow campus. It will be built in phases, with the goal of breaking ground on the first phase by the earliest in the fall of 2024. The new building will bring expanded cancer care and research together in one place. Patients will have access to more innovative clinical trials and groundbreaking therapies developed on site. In addition, the whole patient experience — from nutrition and social workers to pathology and imaging, and everything in-between — will happen in one place. Researchers also will be able to collaborate in real time with physicians on personalized treatment options, making them more quickly available to patients.

    “We do big things in Kansas City, due in large part to the generosity and vision of people like Charlie and Kent Sunderland and the Sunderland Foundation,” said Bob Page, president and CEO of The University of Kansas Health System. “The commitment of our community and elected officials like Senator Moran have placed The University of Kansas Health System and The University of Kansas Cancer Center at the center of Kansas City’s transformation. This new building is more than a building; it is about taking a bold step to say, ‘We believe we can transform the way cancer research and care is provided in our region, across this country and around the globe.’ We not only will save more lives, we will change more lives and our community for the better.”

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  • Large and In Charge

    Large and In Charge

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    BYLINE: Kelly Craine

    Newswise — WACO, Texas (June 23, 2023) – Leopard seals are prehistoric, reptilian-looking marine predators often portrayed as scary villains in movies such as “Happy Feet” and “Eight Below,” but little is known about their basic biology. The combination of the extreme climate in Antarctica, the species’ solitary habits and their lethal reputation makes leopard seals one of the most difficult apex predators to study on Earth.

    In 2018 and 2019, Sarah Kienle, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Baylor University, and her colleagues collected movement and dive behavior data and samples from leopard seals off the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Their goal was to compile crucial baseline data on the ecology and physiology of this enigmatic species.

    Kienle and her colleagues published their first study on leopard seals in August 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, in which they showed that leopard seals have flexible movement patterns and dive behaviors. This variability may offer leopard seals the resilience needed to survive the extreme climate and environmental disturbances occurring around Antarctica and beyond.

    Emily Sperou, a Ph.D. student at Baylor, is lead author of a new study examining the stress physiology of leopard seals.

    “Large and in charge: Cortisol levels vary with sex, diet and body mass in an Antarctic predator, the leopard seal” published this month in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science is the first in-depth study of leopard seal physiology.

    In this groundbreaking study, Sperou and colleagues, including Kienle, examined how cortisol – an important stress hormone – varies between leopard seals. Their study also shows that leopard seals have the highest cortisol concentrations of any pinniped, including seals, sea lions and walruses.

    ROLE OF CORTISOL

    As a stress hormone, cortisol is an essential biomarker in mammals that regulates physiological processes such as the immune system, reproductive function, and even behavior.

    Cortisol levels in mammals can fluctuate due to a wide variety of internal and external stressors ranging from the daily fight for survival to changes in diet. Sperou wanted to know how cortisol varied in leopard seals based on different ecological and life history traits, like sex, age, body size and diet.

     “Measuring and comparing cortisol concentrations provides important context for understanding the physiological responses of mammals,” Sperou said.

     THE STUDY

    The goals for this study were to establish baseline cortisol concentrations for leopard seals and assess how cortisol levels change among individual leopard seals within a single population. To do this, Sperou measured cortisol concentrations, body mass and diet from 19 leopard seals that were sampled in the 2018-2019 expedition.

    Prior to the latest Baylor research, only one previous study has been conducted on cortisol values in leopard seals. This earlier study only measured cortisol in four seals and did not include information on their sex or body size.  

    “The smaller your sample sizes and with no context for the animals, it’s hard to figure out what cortisol concentrations mean and how that compares to other individual seals and other species,” Kienle said.

    Sperou also compared the leopard seal cortisol levels to 26 other closely related carnivore species with comparable data, including pinnipeds, bears, badgers and otters.

    FINDINGS

     Leopard seals have extremely highest cortisol levels.

      • Leopard seals in this study have the highest cortisol levels ever reported for this species.
      • An adult male leopard seal now holds the record for the highest cortisol level in any pinniped and other closely related mammals.

     Leopard seal cortisol levels vary based on sex, body size and diet.

      • Females are significantly larger than males.
      • Females feed on higher energy level prey in the food chain than males.
      • Females have significantly lower cortisol concentrations than males.

     Leopard seals have cortisol values 1.25 to 50 times higher than closely related carnivores.

      • Leopard seals have higher cortisol levels than 26 other closely related mammal species, including seals, sea lions, walruses, bears, badgers and otters. OH MY!
      • Leopard seals, along with other Antarctic seals, have higher cortisol than other pinnipeds across the planet.
      • High cortisol may be a specialized adaptation within this group of Antarctic-living marine mammals.

     

    CONCLUSION

    Evaluating the physiology of leopard seals and how their physiology changes based on their life history and ecology provides critical information about the health of individual seals and their population. Leopard seals are one of the least studied apex predators on Earth but play a disproportionately large role in Antarctic ecosystem structure and function. 

    For Sperou, this groundbreaking study provides a strong foundation for assessing leopard seals’ physiology, which is fundamental for understanding their vulnerability to climate change.

    “It’s important we understand how these species are going to respond when their environment is rapidly changing,” Sperou said.

    What’s next for this team of leopard seal biologists?

    Kienle said the team is now focused on traveling to different areas around the southern hemisphere to sample leopard seals across their range. Her team will use these data to better examine their ecology and physiology at different scales – from individuals to populations to the entire species. Their ultimate goal is to understand the adaptive capacity of leopard seals and ensure the health and well-being of this amazing species now and in the future.

    ABOUT THE AUTHORS

    Sarah Kienle, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of biology at Baylor University and the principal investigator and director of the Comparative Animal Ecophysiology Lab (CEAL). Her research broadly focused on understanding how animals work in the context of their environment. 

    Emily Sperou,  Ph.D. candidate at Baylor University, is part of the research team at Dr. Kienle’ s Comparative Ecophysiology of Animals Lab (CEAL). She is broadly interested in investigating the links between organisms’ physiological systems to larger ecological processes.

    For her Ph.D. dissertation, Sperou is comparing intraspecific variation and behavioral flexibility in the ecology and physiology of leopard seals. This research will use a comparative approach to determine the relationships between behavioral patterns, life history traits, foraging ecology and physiological performance.

    In addition to Kienle and Sperou, the research team included:

     

    • Daniel E. Crocker, Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
    • Renato Borras-Chavez, Department of Biology, Post Doctoral Research for the Comparative Animal Ecophysiology Lab at Baylor University, Waco, TX
    • Daniel P. Costa, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
    • Michael E. Goebel, Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, La Jolla, CA, and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
    • Shane B. Kanatous, Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
    • Stephen J. Trumble, Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX

     

    This work was funded by the National Science Foundation grant #1644256.

    COMPARATIVE ECOPHYSIOLOGY OF ANIMALS LAB

    The Comparative Ecophysiology of Animals Lab at Baylor University focuses on understanding how different animals work in the context of their environment. Researchers use quantitative analytical techniques to examine physiological and ecological factors that shape mammalian life history strategies. Research in this lab falls into three themes:

    • Characterizing relationship between animal form and function
    • Comparing trade-offs between different life history strategies
    • Examining flexibility in ecophysiological traits

    ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

    Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.

    ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

    The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 10 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit baylor.edu/artsandsciences.

     

     

     

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  • UNC Researchers Receive NIH Grant to Study Drug-Resistant Malaria in Ethiopia

    UNC Researchers Receive NIH Grant to Study Drug-Resistant Malaria in Ethiopia

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    Newswise — CHAPEL HILL, NC – Ethiopia is Africa’s second most-populated country with an estimated 60% of its population at risk for malaria exposure. Plasmodium falciparum infection accounts for the majority of malaria deaths and approximately 70% of all cases. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have been critical to the success in reducing the global burden of falciparum malaria between 2000 and 2015. But the emergence and spread of artemisinin-resistant falciparum malaria has become a major threat to global elimination.

    “Ethiopia has made meaningful gains in the fight against malaria. However, the malaria parasite has a long history of evolving to survive, and it appears to be doing just that,” said Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases at the UNC School of Medicine.

    The project “Epidemiology and Determinants of Emerging Artemisinin-Resistant Malaria in Ethiopia,” has been awarded 3.6 million in NIH R01 funding, building upon UNC-Chapel Hill’s strong partnership with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), the technical arm of the Ethiopia Federal Ministry of Health. The project also includes partners at Brown University, University of Notre Dame, and Imperial College London. Parr described the study as an exciting opportunity to use cutting-edge, multidisciplinary science in the fight against malaria.

    “We will be sequencing parasites from a network of sites across the country, conducting laboratory experiments, and performing predictive modeling to understand how dangerous new strains of malaria emerge and spread,” he said.

    Ashenafi Assefa, PhD, who trained as a UNC postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Parr’s group and has years of experience conducting translational malaria research, will lead study activities in Ethiopia, training personnel and running assays while overseeing protocol implementation and data collection. Assefa said the research outcomes will contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the field.

    “This study is expected to generate critical evidence about the rise and expansion of drug-resistant parasites in the region,” said Assefa. “The results will be readily consumed by policymakers and advance malaria elimination efforts in Ethiopia and beyond.”

    Collaborating with EPHI, researchers will conduct surveys of people presenting to health facilities with falciparum malaria across Ethiopia to characterize resistant parasites. These results will be integrated into a point-of-care clinical tool for identifying individuals with drug-resistant falciparum malaria. The results will also guide the development of a model to predict the future spread of resistance mutations.

    Jon Juliano, MD, MSPH, heads the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab at UNC, an interdisciplinary research collaboration that explores how pathogens interact with human hosts, with a focus on malaria.

    “We are entering a period of great concern about the effectiveness of antimalarial drugs in East Africa,” Juliano said. “The emergence of partial artemisinin resistance in multiple countries in the Rift Valley raises concerns about the long-term utility of these first line agents. This project represents a significant extension of studies to understand the emergence and spread of these mutations that the University of North Carolina is either leading or supporting in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and now Ethiopia.”

    The UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID) at the UNC School of Medicine is an engine for global health research and pan-university collaboration, transforming health in North Carolina and around the world. IGHID facilitates research excellence while providing opportunities for investigators to nurture emerging scientists through training and service, to achieve positive patient care outcomes and practice.

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    University of North Carolina School of Medicine

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  • Sylvester study identifies ‘marked disparities’ in federal cancer research funding

    Sylvester study identifies ‘marked disparities’ in federal cancer research funding

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    Newswise — MIAMI, FLORIDA (EMBARGOED UNTIL JUNE 8, 2023) – A research team at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine compiled and analyzed statistics from federal cancer research funding sources and found that funds tend to be allocated more heavily toward cancers that occur more often in non-Hispanic white people than in other racial and ethnic groups.

    The study found that funding across cancer sites is not concordant with lethality and that cancers with high incidence among racial/ethnic minorities receive lower funding, but the study’s authors say addressing these inequities could make a difference in cancer research disparities within a short time.

    “The results of this study are immediately actionable,” said Dr. Shria Kumar, a Sylvester gastroenterologist and the senior author of a paper in the June 8 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “Agencies can evaluate their own recent funding distributions and those for upcoming cycles, then they can prioritize funding for cancers that disproportionately impact minorities to mitigate disparities and reduce cancer burden.”

    The authors analyzed federal funding data to determine correlations between funding directed to cancer incidence and funding aimed at cancer mortality. They focused on National Cancer Institute funding for the 19 most common cancers, considering their respective “public health burdens,” a term that includes the incidence rate of the disease, the mortality rate, and person-years of life lost.

    Although previous studies of funding distribution have evaluated these three factors separately, the Sylvester team evaluated funding using a validated measure – funding-to-lethality (FTL) scores – that incorporates all three metrics and provides a composite, objective perspective on disease burden.

    “We were very surprised that correlation was stronger for incidence than mortality. It shows how complex and multifaceted funding allocation is, but it really underlines the need to look at it objectively, as we did here, and use it as a tool to mitigate cancer disparities, a common goal,” Kumar said.

    Breast and prostate cancer had the highest and second-highest FTL scores, while esophagus and stomach cancer ranked 18th and 19th. Kumar and colleagues noted that breast cancer research received approximately 50 times more funding than stomach cancer in 2018, even though estimated breast cancer deaths were only four times those of stomach cancer deaths.

    The authors also cited previously published statistics showing that cancers more frequently affecting non-Hispanic white people – such as breast cancer, leukemia and lymphoma – receive more funding than cancers with high incidence rates among racial and ethnic minorities – such as stomach, uterine and liver cancers.

    “In my research and in clinical practice, disparities in cancer are an unfortunate but well-known entity. I’m a gastroenterologist, and disparities are of paramount concern in my areas of expertise – stomach and colorectal cancer,” Kumar said. “Racial and ethnic disparities are well documented across the spectrum of cancer types, and this is of utmost importance. The White House’s Cancer Moonshot initiative has a focus on mitigating cancer disparities, and the NCI is very attuned to the impact that disparities have on our quest to improve cancer burden.”

    Specifics from the study:

    • There was a stronger correlation between FTL scores and race/ethnicity-specific cancer incidence, rather than mortality.
    • There was strong correlation between a cancer’s incidence among non-Hispanic white people and its FTL score, but this was not the case for other racial/ethnic groups, where there was only a weak to moderate correlation.
    • There was a moderate to strong correlation between a cancer’s mortality among non-Hispanic white people and its FTL score, but there was only a weak correlation for all other racial/ethnic groups.

    For the study, Kumar and her team obtained data from the NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database, the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) database, and Funding Statistics between 2014 and 2018. For each year, they identified the incidence rate and mortality rate – both overall and by race/ethnicity – per 100,000 people for the 19 most common cancer sites, as well as NCI funding for each cancer.

    “Despite initiatives to bolster cancer research funding and to mitigate disparities in cancer outcomes, there are marked disparities in federally funded cancer research that do not correlate with lethality,” the authors said. “Our paper identifies discrepancies in funding by demographic groups and highlights the need to ensure that federal funds are equitably distributed. This is especially important given the discrepancies in cancer outcomes for minorities, particularly in the more underfunded cancers.”

    Additional authors: Dr. Shida Haghighat is the study’s first and corresponding author. Co-authors include Dr. Chunsu Jiang, Dr. Wael El-Rifai, Alexander Zaika, and Dr. David S. Goldberg. All authors are affiliated with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine or Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Miami Health System.

    Funding: Dr. Haghighat is supported by a National Institutes of Health training grant, T32 DK 116678-05.

    Disclosures: The authors declare no personal, professional or financial conflicts of interest.

    Journal: Journal of the National Cancer Institute: Urgent Need to Mitigate Disparities in Federal Funding for Cancer Research.

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djad097

    # # #

    PHOTO CAPTION/CREDIT:

    “Racial and ethnic disparities are well documented across the spectrum of cancer types, and this is of utmost importance,” said Dr. Shria Kumar. “The White House’s Cancer Moonshot initiative has a focus on mitigating cancer disparities, and the NCI is very attuned to the impact that disparities have on our quest to improve cancer burden.” Photo by Sylvester

    # # #

    MEDIA CONTACT:
    Sandy Van
    [email protected]
    808.206.4576

     

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  • Scientists Use Machine Learning to ‘See’ How the Brain Adapts to Different Environments

    Scientists Use Machine Learning to ‘See’ How the Brain Adapts to Different Environments

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    Newswise — Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a method involving artificial intelligence to visualize and track changes in the strength of synapses — the connection points through which nerve cells in the brain communicate — in live animals. The technique, described in Nature Methods, should lead, the scientists say, to a better understanding of how such connections in human brains change with learning, aging, injury and disease.

    “If you want to learn more about how an orchestra plays, you have to watch individual players over time, and this new method does that for synapses in the brains of living animals,” says Dwight Bergles, Ph.D., the Diana Sylvestre and Charles Homcy Professor in the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine.

    Bergles co-authored the study with colleagues Adam Charles, Ph.D., M.E., and Jeremias Sulam, Ph.D., both assistant professors in the biomedical engineering department, and Richard Huganir, Ph.D., Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at JHU and Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience. All four researchers are members of Johns Hopkins’ Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute.

    Nerve cells transfer information from one cell to another by exchanging chemical messages at synapses (“junctions”). In the brain, the authors explain, different life experiences, such as exposure to new environments and learning skills, are thought to induce changes at synapses, strengthening or weakening these connections to allow learning and memory. Understanding how these minute changes occur across the trillions of synapses in our brains is a daunting challenge, but it is central to uncovering how the brain works when healthy and how it is altered by disease.

    To determine which synapses change during a particular life event, scientists have long sought better ways to visualize the shifting chemistry of synaptic messaging, necessitated by the high density of synapses in the brain and their small size — traits that make them extremely hard to visualize even with new state-of-the-art microscopes.

    “We needed to go from challenging, blurry, noisy imaging data to extract the signal portions we need to see,” Charles says.

    To do so, Bergles, Sulam, Charles, Huganir and their colleagues turned to machine learning, a computational framework that allows flexible development of automatic data processing tools. Machine learning has been successfully applied to many domains across biomedical imaging, and in this case, the scientists leveraged the approach to enhance the quality of images composed of thousands of synapses. Although it can be a powerful tool for automated detection, greatly surpassing human speeds, the system must first be “trained,” teaching the algorithm what high quality images of synapses should look like.

    In these experiments, the researchers worked with genetically altered mice in which glutamate receptors — the chemical sensors at synapses — glowed green (fluoresced) when exposed to light. Because each receptor emits the same amount of light, the amount of fluorescence generated by a synapse in these mice is an indication of the number of synapses, and therefore its strength.

    As expected, imaging in the intact brain produced low quality pictures in which individual clusters of glutamate receptors at synapses were difficult to see clearly, let alone to be individually detected and tracked over time. To convert these into higher quality images, the scientists trained a machine learning algorithm with images taken of brain slices (ex vivo) derived from the same type of genetically altered mice. Because these images weren’t from living animals, it was possible to produce much higher quality images using a different microscopy technique, as well as low quality images — similar to those taken in live animals — of the same views.

    This cross-modality data collection framework enabled the team to develop an enhancement algorithm that can produce higher resolution images from low quality ones, similar to the images collected from living mice. In this way, data collected from the intact brain can be significantly enhanced and able to detect and track individual synapses (in the thousands) during multiday experiments. 

    To follow changes in receptors over time in living mice, the researchers then used microscopy to take repeated images of the same synapses in mice over several weeks. After capturing baseline images, the team placed the animals in a chamber with new sights, smells and tactile stimulation for a single five-minute period. They then imaged the same area of the brain every other day to see if and how the new stimuli had affected the number of glutamate receptors at synapses.

    Although the focus of the work was on developing a set of methods to analyze synapse level changes in many different contexts, the researchers found that this simple change in environment caused a spectrum of alterations in fluorescence across synapses in the cerebral cortex, indicating connections where the strength increased and others where it decreased, with a bias toward strengthening in animals exposed to the novel environment.

    The studies were enabled through close collaboration among scientists with distinct expertise, ranging from molecular biology to artificial intelligence, who don’t normally work closely together. But such collaboration, is encouraged at the cross disciplinary Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Bergles says. The researchers are now using this machine learning approach to study synaptic changes in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease, and they believe the method could shed new light on synaptic changes that occur in other disease and injury contexts.

    “We are really excited to see how and where the rest of the scientific community will take this,” Sulam says.

    The experiments in this study were conducted by Yu Kang Xu (a Ph.D. student and Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute fellow at JHU), Austin Graves, Ph.D. (assistant research professor in biomedical engineering at JHU) and Gabrielle Coste (neuroscience Ph.D. student at JHU). This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (RO1 RF1MH121539).

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  • Task-specific modulation of corticospinal neuron activity during motor learning in mice (Nature Communications)

    Task-specific modulation of corticospinal neuron activity during motor learning in mice (Nature Communications)

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    Newswise — Learning motor skills depends on the brain’s ability to change, or be plastic. Specifically, the primary motor cortex of the brain can change as a person learns new motor tasks. When someone learns a complex task that involves fine motor control, like grasping an object, their brain undergoes large changes in the representation of the body part that controls the fine movements. In contrast, simpler tasks do not lead to such changes.

    In this study, researchers at Burke Neurological Institute investigated the role of a specific group of neurons, called corticospinal neurons, in learning and performing different motor tasks. Corticospinal neurons provide output from the brain directly to the spinal cord. The researchers used calcium imaging to measure activity in these neurons in mice as they learned to perform two different tasks: one that required precise movements of the forelimb, and another that was simpler and did not require as much precision.

    The researchers found that the activity of corticospinal neurons was different depending on the task the mice were performing. Specifically, the neurons showed patterns of activity that were associated with the timing of the precise movements required for the more complex task, but not for the simpler task. Further experiments showed that corticospinal neuron activity was necessary for performing the complex task, but not the simpler one.

    Overall, these findings suggest that the corticospinal network in the brain plays an important role in learning and executing precise motor movements. This research was supported by the Burke Foundation, the New York State Department of Health Spinal Cord Injury Research Board, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.

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  • Van Andel Institute, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to lead genome center under $140M NIH initiative

    Van Andel Institute, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to lead genome center under $140M NIH initiative

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    Newswise — GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (May 11, 2023) — Van Andel Institute’s Hui Shen, Ph.D., and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis’s Ting Wang, Ph.D., will co-lead a collaborative project supported by the Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues (SMaHT) Network, a new $140 million National Institutes of Health-led effort to better understand the genetic differences between individual cells and tissues in the body.

    Somatic mosaicism occurs when DNA, which houses the genetic code, accumulates slight changes throughout a person’s lifetime.

    Some variations may impede cells’ ability to function. Somatic mosaicism is a key contributor to cancer, but its role in other diseases is not well understood.

    SMaHT aims to identify and catalog these somatic variants in different individuals and enable new research into development, aging and a host of disorders.

    Together, Van Andel Institute and Washington University will serve as one of five SMaHT-supported Genome Characterization Centers, which will conduct leading-edge genomic analysis for the network.

    Wang will serve as the project’s director; Shen will serve as co-director. The project is supported by a $15 million grant from the NIH Common Fund as part of SMaHT.

    “We all carry such genetic mosaicism in our bodies, but the extent and implications of these variations remain unclear. Establishing an accurate picture of its role in the body is a massive undertaking that only can be achieved through collaboration,” Shen said. “I am thrilled to partner with Dr. Wang and the SMaHT Network, and look forward to contributing to a fuller understanding of this important and yet very much uncharted aspect of our cells.”

    In total, the NIH Common Fund issued 22 awards to establish the SMaHT Network. The project is akin to other large-scale NIH-supported projects such as the Human Genome Project, a 13-year endeavor that resulted in the first full blueprint of the human genome. 

    Shen is an internationally recognized expert in bioinformatics and epigenetics, the study of changes to DNA that do not alter the DNA sequence itself. She was a long-time member of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), an NIH-led collaborative effort to molecularly map 33 different cancer types. TCGA ended in 2018 with the publication of its Pan-Cancer Atlas, a comprehensive resource for scientists seeking to understand how and why cancer develops. Shen is a current member of the National Cancer Institute’s Genome Data Analysis Network (GDAN), a successor to TCGA that develops new tools to assist in the analysis of data.

    Research reported in this publication is supported by the NIH Common Fund under award no. UM1DA058219. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

     

    ###

    ABOUT VAN ANDEL INSTITUTE Van Andel Institute (VAI) is committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations through cutting-edge biomedical research and innovative educational offerings. Established in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1996 by the Van Andel family, VAI is now home to more than 500 scientists, educators and support staff, who work with a growing number of national and international collaborators to foster discovery. The Institute’s scientists study the origins of cancer, Parkinson’s and other diseases and translate their findings into breakthrough prevention and treatment strategies. Our educators develop inquiry-based approaches for K-12 education to help students and teachers prepare the next generation of problem-solvers, while our Graduate School offers a rigorous, research-intensive Ph.D. program in molecular and cellular biology. Learn more at vai.org.

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  • ‘Making things that matter…but making them smarter and greener;”

    ‘Making things that matter…but making them smarter and greener;”

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    Case Western Reserve University-led group wins federal grant to accelerate sustainable manufacturing in the region and beyond

    Newswise — CLEVELAND–A regional collaboration led by Case Western Reserve University has won a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to plan economic, environmental and manufacturing growth across the 18-county Northeast Ohio region.

    The award will support efforts to develop a robust and dynamic ecosystem for sustainable manufacturing and permit the team to compete for as much as $160 million from the NSF to be awarded in 2025—if the group can prove it has the ideas, relationships, track record and commitment to advance innovation and equitably benefit the regional economy.

    The group is one among 44 teams in the country–and the only one in Ohio– to receive a two-year grant to develop an “engine” in response to NSF’s new and innovative program.

    “This is an unprecedented opportunity for regional industries, small businesses, community groups, state and local governments and universities to come together and transform, lift up and lead sustainable manufacturing in America,” said Michael Oakes, the project director and senior vice president for research and technology management at Case Western Reserve.

    ‘Making things that matter…smarter and greener’

    The 11 initial planning partners are: Case Western Reserve, the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP), the City of Cleveland, TeamNEO, Cuyahoga County, MAGNET, JumpStart, Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Water Alliance, The Urban League of Greater Cleveland and the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development (NEOHCED).

    Their efforts will focus on four areas: technology innovation, technology adoption, workforce and talent development, and leadership and governance.

    To become a more sustainable region, group members say, more industries from Cleveland to Youngstown will have to embrace emerging technologies with unprecedented enthusiasm.

    Among the priority areas are energy science; electrochemistry; “green” steel and microchip production; carbon capture, storage and sequestration; and production of alternatives to petroleum-based plastics and biodegradable byproducts. Talent pipelines and inclusive growth are fundamental to success.

    Individual companies and entire industrial sectors will have to optimize or reduce energy use, water consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions. The Cleveland Water Alliance will guide the environmental innovation and impact efforts for the planning effort.

    GCP President and CEO Baiju R. Shah said the motivation for those big environment-related changes is rooted in a shared economic strategy.

    “Greater Cleveland is well known as a region where we make things that matter—this is about making things that matter, but making them smarter and greener,” Shah said. “Our leading companies are committed to sustainability for business growth as they see a strategic opportunity and they’re doing it together, not going it alone. Together, we can meet market needs and lead the world in sustainability.”

    The Urban League and NEOHCED will lead efforts to attain excellence in inclusion and environmental equity. They will seek to develop inclusive pathways in sustainable manufacturing—including careers in factories and universities—and build entrepreneurial capacity in underrepresented communities across the region.

    Ongoing efforts toward sustainability

    The broader pitch to become an NSF Center coincides with related efforts at Case Western Reserve and among the partners:

    • In March 2022, CWRU and partners launched a newS. Department of Energy-funded center focused on helping small- and medium-sized manufacturers adopt “smart manufacturing” technologies.
    • In June 2022, the university announced it would also lead an effort to integrate artificial intelligence and sensing to improve materials and processing in manufacturing—part of a long-term, federally funded strategy to strengthen U.S. innovation and industrial productivity.
    • In January 2023, CWRU’s Oakes committed $1 million to foster sustainable manufacturing as a primary focus and accelerate faculty research.
    • Also in January 2023, the GCP hosted its inaugural “Sustainability Summit” for more than 300 business leaders and stakeholders at the Huntington Convention Center. Conference participants discussed the importance of being “All In” on sustainability for business growth and regional impact—and steps and resources to get there.

    “Ultimately, this is about demonstrating that we have a working regional innovation

    ecosystem here for sustainable manufacturing,” said Nick Barendt, executive director of the Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems at Case Western Reserve and co-leader of the Engines planning project. “We’re excited to be working with our partners to make this happen.”

    Federal Engines Program

    The Engines program was authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Awardees span a broad range of states and regions, reaching geographic areas that have not fully benefited from the technology boom of the past decades.

    “These NSF Engines Development Awards lay the foundation for emerging hubs of innovation and potential future NSF Engines,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “These awardees are part of the fabric of NSF’s vision to create opportunities everywhere and enable innovation anywhere.”

    More information can be found on the NSF Engines program website.

    View a map of the NSF Engines Development Awards.

     

                                                                            ###

    Case Western Reserve University is one of the country’s leading private research institutions. Located in Cleveland, we offer a unique combination of forward-thinking educational opportunities in an inspiring cultural setting. Our leading-edge faculty engage in teaching and research in a collaborative, hands-on environment. Our nationally recognized programs include arts and sciences, dental medicine, engineering, law, management, medicine, nursing and social work. About 5,800 undergraduate and 6,300 graduate students comprise our student body. Visit case.edu to see how Case Western Reserve thinks beyond the possible.

     

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  • UTEP Awarded Numerous Grants to Support NASA Space Research

    UTEP Awarded Numerous Grants to Support NASA Space Research

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    Newswise — EL PASO, Texas (May 4, 2023) – Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso will help build a robotic device for welding in space, prepare astronauts for a mission to the Moon and more, thanks to a slew of new grants from NASA.

    The burst of grants awarded to faculty across various departments and colleges highlight UTEP’s strong partnership with NASA and the critical scientific and engineering contributions made by the University for space exploration.

    “These joint initiatives between UTEP and NASA strengthen UTEP’s reputation as a premier research institution,” said Stephen Aley, Ph.D., associate vice president of research and special projects with the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects. “The work and research performed by our faculty will impact NASA’s future space exploration and beyond.”

    The grants include:

    Lunar Regolith Simulants Study

    Professors Reza Ashtiani, Ph.D. and Darren Cone will perform research on the granular mechanics of lunar soils. Under this grant, UTEP will become the repository of lunar regolith simulants, materials developed in the lab to represent physical, chemical and mineralogical characteristics of planetary soils. The study aims to provide valuable insights into the complex challenges of constructing infrastructure on other planets. 

    Development of a Robotic System for In-Space Welding

    Professors Angel Flores-Abad, Ph.D., Joel Quintana, Ph.D., and John Bird, Ph.D., will support the development of a digital and hardware robotic system for in-space welding by characterizing process motion and forces and generating real and synthetic performance data.

    Artemis Lunar Operations Support

    This grant will allow professor Jose Hurtado, Ph.D., to continue his long-time work of providing geology expertise to NASA, including mission simulations and intensive field training for NASA astronauts at locations on Earth that resemble the Moon. 

    Lunar Soil, Rock Simulant Analysis

    Through this grant, UTEP professors Carlos Cabrera Martinez, Ph.D., and Cone, along with Alejandro Metta, Ph.D., manager of the X-Ray Core Facility within UTEP’s Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, will study imitation planetary regolith, the layer of rock on top of bedrock. The research this team will conduct will help analyze important structures in imitation lunar dust, helping to identify lunar resources that could support future bases of people living on the Moon.

    “It’s important to learn about what types of oxides, water and other types of resources may be available on the Moon,” said Carlos Cabrera Martinez, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UTEP. “This can give you an idea of where you can get, for example, oxygen and other metals and water — and that’s important to know for people staying on the Moon for a long time.”

    Cabrera is hopeful that all of these grants are paving the way for UTEP to continue providing expertise and assistance to NASA for lunar research and other expeditions.

    About The University of Texas at El Paso

    The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 24,000 students are Hispanic, and half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 169 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.

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  • High School Students Learn the Basics of Base Editing to Cure “GFP-itis”

    High School Students Learn the Basics of Base Editing to Cure “GFP-itis”

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    Newswise — Genome editing is used to modify the genes of living organisms to elicit certain traits, such as climate-resilient crops or treating human disease at the genetic level. It has become increasingly popular in agriculture, medicine and basic science research over the past decade, and will continue to be relevant and utilized well into the future. Given this prevalence, researchers at the University of California San Diego have started an outreach program that introduces genome-editing technologies to high school students.

    Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Alexis Komor, and Ph.D. candidates Mallory Evanoff and Carlos Vasquez, designed the Genome Editing Technologies Program as a way to educate students on base-editing technologies, expose them to scientists from diverse backgrounds and invite questions about college, professional development, and the everyday life of a graduate student or faculty member within academia. The program is detailed in April 20 issue of The CRISPR Journal.

    Base editors enable scientists to introduce point mutations at targeted sites in the genome of living cells with high efficiency and precision and, thus, have the therapeutic potential to treat thousands of human genetic disorders. Proof-of-concept studies have already demonstrated this technology’s potential in cell therapies and in treating progeria, sickle cell disease and liver diseases.

    “As we were testing out some of these tools, we asked ourselves, how do we make base editors accessible to high schoolers? How do we make this process really visible?” said Evanoff.

    Komor’s team generated a base-editing reporter system using E. coli bacteria. In this system, base-editing activity results in the expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP). The team installed a mutation in the bacterium’s GFP gene to remove its fluorescence. To emphasize the connection to genetic diseases, this phenotype is called “GFP-itis,” and students are tasked with “curing” the bacteria. Using base-editing technology, students correct the mutation back to wild-type, resulting in bacterial cells that fluoresce green.

    The program happens over three days, creating a more meaningful partnership with the school and building a better foundation of trust with the students. “We wanted the students to get to know us better and feel comfortable asking questions about a career in STEM,” said Komor. “A popular question is simply, ‘How do I get into undergraduate research?’ One of the students in the first school we visited, Sage Creek High School, is actually an undergraduate researcher in our lab now.”

    That student is Preety Iyer, a first-year human biology major, who recalled Komor’s visit to her high school as “an amazing opportunity to get hands-on experience with gene-editing technology. It seemed like an intangible concept to me when I was learning about it in my biology classes. Being walked through the entire process and being able to do it myself strengthened my understanding of DNA and gene editing.” 

    Iyer plans to become a doctor working with patients who have rare genetic disorders, and she’s excited to gain more valuable hands-on experience in Komor’s lab: “I’ve been able to use equipment and practice techniques, like flow cytometry and plasmid preparation, that other students don’t get to use until later in their academic careers.” 

    So far, the Genome Editing Technologies Program has visited three local high schools. The schools have had well-developed science classes and much of the equipment needed to run the experiment. The majority of students had also heard of or learned about genome engineering before. Now that Komor’s team has run the program a few times and solicited feedback from students, they hope to expand to schools without such robust science programming. 

    “My high school background in science wasn’t strong in large part because of the lack of mentorship,” said Vasquez. “It’s important to us to reach students who may not have even considered a career in STEM or medicine. To look in their eyes and instill confidence, to show we believe in them — having someone like that when I was in high school would have made a world of difference.”

    The make the experiment as accessible as possible, the team has simplified the base-editing experiment and provides all the necessary equipment. Accessibility also means making the program available to other institutions that may want to implement something similar. Interested scientists or instructors can order plasmid materials from AddGene, a worldwide nonprofit plasmid repository. These plasmids are the DNA needed to make the GFP-itis cells, as well the plasmids needed to as “cure” GFP-itis.

    The goal of the program is not only to make base editing accessible to high school students, but also to encourage critical thinking and reflect on base editing in social and cultural contexts. Komor’s team asked students to think about the difference between a disease and a trait and to consider the implications of germline genome editing, in which edits are inherited by all future descendants of the edited individual, regardless of whether those descendants consent to the procedure.

    “The ethical discussion is what hits a home run with the students,” said Vasquez. “They’ll be responsible for future gene-editing policies. It’s interesting to see them thinking about the ethical side of science.”

    “We’ve had some really good discussions about what is a disease and what is a trait,” stated Evanoff. “If we have the ability to make genetic-disease corrections, who will be able to afford those treatments? Where does the equitability lie in this technology? We don’t have the answers to that. I say to students, ‘That’s going to be your job to figure out!’”

    This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (MCB-2048207), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32 GM007240-41), the National Institute of Health (T32 GM112584), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (GT13672 and the Gilliam Fellowship Program) and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship Program.

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  • Digital Health Initiative Research Could Lead to More Reliable Health Apps

    Digital Health Initiative Research Could Lead to More Reliable Health Apps

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    BYLINE: Doug M Dollemore

    Newswise — Seven University of Utah Health projects have received seed grants that could promote the development and use of more scientifically based digital health applications in daily health care.  

    The grants, supported by the Digital Health Initiative (DHI), will focus on projects  designed to produce safer and more effective digital tools than are currently available, according to Guilherme Del Fiol, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of DHI and a professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at U of U Health.

    “There’s been a surge in the use of digital health applications in the past few years, both by patients and their doctors,” Del Fiol says. “But how many of these apps actually work as intended? Most are promoted with little or no rigorous scientific evidence.”

    In fact, a 2019 analysis of studies conducted by the 25 top-funded American producers of digital health tools, including wearable biosensors and mobile health apps, found that most of these products did not have a substantial impact on health outcomes, cost, or access to care. Another study of mental health apps concluded that only 14% of the 1,400 apps evaluated were based on real-world experiences, and none mentioned a certification or accreditation process.

    “We see these seed grants as a tremendous opportunity to alter that trajectory,” Del Fiol says. “They represent a starting point for taking innovative, reliable, and scientifically tested digital health applications from bench to bedside.”

    The seed grant projects will receive up to $50,000 for one year. The researchers will develop, test, and evaluate digital applications that fall within one of the four main areas of interest within the DHI: 

    • Mobile apps and games for health
    • Virtual reality and sensors
    • Clinical decision support tools
    • Integration with electronic health records (EHR)

    If successful, the projects will progress to clinical trials designed to assess their usefulness in a larger context, says Victoria Tiase, Ph.D., R.N.,  director of strategic development at DHI.

    “Clinicians treating patients at the bedside need better efficiency today,” Tiase says. “So, we need to get more practical and effective digital tools in the pipeline. We hope that these seed grants will be a jumping-off point for that effort.”

    Recipients of the seven seed grants represent 11 U of U Health disciplines, ranging from anesthesiology to nursing to population health.

    Project Titles, Summaries, & Awardees

    Health Records and Community Service Integration of the Going Home Toolkit

    Andrea Wallace, Ph.D. (Nursing)

    Roger Altizer, Ph.D. (Entertainment Arts Engineering, Population Health Sciences)

    Kensaku Kawamoto, M.D., Ph.D. (Biomedical Informatics)

    Wallace and colleagues will evaluate the effectiveness of a digital resource planner to help patients self-manage their health conditions after they leave the hospital. Called the “Going Home Toolkit”, the planner includes sections on transportation, medication, errands, meals, housework, personal care, billing, and insurance. It is also designed to help patients better communicate their needs to family, friends, and health care providers. 

    Broadening the Impact of Symptom Care at Home Through EHR Integration and Implementation Science 

    Elizabeth Sloss, Ph.D., M.B.A., R.N. (Nursing, Huntsman Cancer Institute)

    Kathi Mooney, Ph.D., R.N (Nursing)

    Justin D. Smith, Ph.D. (Population Health Sciences)

    Guilherme Del Fiol, M.D., Ph.D. (Biomedical Informatics)

    Kensaku Kawamoto, M.D., Ph.D. (Biomedical Informatics)

    Symptom Care at Home, a program that helps cancer patients reduce symptoms that occur during treatment for cancer, asks patients to report daily symptoms in a mobile application or by phone and receive automated coaching or follow-up from a nurse practitioner to manage their symptoms. With this DHI seed grant, the researchers will identify ways that Symptom Care at Home can incorporate patient-reported symptoms into their electronic health records.

    Patient Generated Health Data for Geriatrics Patients

    Jorie Butler, Ph.D. (Biomedical Informatics)

    Butler will collect patient-generated health data, using mobile devices like a Fitbit, from patients aged 65 and older with chronic pain. The participating patients will review and discuss their personal data with the research team to help them understand how these data are useful to patients in managing their own health. This research can be applied to future care of pain and other health conditions.

    Expanding the Capability of Intraprocedure Anesthesia Information Display and Pharmacology Forecasting

    Ken B. Johnson, M.D., M.S. (Anesthesiology)

    Beca Chacin (Anesthesiology Center for Patient Simulation)

    Soeren Hoehne (Anesthesiology Center for Patient Simulation)

    Cameron Jacobsen, M.S. (Anesthesiology)

    Noah Syroid, M.S. (Anesthesiology)

    Johnson and colleagues seek to combine an anesthesia forecasting system with electronic health records at U of U Health. With this system, an anesthesia provider will have visual guidance to monitor and predict the levels of sedation, analgesia (pain relief), and muscle relaxation for a patient who is undergoing general anesthesia.

    Explainable AI for Equitable Risk Stratification of Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke

    Mark Yandell, Ph.D. (Human Genetics, Bioinformatics)

    Martin Tristani Firouzi, M.D. (Pediatrics)

    Benjamin Steinberg M.D. (Cardiology)

    Using artificial intelligence, Yandell and colleagues seek to produce more accurate predictions of individual stroke risk. The computational model will account for socioeconomic disparities seldom considered in previous attempts at predicting strokes. These considerations include housing, transportation, and discrimination, and accessibility to nutritious foods and exercise. These refined predictions will enable doctors to offer patients more personalized stroke prevention advice.  

    Remote sensing of autonomic function and mobility coupling using wearables to monitor recovery after mild traumatic brain injury.

    Peter Fino, Ph.D. (Health and Kinesiology)

    Melissa Cortez, D.O. (Neurology)

    Leland Dibble, Ph.D., P.T. (Physical Therapy & Athletic Training) 

    Fino and his colleagues seek to develop a system to assess individuals who have persistent symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), such as concussions. The researchers will monitor activity, heart rate, and other key indicators of mTBI using wearable at-home devices. 

    By combining data streams from these devices worn at home, the researchers believe they can identify individuals with persistent mTBI symptoms earlier and expedite rehabilitation when they show signs of atypical recovery.

    Spanish Language Translation and Preliminary Feasibility of NeuroFlex: A Digital Cognitive Intervention for Late Life Depression

    Sarah Morimoto, Psy.D. (Population Health Sciences)

    Morimoto will translate and test a video game designed to relieve depression among older Spanish-speaking volunteers. The game, called Neurogrow, allows players to tend a virtual garden, performing tasks including watering, fertilizing, and eliminating pesky bugs.

    In previous research, the scientists found that Neurogrow helped relieve depression and improve cognitive function among English-speaking, non-Hispanic older men and women. The researchers hope to find similar results in Spanish-speaking volunteers. If successful, they plan to use Neurogrow more broadly in Latino/Hispanic communities.

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    University of Utah Health

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  • Columbia University Launches Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health with $75 Million Grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

    Columbia University Launches Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health with $75 Million Grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

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    Newswise — NEW YORK, April 24, 2023—Columbia University today announced the establishment of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health at Columbia University. The center will catalyze the scientific innovation and clinical implementation of precision medicine to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. The center is being established with a $75 million grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), an international philanthropic organization, as part of SNF’s Global Health Initiative (GHI). 

    The SNF Center is a joint effort of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Columbia’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. It will be embedded within Columbia University’s unique ecosystem of research and clinical services and will draw upon expertise from the Columbia-affiliated New York Genome Center and the New York State Office of Mental Health.

    The increasing sophistication of precision medicine is allowing scientists and health care providers to integrate each person’s unique genomic, physiologic, and health profiles to create optimized prevention and treatment strategies. Columbia University has been at the forefront of recent efforts to elucidate the genetic and biological changes that cause a multitude of severe mental illnesses. The SNF Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health will build upon and expand this knowledge by accumulating massive datasets of genomic sequences and longitudinal medical records.  At the same time, by harnessing interdisciplinary expertise from biologists to clinicians, the center will enable the rapid advent, from bench to bedside, of new therapeutic and prevention approaches based upon defined etiologies shared by distinct subgroups of patients.

    “The insights provided by genomics and precision medicine are proving of tremendous value in improving people’s health and lives,” said Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger. “Through this new center, our researchers will meet an urgent human need by harnessing precision medicine to promote mental health for all. We are enormously grateful to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for joining with Columbia in meeting this profound scientific and humanitarian challenge.”

    “The significant progress we have made in caring for our physical health in recent decades is apparent, but just as clear is the fact that we have left behind our mental health,” said SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos. “All of us at SNF are proud to support the doctors, scientists, and mental health professionals at Columbia in bringing together deep expertise with an equally deep sense of humanity to address one of the most critical issues of our time.”

    The collaboration between Columbia and SNF arose from a joint vision for helping to reduce the individual and societal toll of mental illness and to combat social inequality, stigma, and discrimination in mental health care. The ecosystem of knowledge and practice at Columbia University brings together research and clinical services and connects the public and private sectors. By driving innovation in mental health research and sharing advances as widely as possible, Columbia and SNF will work to help ensure that improved treatments are equally available to everyone. 

    “Many existing treatments in psychiatry do not get at root causes,” said Katrina Armstrong, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “We welcome this opportunity to develop new approaches that focus on disease mechanisms and target treatment based on an individual’s unique genetic makeup and biology for the ultimate benefit of lifting up care for the community at large.”

    Among the major projects of the SNF Center is the Genomic Medicine for Mental Health Advancement (GeMMA) initiative, being conducted in close collaboration with the New York Genome Center (NYGC). Tom Maniatis, PhD, Evnin Family Scientific Director and CEO of the NYGC and Isidore Edelman Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia, said, “The GeMMA initiative will not only provide essential information for individual patients, it will also build upon and expand pioneering work at Columbia University central to establishing ‘causal’ relationships between genetic variation and brain function, which is a critical step in the development of new approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness.”

    The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) is a major partner of the SNF Center with a renowned reputation as one of the largest and most innovative learning public mental healthcare systems in the nation. OMH Commissioner Ann Sullivan, MD said, “The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health ushers in an entirely new era of mental health care through the unprecedented potential for integration of precision psychiatry into standard clinical practice. OMH is proud to partner with Columbia University on this transformative mission, and we are deeply grateful to SNF for their remarkable commitment to improving mental health worldwide.”

    The center will be co-directed by Sander Markx, MD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) and director of the Center for Precision Neuropsychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute; Steven A. Kushner, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry at VP&S and a principal investigator at the New York State Psychiatric Institute; and Joseph Gogos, MD, PhD, professor of physiology & cellular biophysics, neuroscience, and psychiatry at VP&S and a principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, who together conveyed their collective vision for the center: “With this extraordinary support from SNF, we are poised to build on the accelerating progress in psychiatric genomics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and stem cell biology to revolutionize the treatment of mental illness. Through this new understanding, we are fundamentally committed to helping combat stigma and discrimination against people living with mental illness and realizing improved mental health care for all.”

     

    About the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

    The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants to nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. SNF funds organizations and projects worldwide that aim to achieve a broad, lasting, and positive impact for society at large, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also supports projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving the public welfare. 

    Since 1996, the Foundation has committed over $3.5 billion through more than 5,200 grants to nonprofit organizations in over 130 countries around the world. The ongoing $750 million-plus Global Health Initiative (GHI) is SNF’s largest-ever grant initiative. It includes the design, construction and outfitting of three new hospitals in Greece, procurement of critical equipment such as air ambulances, training programs for health care providers, efforts to expand access to quality mental health care such as the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative in Greece, and collaborations with institutions like The Rockefeller University, the Child Mind Institute, and the National Children’s Alliance in the United States; Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital; King Hussein Cancer Foundation and Center in Jordan; and Yorkshire Cancer Research in the United Kingdom.

    See more at snf.org.

     

    About Columbia University

    Among the world’s leading research universities, Columbia University in the City of New York continually seeks to advance the frontiers of scholarship and foster a campus community deeply engaged in understanding and confronting the complex issues of our time through teaching, research, patient care and public service. The Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons is among the top-ranked psychiatry departments in the nation and has made major contributions to the understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders. For almost a century, the department has collaborated with the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Psychiatric Institute, an international leader in understanding mental health and mental illness. Columbia is also home to the Zuckerman Institute, a renowned neuroscience research center that pioneers urgently needed insights into mind, brain and behavior that benefit health and society.

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    Columbia University Irving Medical Center

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  • Center for Ignatian Service Receives $1.3 Million Grant to Expand Service Learning at Saint Louis University

    Center for Ignatian Service Receives $1.3 Million Grant to Expand Service Learning at Saint Louis University

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    Newswise — ST. LOUIS – Saint Louis University’s Center for Ignatian Service has received a one-year $1.3 million grant from the Thomas R. Schilli Foundation to build upon the work the Center has done in its inaugural year. The Center was established in 2022 by a $612,495 pilot grant from the Schilli Foundation.  

    Housed in SLU’s College of Philosophy and Letters, the Center directs a service-learning program designed to provide a networked educational pathway for students enrolled in grades 1-8 at under-resourced schools in St. Louis and to offer SLU students community engagement options that will fulfill requirements in SLU’s core curriculum. The Center’s vison is to enable these diverse student populations to work together as part of their educational journeys. 

    The new grant enables the Center to increase the number of SLU students in the program and to expand by including St. Louis area high school students. The growing program answers the call to be a good neighbor in SLU’s community, and to help students discern what it means to serve and to lead in ways that foster a lifelong commitment to serving others.

    “We are thrilled to receive this grant which will enhance SLU’s already strong service culture,” said Randall Rosenberg, Ph.D., Dean of SLU’s College of Philosophy and Letters and the administrator of the TRSF grant. “My hope is that colleges and schools across the University see the Center as a hub for finding creative and coordinated ways to help them and their partners use service learning to deepen the educational impact on their students as well as their impact within the St. Louis community.” 

    The Center manages all the logistics for running the pathway including scheduling, student-background clearances, service-learning onboarding and related training, recording service attendance, and transportation to/from service sites.

    “We hope that this grant will allow more SLU students to form relationships with students in the city and learn the practice of discernment while experiencing the realities that they see and share,” said Sr. Jessica Kerber, aci, academic coordinator in the Center for Ignatian Service.

    Currently the Center runs two service-learning, after school programs – Kick & Code and The Clavius Project.

    Kick & Code is for elementary students. It exercises students’ minds and bodies through play. With hands-on, age-appropriate activities, students learn computer science and design engineering concepts while developing their reading, math, social-emotional, health and athletic skills. 

    The Clavius Project is for middle-school students. It offers fun, hands-on, and challenging STEM activities in robotics, coding, and 3D printing that also engage students’ reading, math and team building skills.

    “I’m overjoyed to provide even more impactful learning experiences for the elementary and middle school students we serve,” said Eric Moody, service coordinator in the Center. “I’m eager to see the positive impact our programming will have in their lives by igniting their passion for learning.”

    This Schilli grant enables the Center to integrate both programs into a 1-8 grade networked educational pathway. The Center is also working to expand its programming via strategic partnerships within SLU and externally with community partners.

    By the end of the current grant window, Center leadership hopes to have built a solid infrastructure for scaling a coordinated network of STEM and health programming throughout the St. Louis region. 

    “We are excited to receive a second grant from the Thomas R. Schilli Foundation. The ‘Infrastructure Buildout Grant’ supports our work to build a mission focused service-learning program that provides innovative, inclusive, and sustainable solutions that help end cycles of poverty in our St. Louis communities,” said Jay Hammond, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Ignatian Service. “Supplying the infrastructure enables our students and partners to focus on their shared work, instead of logistical problems.” 

    The Center’s service-learning program is informally known as [email protected] For more information about the Center and its service-learning courses and community engagement programming, visit the Center for Ignatian Service.

    Center for Ignatian Service 

    Guided by the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences, the Center for Ignatian Service strives to help end the cycle of poverty in St. Louis by managing a networked educational pathway where Ignatian Service students accompany students at under-resourced schools with engaging educational projects throughout the year. Collectively, the Center enables diverse student populations to help transform their city as the city transforms their education as they work together toward the integral human development for all.

    Thomas R. Schilli Foundation

    The Thomas R. Schilli Foundation was founded in 2021 to support local Jesuit schools and their partners in providing collaborative, integrated, and coordinated educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in the St. Louis region.

    Saint Louis University

    Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 13,500 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.

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    Saint Louis University

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  • Achieving Prevention and Health, Rather Than More Healthcare

    Achieving Prevention and Health, Rather Than More Healthcare

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    Newswise — If more people have access to health insurance, we have to be sure the death rates of those with certain chronic conditions are decreasing.

    This is one of the statements Gregory Peck, an acute care surgeon and associate professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, will be researching on behalf of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health.

    Funded by NIH grants totaling more than $1 million through a recent two-year award from the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS), a Rutgers hub of the National Center for Advancing Translation Science, and now a four-year award from the NIDDK, Peck is on average one of just two critical care surgeons funded nationally annually creating new models of health for NIH consideration.

    Peck recently published two studies investigating death rates for gallstone disease, a disease of the abdomen that causes right-sided belly pain after eating, which share risk factors with other deadly diseases. His study, published in Gastro Hep Advances, found that between 2009 and 2018 the number of deaths of people in New Jersey with diagnosed gallstone disease (1,580) remained steady and did not improve, and that deaths in Latinos ages 65 and older potentially increased.

    His study in the Journal of Surgical Research found that after Medicaid expansion in 2014 as compared to before, the amount of emergency surgery to remove the gallbladders for gallstone disease decreased in the state overall, but increased in people with Medicaid. While fatality from gallbladder removal surgery decreased for those 65 or older, there was increased death from surgery in the younger population and a trend of more death in the population with Medicaid. Further, the relatively decreased amount of gallbladder removal surgery occurring in ambulatory outpatient care centers did not necessarily help this.

    Peck discusses the implications of the findings on a new shift in healthcare to prevention model.

    Why did you focus on gallstone disease?

    As a metabolic disease, gallstone disease is also linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. In fact, heart disease, which is the No. 1 killer in America, and gallstone disease, which is the No. 1 digestive disease requiring surgery in America, share the risk factors of high levels of bad cholesterol type and obesity.

    How do these studies inform public policy?

    The amount of people dying with gallstone disease – most of whom require surgery – over the past decade has not gotten better. That’s 160 people a year who still are dying from a preventable death such as gallstone disease. Making progress is what this type of epidemiologic study focuses on, and concerningly, we might not have made good progress.

    If Medicaid expansion didn’t positively affect the death rate of people with gallstone disease and we see it increase specifically in older Latino populations, we need to be asking if we are helping people of color and those who live in communities with lower socioeconomic status improve health or treating them sooner to prevent emergency surgery and especially decreasing death from emergency surgery. Insurance expansion is certainly needed, but we have to ensure the action specific pieces of policy impact the population requiring surgery in a patient-centered way.

    The real goal is preventing the disease from even occurring. When we pass public health policy, we need to advocate for preventive care that reaches people through their community. Right now, the findings show that we might just be providing people with insurance cards who find themselves still needing to use the emergency department. Instead, that insurance should help them visit their primary care doctor, who can help them make changes like decreasing their bad cholesterol levels, which contribute to gallstone disease, and help them access care in ambulatory surgery centers sooner.

    We need to cultivate preventive healthcare rather than ballooning the investment in emergency healthcare, which does not solve current inequities.

    What other steps to improve access to care should be taken?

    We propose a novel population health approach that shifts from the reactive treatments of emergency disease to proactive prevention. One place to start is increasing access to appropriate outpatient elective healthcare for underrepresented groups with barriers to preventive care, such as by increasing health insurance that incentivizes the behaviors toward improved health. A first step for my research group is to focus on diseases that currently require as much emergency as elective care, such as gallstone disease, and understand this by understanding who presents to the hospital, as to dial this back into the community level, to decrease hospital care.

    In addition, in primary care, laboratory, radiology or ambulatory care settings we need to improve communication with people with low English proficiency – especially how well prevention is explained in a patient’s primary language. Language barriers might also prevent them from understanding the importance of cholesterol or blood pressure control over the one, two and three decades of life, or how they find access to diagnostic tests or treatment needed earlier.

    How is Rutgers working to increase primary care knowledge in underserved communities?

    Shawna Hudson, the co-director of community engagement for NJ ACTS, and my research mentor, is researching how representatives rooted in the community can help healthcare providers and researchers better understand how we can use community engagement to involve people in a communities’ preventive care as to decrease risk factors for chronic disease before they need hospital-based care and, more importantly, emergency surgery.

    One initiative is the Community Engagement Virtual Salons, which help researchers and health care providers at NJ ACTS engage with patients and community members about how biomedical and clinical research leads to action through understanding disease and then enacting policy. In these sessions, the public serves as experts to provide feedback from a community perspective. This allows the medical profession to build relationships with community partners and increase the culturally sensitive participation of hard-to-reach populations.

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    Rutgers University-New Brunswick

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  • TTUHSC El Paso Receives $50,000 Gift from El Paso Attorney Steve Ortega for Foster School of Medicine and Hunt School of Dental Medicine Scholarships

    TTUHSC El Paso Receives $50,000 Gift from El Paso Attorney Steve Ortega for Foster School of Medicine and Hunt School of Dental Medicine Scholarships

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    Photos: https://ttuhscep.box.com/s/1fl3586lj88jneyjyimmawmzbdodrqrg

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    April 11, 2023

     

    Newswise — EL PASO, Texas — Steve Ortega’s maternal and paternal grandmothers didn’t graduate from college. Both grew up in an era with limited career opportunities for women. However, they made sure their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren knew they could achieve anything with hard work and an education.

    TTUHSC El Paso announces a gift of $50,000 from Ortega, an El Paso attorney and former El Paso City Council member. The university matched the donation, bringing the total fund to $100,000. Funds will go toward scholarships for women pursuing their degrees at the Foster School of Medicine and Hunt School of Dental Medicine.

    The Aurora Red Medical Scholarship and Maria Olivina Ortega Dental Scholarship – named in honor of Ortega’s grandmothers – aim to support residents of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.

    “Finances shouldn’t be a barrier to education,” Ortega said. “My grandmothers were constrained by finances and gender, which limited their career choices. Today, women represent the next generation of health care professionals for our community. TTUHSC El Paso represents the resurgence of our city as well as the new face of health care. Even though I’m not a graduate of Texas Tech, I’m proud of this institution.”

    TTUHSC El Paso is addressing the region’s provider shortage by recognizing the importance of educating local students committed to serving their communities and improving access to health care in their hometown. Currently, 52% of TTUHSC El Paso students are from our Borderplex region.

    “We’re grateful to Steve Ortega for his gift, which will have a transformative impact on the lives of our students,” said Richard Lange, M.D., M.B.A, president of TTUHSC El Paso and dean of the Foster School of Medicine. “His generosity will help us as we ‘grow our own’ and the legacies of his grandmothers will live on in scholarship recipients, setting an example and empowering other young women in our community who will follow in their footsteps.”

    Fostering growth through community support

    Contributions from community leaders like Ortega have played a crucial role in TTUHSC El Paso’s ability to meet health care challenges along the U.S.-Mexico border by training future practitioners who will remain in the region. With financial assistance, students can focus on their studies without taking on additional jobs, important as Foster School of Medicine and Hunt School of Dental Medicine students experience clinical training within the first semester of their education. The early interaction with patients prepares them to become skilled, compassionate providers ready to enter the workforce.

    First-year dental student and native El Pasoan, Angelica Quinones, is a scholarship recipient who takes inspiration from her own late grandmother who battled breast cancer. Quinones follows the advice she was given when it comes to education: “echale ganas,” Spanish for “give it your all.”

    “As a first-generation college student, I always thought dental school was only for those who came from generations of dentists,” Quinones said. “I’m thankful for my scholarship, which allows me to pursue my dream of becoming a dentist, enjoy the experience and not worry about the financial aspect.”

    Nationally, women have made significant progress in diversifying the fields of medicine and dental medicine. According to data from the AAMC and ADEA, in 2020, women made up just over 50% of all medical students in the U.S. At TTUHSC El Paso, women made up 53% of the incoming enrollment in the Foster School of Medicine in 2021. As for the Hunt School of Dental Medicine, female enrollment is 65%. Although these are great strides, there is still work to be done.

    A legacy of service and dedication to El Paso

    A fifth-generation El Pasoan, Ortega graduated from Cathedral High School and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he received bachelor’s degrees in government and sociology. After obtaining his law degree from the George Washington University Law Center, he returned to the Sun City where he served the community on the El Paso City Council from 2005 to 2013.

    Collaborating with neighborhood groups, business leaders and fellow elected officials, Ortega helped restore San Jacinto Plaza and successfully advocated for a $500 million quality of life bond. He also worked to expand the Medical Center of the Americas with a vision of making the area an appealing destination for investment and high-income careers. Throughout his tenure, Ortega championed various initiatives, including vital neighborhood infrastructure improvements, such as the Crime Victims’ Reading Memorial Garden, the Knight’s Street Project and the Carolina Street Art initiative. He also sponsored more efficient cross-border trade systems.

    In addition to his legal practice, Ortega serves on the board of several public service organizations. His belief in the transformative power of TTUHSC El Paso symbolizes the community’s resurgence and immense potential for future growth.

    About Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso

    TTUHSC El Paso is the only health sciences center on the U.S.-Mexico border and serves 108 counties in West Texas that have been historically underserved. It’s a designated Title V Hispanic-Serving Institution, preparing the next generation of health care heroes, 48% of whom identify as Hispanic and are often first-generation students.

    TTUHSC El Paso was established to focus on the unique health care and educational needs of our Borderplex community. In 2023, TTUHSC El Paso celebrates its 10th anniversary as an independent university within the Texas Tech University System. In a decade, the university has graduated over 2,000 doctors, nurses and researchers, and will soon add dentists to its alumni.

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    Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso

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  • Joshua Tree Residents Pledge $4 Million Gift to CSUF to Support Desert Science

    Joshua Tree Residents Pledge $4 Million Gift to CSUF to Support Desert Science

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    Newswise — Brian and Lori Rennie have pledged a planned gift to Cal State Fullerton valued at $4 million to support desert science studies, conservation and climate change research. The couple’s gift to the university includes their Joshua Tree property and 2,500-square-foot Santa Fe pueblo-style home.

    Alumnus Brian Rennie ’70 (B.S. biological science) said the property can be used for events and research.

    “We were seeking the right organization to respect the land and the desert as much as we do, and to continue to utilize it in a way that supports our intentions,” Rennie said. “We feel confident that this will happen through our gift to the university.”

    Marie Johnson, dean of CSUF’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, said this gift will allow faculty to expand their research efforts in desert environments, which will create impactful learning experiences for CSUF students.

    “We often say our university aspires to be a steward of place,” Johnson said. “Brian and Lori’s gift will allow us to fulfill that aspiration by creating the conditions for deep, meaningful engagement with desert ecosystems and our arid Southern California environment.”

    Read more about Brian and Lori Rennie’s donation at CSUF News.

    About Cal State Fullerton: The largest university in the CSU and the only campus in Orange County, Cal State Fullerton offers 110 degree programs and Division 1 athletics. Recognized as a national model for supporting student success, CSUF excels with innovative, high-impact educational practices, including faculty-student collaborative research, study abroad and competitive internships. Our vibrant and diverse campus is a primary driver of workforce and economic development in the region. CSUF is a top public university known for its success in supporting first-generation and underrepresented students, and preparing all students to become leaders in the global marketplace. Our It Takes a Titan campaign, a five-year $250 million comprehensive fundraising initiative, prioritizes investments in academic innovation, student empowerment, campus transformation and community enrichment. Visit fullerton.edu.

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    California State University, Fullerton

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  • “Y-Ball” Compound Yields Quantum Secrets

    “Y-Ball” Compound Yields Quantum Secrets

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    BYLINE: Kitta MacPherson

    Newswise — Scientists investigating a compound called “Y-ball” – which belongs to a mysterious class of “strange metals” viewed as centrally important to next-generation quantum materials – have found new ways to probe and understand its behavior.

    The results of the experiments, aided by the insights of theoretical physicists at Rutgers, could play a role in the development of revolutionary technologies and devices.

    “It’s likely that that quantum materials will drive the next generation of technology and that strange metals will be part of that story,” said Piers Coleman, a Distinguished Professor at the Rutgers Center for Materials Theory in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences and one of the theoreticians involved in the study. “We know that strange metals like Y-ball exhibit properties that need to be understood to develop these future applications. We’re pretty sure that understanding this strange metal will give us new ideas and will help us design and discover new materials.”

    Reporting in the journal Science, an international team of researchers from Rutgers, the University of Hyogo and the University of Tokyo in Japan, the University of Cincinnati and Johns Hopkins University described details of electron motion that provide new insight into the unusual electrical properties of Y-ball. The material, technically known as the compound YbAlB4, contains the elements ytterbium, aluminum and boron. It was nicknamed “Y-ball” by the late Elihu Abrahams, founding director of the Rutgers Center for Materials Theory.

    The experiment revealed unusual fluctuations in the strange metal’s electrical charge. The work is groundbreaking, the researchers said, because of the novel way the experimenters examined Y-ball, firing gamma rays at it using a synchrotron, a type of particle accelerator.

    The Rutgers team – including Coleman, fellow physics professor Premala Chandra and former postdoctoral fellow Yashar Komijani (now an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati) – have spent years exploring the mysteries of strange metals. They do so through the framework of quantum mechanics, the physical laws governing the realm of the ultra-small, home of the building blocks of nature such as electrons.

    Analyzing the material using a technique known as Mossbauer spectroscopy, the scientists probed Y-ball with gamma rays, measuring the rate at which the strange metal’s electrical charge fluctuates. In a conventional metal, as they move, electrons hop in and out of the atoms, causing their electrical charge to fluctuate, but at a rate that is thousands of times too fast to be seen by Mossbauer spectroscopy. In this case, the change happened in a nanosecond, a billionth of a second.

    “In the quantum world, a nanosecond is an eternity,” said Komijani. “For a long time, we have been wondering why these fluctuations are actually so slow.” “We reasoned,” continued Chandra, “that each time an electron hops into an ytterbium atom, it stays there long enough to attract the surrounding atoms, causing them to move in and out. This synchronized dance of the electrons and atoms slows the whole process so that it can be seen by the Mossbauer.”

    They moved to the next step. “We asked the experimentalists to look for these vibrations,” said Komijani, “and to our delight, they detected them.”

    Coleman explained that when an electrical current flows through conventional metals, such as copper, random atomic motion scatters the electrons causing friction called resistance. As the temperature is raised, the resistance increases in a complex fashion and at some point it reaches a plateau.

    In strange metals such as Y-ball, however, resistance increases linearly with temperature, a much simpler behavior. In addition, further contributing to their “strangeness,” when Y-ball and other strange metals are cooled to low temperatures, they often become superconductors, exhibiting no resistance at all.

    The materials with the highest superconducting temperatures fall into this strange family. These metals are thus very important because they provide the canvas for new forms of electronic matter – especially exotic and high temperature superconductivity. 

    Superconducting materials are expected to be central to the next generation of quantum technologies because, in eliminating all electrical resistance, they allow an electric current to flow in a quantum mechanically synchronized fashion.  The researchers see their work as opening a door to future, perhaps unimaginable possibilities.

     “In the 19th century, when people were trying to figure out electricity and magnetism, they couldn’t have imagined the next century, which was entirely driven by that understanding,” Coleman said. “And so, it’s also true today, that when we use the vague phrase ‘quantum materials,’ we can’t really envisage how it will transform the lives of our grandchildren.”

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    Rutgers University-New Brunswick

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