National Institutes of Health, other organizations fund College of Medicine faculty research
Faculty at the College of Medicine were awarded 175 grants totaling more than $52 million between May and July to fund their research studies.
They will seek out new therapeutic targets for cancer treatments, analyze the harmful effects of tobacco use and gain an understanding of the cellular processes that contribute to diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus and other diseases.
Matthew Coates, MD, PhD
The Role of the Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, NaV1.8, in Silent Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Investigator: Matthew Coates, MD, PhD – associate professor of medicine and pharmacology; Peter and Marshia Carlino Early Career Professor in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Margot E. Walrath Career Development Professor in Gastroenterology
Grant amount: $348,671 ($1,515,539 anticipated through March 2024)
Awarded by: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Goal: Silent Inflammatory Bowel Disease causes little to no co-occurring abdominal pain as a result of bowel inflammation. A third or more of of the illness’s patients experience silent inflammatory bowel disease. This project seeks to better understand the underlying causes the silent version, develop effective methods for screening patients at risk for it and identify novel targets to manage conditions associated with chronic abdominal pain.
Joshua Cysyk, MS, PhD
Cannula Tip with Integrated Volume and Pressure Sensors for Rotary Blood Pump Control
Investigator: Joshua Cysyk, MS, PhD – assistant professor of surgery
Grant amount: $785,694 ($2,993,665 anticipated through April 2024)
Awarded by: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
Goal: Left ventricular assist devices assist with cardiac circulation and are used to treat patients with late to end-stage heart failure. Currently, these devices operate at fixed pump speeds set by physicians and cannot respond to changes in patient’s circulation demands. The goal of this project is to develop implantable sensors for left ventricular assist devices that can measure patient’s circulatory needs and automatically adjust pump speed in response to patient activity levels.
Michael Dennis, PhD
Hyperglycemia-Induced Translational Control of Gene Expression in the Retina
Investigator: Michael Dennis, PhD – assistant professor of cellular and molecular physiology and ophthalmology
Grant amount: $211,083 ($1,312,268 total anticipated from January 2014 through December 2020)
Awarded by: American Diabetes Association
Goal: Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that can cause vision problems. The condition is often treated with laser procedures, which fail to alter the molecular causes of the disease, requiring further treatment. This project aims to identify new targets for intervention at the molecular level that will lead to the development of nondestructive therapies to target the causes of diabetic retinopathy.
Mauricio Pontes, PhD
Metabolic Control of the Second Messenger Cyclic Diguanylate: Implications to Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens
Investigator: Mauricio Pontes, PhD – assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and microbiology and immunology
Grant amount: $237,480 ($435,380 anticipated through April 2022)
Awarded by: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Goal: Bacteria can exist independently, but can also form into organized, multicellular communities known as biofilms. Pontes intends to explore the cellular mechanisms that govern the formation of a biofilm component in a disease-causing bacterial pathogen.
Ziaur Rahman, MD, PhD
Mechanisms of the Autoimmune Germinal Center Response in SLE
Investigator: Ziaur Rahman, MD, PhD – associate professor of microbiology and immunology
Grant amount: $100,000 ($300,000 anticipated through February 2022)
Awarded by: Lupus Research Alliance
Goal: Germinal centers are sites found in organs including the spleen and lymph nodes. Dysregulation in these germinal centers can lead to the development of systemic lupus erythematosus, a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks normal, healthy tissue. Rahman’s project will investigate the cellular mechanisms that play a role in germinal center dysregulation with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets for treating lupus.
Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH
Nurse AMIE (Addressing Metastatic Individuals Everyday)
Investigator: Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH – professor of public health sciences and physical medicine and rehabilitation
Grant amount: $165,000
Awarded by: American Institute for Cancer Research
Goal: Schmitz plans to use the funds to adapt a tablet-based supportive care technology that delivers exercise and other important interventions to patients with metastatic breast cancer. The changes will add nutrition support and use a virtual artificial intelligence digital assistant in the hopes of improving the ability for patients to access and receive needed support. Schmitz will evaluate the efficacy of the adapted program in improving quality of life, symptoms and physical function in a clinical research study.
R. Alberto Travagli, PhD
Gut-Brain Axis in Parkinson’s Disease
Investigator: R. Alberto Travagli, PhD – professor of neural and behavioral sciences
Grant amount: $597,052 ($2,985,260 anticipated through June 2025)
Awarded by: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Goal: Recent studies have demonstrated that Parkinson’s disease may originate in the gastrointestinal tract and spread to the central nervous system via the vagus nerve. Travagli will further investigate a biological pathway related to gut function that is impaired in experimental models of Parkinson’s disease. The results from this project may result in the development of therapeutic interventions that could slow down the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
William Weiss, MS, PhD
Final Pre-Clinical Studies for a Ventricular Assist Device for Infants
Investigator: William Weiss, MS, PhD – Howard E. Morgan Professor of surgery and professor of biomedical engineering
Grant amount: $788,658 ($3,079,962 anticipated through April 2024)
Awarded by: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
Goal: There are limited options for children under one year of age that require mechanical circulatory support for recovery or as a bridge to heart transplantation. Existing devices carry a high risk of stroke. Weiss’ project will complete pre-clinical testing of the Penn State Infant Ventricular Assist Device, which can completely support the left, right or both ventricles and has been designed to minimize clot formation and stroke.
Zheng-Ming Ding, MD, MS, PhD
Role of Cotinine in Nicotine Use Disorders
Investigator: Zheng-Ming Ding, MD, MS, PhD – associate professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine and pharmacology
Grant amount: $356,220
Awarded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Goal: Cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, may play a role in the development of nicotine use disorders. Ding aims to investigate cotinine-related mechanisms in nicotine addiction with the goal of developing targeted therapies that target cotinine for aiding in smoking cessation.
Genotoxicity and Repair of Tobacco-Specific Nitrosamine DNA Adducts
Thomas Spratt, PhD
Grant amount: $141,293
Awarded by: National Institute of Environmental Health Services
Goal: These funds will support the addition of cancer researcher Shilpi Paul to Spratt’s research team as they investigate the role of specialized DNA polymerases in overcoming DNA damage. Better understanding the role of these polymerases could lead to the development of strategies to prevent cancer as well as identify individuals at increased risk for tobacco-induced cancers.
Alan Adelman, MD, MS
Area Health Education Centers Program COVID-19
Investigator: Alan Adelman, MD, MS – professor of family and community medicine
Grant amount: $95,455
Awarded by: Health Resources and Services Administration
Goal: These funds will be used to educate primary care providers on best practices in delivering telehealth services including virtual visits and remote monitoring in order to prevent, prepare and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the funds will be used to provide education and support for the adoption of telehealth services in dental offices.
Sheryl Ryan, MD
A Collaborative Expansion and Enhancement of the Inter-professional Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Penn State University
Investigator: Sheryl Ryan, MD – professor of pediatrics
Grant amount: $286,341 ($2,563,843 anticipated through June 2025)
Awarded by: Health Resources and Services Administration
Goal: The U.S. faces a health crisis with the rise of substance use disorders, including a sharp rise in overdose death rates as a result of opioid use disorders. There is a shortage of healthcare workers trained in addiction medicine. These funds will increase the number of fellows trained in addiction medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and enhance the education and training they receive. The grant will also support the development of clinical training sites where fellows will be able to train in primary care setting where addiction medicine care is integrated with behavioral health care, and will also support addiction medicine training for faculty at these community and hospital-based primary sites.
John Richie, PhD
Translational Studies on Electronic Cigarette-derived Oxidants and their Long-term Pulmonary Effects
Investigator: John Richie, PhD – professor of public health sciences and pharmacology
Grant amount: $471,836 ($1,390,653 anticipated through June 2023)
Awarded by: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
Goal: Electronic cigarettes are often perceived as less harmful than conventional cigarettes, even though both contain harmful oxidants that can lead to tobacco-caused diseases including cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In this study, Richie aims to examine the harms to the lung associated with chronic electronic cigarette use compared to traditional cigarettes both in experimental models and in smokers with COPD.
Jane Schubart, MBA, MS, PhD
Enhancing the Existing STRETCH Project Engagement Infrastructure to Address the Urgent COVID-19 Pandemic Challenges Facing People with Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes
Investigator: Jane Schubart, MBA, MS, PhD – associate professor of surgery, medicine and public health sciences
Grant amount: $101,700 ($351,672 anticipated through December 2020)
Awarded by: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
Goal: Schubart and an interdisciplinary team will use these funds to enhance an already-existing project aimed to help patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, a group of inherited, connective tissue disorders that can negatively affect quality of life. These patients are immunocompromised and likely to experience complex symptoms and complications from physical and psychological stress, making them especially vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schubart plans to use existing project infrastructure, including Project ECHO at Penn State, to develop ways to alleviate the burden of COVID-19 on patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes.
Anthony Bonavia, MD
Resistin-induced Immunosuppression Increases Susceptibility to Infectious Lung Injury and Sepsis during AKI
Investigator: Anthony Bonavia, MD – assistant professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine and pharmacology
Grant amount: $201,155 ($806,719 anticipated through July 2024)
Awarded by: National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Goal: Sepsis is a condition caused by the body’s response to an infection that affects millions of patients every year and leads to a high mortality rate in spite of prompt treatment. Bonavia proposes to determine whether a biomarker, resistin, can provide information on the causes and outcomes of subtypes of abdominal sepsis which have been linked to poor clinical outcomes.
Other awards
- See grant highlights from previous months here.
- See details on grants awarded to the College of Medicine from 2017 to present here.
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