Research Wire: January 2018


1.30.18
Erik Musiek, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging of the of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Role of Glial Circadian Clock Dysfunction in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease.”


1.30.18
David Curiel, MD, PhD, professor of radiation oncology and director of the Division of Cancer Biology and of the Biologic Therapeutics Center at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Novel Targeted Adenovirus.”


1.30.18
Richard D. Vierstra, the George and Charmaine Mallinckrodt Professor in biology in Arts & Sciences, received a four-year, $1.16 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project titled “Autophagic clearance of inactive proteasomes and ribosomes as models for protein quality control.”


1.30.18
Peng Yuan, assistant professor of cell biology and physiology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Structure and Mechanism of a Polymodal TRP Ion Channel.”


1.30.18
Pablo Blazquez Gamez, assistant professor of otolaryngology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Role of Cerebellar Cortex Interneurons in Cerebellar Cortex Function.”


1.30.18
Michael White, assistant professor of genetics at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Discovery of DNA Determinants of Transcription Factor Binding and Function in PHO.”


1.23.18
Kevin J. Black, MD, professor of psychiatry, of neurology, of radiology and of neuroscience, and Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD, PhD, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Neurology and director of the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology, all at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “The New Tics Study: A Novel Approach to Pathophysiology and Cause of Tic Disorders.”


1.23.18
Warren Lewis, instructor in medicine at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Glycogen in Bacterial Vaginosis & How Carbohydrates Shape the Vaginal Microbiome.”


1.23.18
Harry Chatters Taylor, doctoral student at the Brown School, has received a $43,302 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project titled “Risk Factors for Social Isolation Among African-American Older Adults.”

Chatters Taylor’s research focuses on social isolation among older adults, with specific emphasis on older African-Americans. He plans to use his research to increase awareness of social isolation and its harmful effects, and to mitigate the prevalence of social isolation.


1.23.18
Jennifer K. Lodge, the university’s vice chancellor for research and the School of Medicine’s associate dean for research and professor of molecular microbiology, together with Maureen Donlin, of Saint Louis University, received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Role of Cell Wall Integrity in Echinocandin Resistance in C. Neoformans.”


1.23.18
Kory Lavine, PhD, MD, assistant professor of medicine and of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, received a four-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Macrophage Ontogeny Shifts in Ischemic Heart Disease”; and a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH for research titled “Macrophage Heterogeneity in Heart Failure Progression and Cardiac Recovery.”


1.16.18
Prions are protein aggregates that can be transmitted between cells and are associated with human diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and in neurodegeneration as observed in ALS.

For the first time, an international team of researchers has identified a benign but biologically relevant function of prion domains. The team includes the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, the Biotechnology Center of the TU Dresden and Rohit Pappu of Washington University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science. The findings recently were published in Science. 


1.16.18
Eynav Klechevsky, assistant professor in pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the National Psoriasis Foundation for research titled “Characterizing a New Human Dendritic Cell Lineage and its Role in Psoriasis.”


1.16.18
Megan Cooper, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics, of rheumatology, and of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Metabolic Regulation of Natural Killer Cell Activation.”


1.16.18
James Skeath, professor of genetics at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.67 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “The Role of ADAMTS-A in Regulating CNS Structure and Restricting Cell Migration.”


1.16.18
Joseph Dougherty, associate professor of genetics and of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.67 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Local Translation in Astrocytes.”


1.16.18
Brad Warner, MD, the Jessie L. Ternberg, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Pediatric Surgery and professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, received a one-year, $915,713 grant from St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation for “WUSM-Children’s Surgical Sciences Research Institute.”


1.16.18
Christopher Maher, assistant professor of medicine and assistant director of The McDonnell Genome Institute at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “The Role of Polycomb Associated Long Non-Coding RNAS In Lung Cancer Metastasis.”


1.11.18
Eugene M. Oltz, professor of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine and vice chair for faculty development in his department, received a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Topological Control of Antigen Receptor Loci During Lymphocyte Development.” Also, Oltz and Marco Colonna, MD, the Robert Rock Belliveau, MD, Professor of Pathology and professor of medicine, received a one-year, $621,424 grant from the NIH for research titled “Cis-Regulatory Circuits for ILC Function and Plasticity.”


1.11.18
Robert Orchard, a postdoctoral research associate in immunobiology at the School of Medicine, received a one-year, $90,000 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Identification and Characterization of Norovirus Cofactors for Entry.”


1.11.18
Steven Teitelbaum, MD, the Wilma and Roswell Messing Professor of Pathology and Immunology, a professor of medicine and director of the Division of Anatomic and Molecular Pathology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Fat Talks to Bone.”


1.11.18
Emil R. Unanue, MD, the Paul and Ellen Lacy Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the School of Medicine, received a four-year, $1.56 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Diabetogenic Molecular I-AG7: Chemistry and Biology.”


1.11.18
Melanie Yarbrough, instructor in pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, received a one-year, $50,000 grant from the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences for research titled “Characterizing the Urobiome of MSM Using Enhanced Culture-Based Methods.”


1.11.18
Gautam Dantas, associate professor of pathology and immunology, and of molecular microbiology at the School of Medicine, and of of biomedical engineering at the School of Engineering & Applied Science, received a three-year, $1.1 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for research titled “Systems Engineering of Rhodococcus Opacus to Enable Production of Drop-in Fuels from Lignocellulose.” Dantas also, together with Phillip Tarr, MD, Melvin E. Carnahan Professor of Pediatrics, and of molecular microbiology, received a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Phylogenomic, Transcriptomic, Viromic and Immuoproteomic Determinants of Necrotizing Enterocolitis.” And together with Erik Dubberke, MD, associate professor of medicine, Dantas received a one-year, $149,450 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention entitled “Double-blinded, randomized controlled trial of oral vancomycin versus placebo in hospitalized patients with diarrhea and stool toXin NEGative but nucleic acid amplification test positive for toxigenic Clostridium difficile (TOX NEG trial).”


1.8.18
Lilianna Solnica-Krezel, head of the Department of Developmental Biology at the School of Medicine and the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Developmental Biology, received a one-year, $40,000 McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology grant for her project titled “Functions of Dachsous and Fat atypical cadherins in telencephalic neuronal migration.”


1.8.18
Andrew Yoo, assistant professor of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, received a one-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Modeling Neuronal Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease in Human Neurons Directly Converted from Fibroblasts”; and a one-year, $75,000 grant from the Hereditary Disease Foundation for research titled “Assessing the Role of Genetic Modifiers of Huntington’s Disease with Directly Reprogrammed Human Neurons.”


1.8.18
Jeffrey Milbrandt, MD, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Professor of Genetics, head of the Department of Genetics, professor of medicine, of neurology and of pathology and immunology, and Aaron DiAntonio, MD, PhD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Developmental Biology, both at the School of Medicine, received a three-year, $1.46 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Identifying Inhibitors of Axon Degeneration for the Treatment of TIPN”; and a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the NIH for research titled “(PQ#9) Promoting Axon Stability to Prevent Therapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy.”


1.8.18
Douglas F. Covey, professor of pharmacology in developmental biology, of anesthesiology and of psychiatry, all at the School of Medicine, received a four-year, $199,336 grant (in collaboration with Slobodan Todorovic at the University of Colorado) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Novel neurosteroid anesthetics and perioperative analgesia.”


1.8.18
Samantha A. Morris, assistant professor of developmental biology and of genetics at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Dissecting mechanisms of pioneer transcription factor-mediated lineage reprogramming”; and a four-year, $250,000 award from the Vallee Foundation for research titled “Dissecting mechanisms of reprogramming and differentiation: a blueprint for engineering cell identity.” Also, she and Robi D. Mitra, the Alvin Goldfarb Distinguished Professor of Computational Biology and an associate professor of genetics, received a two-year, $610,000 grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute of the NIH for research titled “Single-Cell Analysis of Pioneer Binding and Function During Lineage Reprogramming.”


1.8.18
Maxim Artyomov, assistant professor of pathology and immunology and of biomedical engineering at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Itaconate as Metabolic Regulator of Inflammation.”


1.8.18
Takeshi Egawa, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology and immunology, received a five-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Regulation of Normal and Pathogenic B Cell Proliferation by a c-Myc-initiated Transcription Factor Cascade”; and a five-year, $550,000 grant from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for research titled “Protection of Proliferating B Lymphocytes from Transformation by a c-MYC-induced Tumor Suppressive Program.”


1.8.18
Herbert Virgin, MD, PhD, the Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology and Immunology, head of the Department of Pathology and Immunology and professor of molecular microbiology and of medicine, and Daved Fremont, professor of pathology and immunology and of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, both at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Role of CD300 Family in Norovirus Tropism, Persistence, and Immunity.” Fremont also received a two-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH for research titled “Zika Virus B-Cell Epitope Mapping Supplement.”


1.8.18
Danielle Lussier, postdoctoral research scholar in the lab of Robert D. Schreiber, the Alumni Professor of Pathology and Immunology and professor of molecular microbiology at the School of Medicine, received a three-year, $175,500 grant from the Cancer Research Institute for research titled “Broadening the Cancer Immunotherapeutic Window.”


1.8.18
Katherine Fuh, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine, received a two-year, $100,000 grant from the Mary Kay Foundation for a research project titled “Predictive Kinome for Treatment of Chemo-resistant Ovarian Cancer.” The project uses a new therapy to inhibit a new protein, DDR2, and improve response to chemotherapy. The project also is looking at how to predict patients’ response to treatment.


1.8.18
Yong Wang, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine, received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the BrightFocus Foundationfor a research project titled “PET-MRI Imaging of White Matter Damages and Inflammation in AD.” The study aims to develop and validate a novel PET-MRI imaging method by integrating amyloid PET and diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) to simultaneously measure white matter demyelination and inflammation in vivo.


1.5.18
Joel S. Perlmutter, MD, professor of neurology and member of the Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, and Zhude Tu, professor of radiology, at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a research project titled “Neuroimaging of PDE10A.”


1.5.18
Carmel Martin-Fairey, a postdoctoral research scholar in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the School of Medicine, received a two-year, $120,156 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a research project titled “Role of peripheral oscillators in the timing of birth.” The study aims to test whether the maternal circadian clock plays a key role in determining the timing of birth by regulating clocks within the brain, uterus and cervix and to understand the role of progesterone in the process.


1.5.18
Celia M. Santi, MD, PhD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine, received a $278,160 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a research project titled “SLO3 K Channel: A Novel Target for Contraception.” In the study, Santi aims to acquire a deeper understanding of the role of ion channels in sperm fertility. Her team will produce lead molecules that can be developed into an innovative class of non-hormonal and reversible female (and, potentially, male) contraceptives.


1.5.18
Gaya Amarasinghe, associate professor of pathology and immunology, of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, and of molecular microbiology, all at the School of Medicine, received a one-year, $122,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Characterization of IFIT Proteins and Their Role in Antiviral Immunity”; and a one-year, $533,763 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH for research titled “Development, Validation, and Optimization of HTS Screens Targeting Nipah and Hendra Virus RNA Synthesis.”


1.5.18
Thomas Hannan, DVM, PhD, research instructor in pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, received a one-year, $147,588 sponsored research agreement from Ocean Spray for research titled “The Effect of Cranberry on Urine Cytokine Levels During Urinary Tract Infection.”


1.5.18
Gwendolyn Randolph, the Emil Unanue Professor of Pathology and Immunology and director of the Division of Immunobiology at the School of Medicine, received a one-year, $300,000 grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for research titled “Toward Identifying the Unique Pathology that Explains Ulcerative Colitis Distribution.”


1.5.18
Guoyan Zhao, assistant professor of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, received a three-month, $50,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development/International AIDS Vaccine Initiative for research titled “Characterize the Microbiome of Sivet Study Volunteers.”


1.5.18
Muyibat Adelani, MD, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the School of Medicine, and Saira Khan, postdoctoral research associate in the Division of Public Health Sciences at the School of Medicine, were named 2017 Health Disparities Research Institute Scholars (HDRI) through the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Learn more on the Public Health Sciences page.


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