Research Grants

December 13, 2022

Submit research grants for the next issue of Med News

December

  • Scott Counts, PhD, received a University of Georgia subaward of $539,872 for “Novel Reengineered Microbiome-based Biologic Therapy to Treat Cognitive and Behavioral Symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia.” (December 2022).
  • Tim Collier, PhD, received an R21 grant of $430,375 for “Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders.” (December 2022).
  • Jeffrey MacKeigan, PhD, was awarded $219,491 from the National Cancer Institute for ULK1 Inhibitor in Combination with Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Pancreatic Cancer. (December 2022 - November 2024).
  • Joe Patterson, PhD (PI), Caryl Sortwell, PhD (co-PI), were awarded $150,050.29 from the Michael J Fox Foundation for the project Investigation of Alpha-Synuclein PFF-Induced Pathology in the MJFF Humanized A53T Alpha-Synuclein Rat. (December 2022 – August 2023)
  • Nick Kanaan, PhD, received a Rutgers University subaward of $148,813.86 for “Dieldrin-induced differential gene methylation and parkinsonian toxicity.” (December 2022).
  • Chris Waters, PhD, Andrea Amalfitano, DO, Yasser Aldhamen, PhD, and Dohun Pyeon, PhD, received a grant from the Elsa U. Pardee Foundation for the project, Activating STING in Tumors Using Viral Gene Therapy. (December 2022 - November 2023).

November

  • Co-PIs Joan Ilardo, PhD, Department of Family Medicine, and Denise White Perkins, MD, Henry Ford Health, were awarded $374,463 from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund Healthy Aging Initiative to implement and evaluate a telehealth curriculum with three Southeast Michigan residency programs.
  • Chi Chang, PhD, Office of Medical Education Research and Development, received $30,000 as part of the American Medical Association Accelerating Change in Medical Education Innovation Grant for “Using Computer Vision Techniques to Identify Medical Students’ Safety Behaviors in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations.”
  • Karen Liby, PhD, received a Catalyst Award from the Dr. Ralph and Marian Falk Medical Research Trust for her project, Novel RXR Agonist for Neurofibromatosis. (November 2022 - November 2024).

October

  • Cara Poland, MD, was awarded $1,128,357 from MDHHS for “State Opioid Response (MI-CARES)” (October 2022 - September 2023).
  • Lee Anne Roman, PhD, was awarded $422,356 from MDHHS for “Strong Beginnings Initiative: Reaching Black and Hispanic Women at Greatest Risk to Improve Outcomes” (October 2022 - September 2023).
  • Zakia Alavi, MD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $50,000 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “Michigan Child Collaborative Care (MC3-Connect)—Psychiatry Response” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Zakia Alavi, MD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $39,966 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “Michigan Child Collaborative Care-Connect (MC3-Connect)” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Steven Ondersma, PhD, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, was awarded $300,000 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “Michigan State Opioid Response 2 Project "HT2 Technology Proposal (HT2 MI) SAMHSA State Opioid Response” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Ling Wang, PhD, Department of Medicine, was awarded $49,436 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “Biostatistical Support” (10/10/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Morteza Mahmoudi, PhD, Precision Health, was awarded $51,615 from N/M for “Probing the protein corona composition at the surface of lipid-based nanoparticles” (10/17/2022 - 4/30/2023).
  • Padmani Karna, MD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $100,000 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “Vermont Oxford Network MI Quality Initiative” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Shawn Jobe, MD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $80,000 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “Sickle Cell Clinic Expansion and Enhancement Program” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kathleen Oberst, PhD, Institute for Health Policy, was awarded $226,490 from Michigan DeDepartment of Health & Human Services for “FY23 NURSING FACILITY DATA TRACKING” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kathleen Oberst, PhD, Institute for Health Policy, was awarded $291,696 from Michigan Department of Health & Human Services for “FY23 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT WORK PLAN” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kenneth Rosenman, MD, Department of Medicine, was awarded $100,000 from Michigan Department of Health & Human Services for “Enhancement of Occupational/Environmental Medicine” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kenneth Rosenman, MD, Department of Medicine, was awarded $200,000 from Michigan Department of Health & Human Services for “Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kenneth Rosenman, MD, Department of Medicine, was awarded $74,563 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Project-Enhanced collection and used of industry & occupation surveillance data for COVID-19 and other conditions” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kevin Brooks, PhD, Institute for Health Policy, was awarded $50,000 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “FY23 HOME COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES COMMUNITY OUTREACH DATA” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kevin Brooks, PhD, Institute for Health Policy, was awarded $121,004 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “FY23 OPIOID ANALYTICS” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kevin Brooks, PhD, Institute for Health Policy, was awarded $134,106 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “FY23 INTEGRATED CARE ASSESSMENT” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Kevin Brooks, PhD, Institute for Health Policy, was awarded $177,750 from Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “FY23 TRANSLATING EVIDENCE INTO DEMONSTRATIONS” (10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023).
  • Victor DiRita, PhD, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, received a subaward of $2,159,871 from the Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services for “MSU-MI-SAPPHIRE Genomic Surveillance Proposal (Year 2)” (October 2022 - September 2023).

September

  • Katharine Currie, PhD, Department of Kinesiology, with Supratik Rayamajhi, MD, and George Abela, MD, Department of Medicine, were awarded $686,011 from the NIH for “Chrono-exercise is Medicine: Improving Blood Pressure and Vascular Function through Chronotherapy” (Sept 2022 - Aug 2023).
  • Ryan Thomas, MD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $81,550 through the annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Care Center Grant (June 2026).
  • Dylan Finneran, PhD, Department of Translational Neuroscience, was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Alzheimer's Association of $174,033 for “Cell type-specific induction of cellular senescence in Alzheimer's Disease” (Sept 2022 - Aug 2025).
  • Julia Felton, PhD, was awarded $726,124 from NIH/NIDA for “Improving Decision Making to Prevent Substance Misuse among Adolescents from Traditionally Underserved Communities” (September 2022 - August 2025).
  • Cristian Meghea, PhD, was awarded $171,667 from the NIH for “A Smartphone Intervention for Pregnancy Smoking Cessation with Peer Support” (September 2022 - August 2025).
  • Stacey Missmer, ScD, was awarded $77,323 from Boston Children’s Hospital for “The role of neurotrophins in chronic pelvic pain and central sensitization among adolescents and women with endometriosis” (September 2022 - August 2024).
  • Todd Lucas, PhD, C.S. Mott Professor of Public Health, was awarded $630,937 from National Inst of Health for “Culturally-targeted communication to promote SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing in saliva: Enabling evaluation of inflammatory pathways in COVID-19 racial disparities” (9/1/2022 - 8/31/2025).
  • Ling Wang, PhD, Department of Medicine, and Adam Alessio, PhD, Biomedical Engineering, were awarded $216,959 from National Inst for Occupational Safety & Health for “Development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based algorithms to classify the Pneumoconioses” (9/30/2022 - 8/31/2024).
  • Ripla Arora, PhD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, received a subaward of $413,289 from the NIH for “Signaling mechanisms that modulate uterine 3D structure for pregnancy success” (September 2022 - May 2027)
  • Masamitsu Kanada, PhD, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, received a subaward of $243,883 from the NIH for “Ultrasound-assisted extracellular vesicle engineering and induced release: EVEiR” (September 2022 - June 2025).
  • Howard Schubiner, MD, is the co-investigator on a $2.8M grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research for “Comparative mechanisms (mediators, moderators) of psychosocial chronic pain treatments.” This study, led by John Burns, PhD, Rosalind Franklin School of Medicine, compares three psychological treatments for chronic back pain (September 2022 - September 2026).

August

  • Stacey Missmer, ScD, was awarded $300,959 from the Boston Center for Endometriosis for “Endometriosis, Pelvic Pain, and Covid-19 Immunologic Response” (August 2022 - July 2024).
  • Stacey Missmer, ScD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $2,152,487 from the US Department of the Army for “Defining Endometriosis Physiologic Sub-Phenotypes and Subsequent Cancer and Comorbidities Risk Through Discovery of Novel Genetic Variants” (Aug 2022 - Aug 2025).
  • David C. Zhu, PhD, Department of Radiology, was awarded $1,059,657 from the NIH/NIA as part of “Impact of Intensive Treatment of Systolic Blood Pressure on Brain Perfusion, Amyloid and Tau in Older Adults (IPAT-study).” Total amount $11.7M with other PIs: Rong Zhang and Wanpen Vongpatanasin at UTSW (Aug 2022 - July 2027)
  • David Zhu, PhD, was awarded $166,375 from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for “Impact of Intensive Treatment of Systolic Blood Pressure on Brain Perfusion, Amyloid and Tau in Older Adults (IPAT-study)” (8/1/2022 - 7/31/2027).
  • Ulrich Duffner, MD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $39,340 from the Helen DeVos Children’s Foundation for “Pediatric BMT Biobank” to establish a biorepository of longitudinally collected blood specimens from pediatric bone marrow transplant patients (Aug 2022 - Aug 2025).
  • Cara Poland, MD, MEd, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, and co-researcher Dawn Goldstein, PhD, RN, were awarded $1,337,280 from the NIH for Increasing Minority Physician and APRN Clinician-scientist Research Training To Equalize Addiction Medicine (IMPACT TEAM) (Aug 2022 - June 2027).
  • Scott Counts, PhD, Department of Translational Neuroscience, was awarded $529,872 from the National Institute of Health for “Novel Reengineered Microbiome-based Biologic Therapy to Treat Cognitive and Behavioral Symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias” (Aug 2022 - July 2027).
  • Margaret Caulfield, PhD, Kathy Steece Collier, PhD, and Caryle Szarowicz, Department of Translational Neuroscience, were awarded $399,632 from U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity / Department of Defense for “Mechanisms of Enhanced Neuroregeneration Associated with the Common Human Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Val66Met” (Aug 2022 - July 2024).
  • Marcia Gordon, PhD, Department of Translational Neuroscience, was awarded a Henry Ford affiliation grant of $55,000 for “Enhancing the Therapeutic Gain of Radiation Therapy for Brain Cancer by Reducing Cellular Senescence” (Sept 2022 - Aug 2023).
  • Norbert Kaminski, PhD, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, received a subaward of $2,131,730 from the NIH for “Environmental, Microbial and Mammalian Biomolecular Responses to AhR Ligands” (August 2022 - June 2027)

July

  • Jane Turner, MD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $51,000 from Wayne State Univiversity for “Michigan Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (MI-LEND)” (7/1/2022 - 6/30/2023).
  • Joe Patterson, PhD, Department of Translational Neuroscience, received the Pearl J. Aldrich Faculty Research Award. He was awarded $20,000 from the Pearl J. Aldrich Endowment in Aging Related Research and Education for his project “Assessment of glycolysis in a synucleinopathy model of Parkinson’s disease in aged rats" (July 2022 - June 2023).
  • Chunqi Qian, PhD, Department of Radiology, was awarded $500,000 by the National Science Foundation for "CAREER: Developing a compact wireless multi-modal detector array for remote sensing and imaging" (July 2022 - June 2027).

June

  • Nick Kanaan, PhD, Department of Translational Neuroscience, was awarded $154,759 by Inhibikase Therapeutics Inc. for his study “Generation of Novel pY39 α-Synuclein Monoclonal Antibodies”(June 2022 - May 2023).

April

  • Masako Morishita, PhD, Department of Family Medicine, was awarded $669,264 by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for "Reducing lead dust exposure and childhood blood lead levels in older housing in Michigan" (April 2022 - April 2025). 

March

  • Asgi Fazleabas, PhD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $367,068 by Comanche BioPharma for "S-Flt siRNA Therapy for Pre-eclampsia" (March 2022 - February 2023).
  • Caryl E. Sortwell, PhD, and co-investigators Joe Patterson, PhD, Kathy Steece-Collier, PhD, and Matthew Benskey, PhD, Department of Translational Neuroscience, were awarded $419,527 by Takeda for “Synucleinopathy Triggered NLRP3 Inflammasome” (March 2022 - March 2023).
  • Anna Moore, PhD, Precision Health Program, was awarded $420,000 by the National Cancer Institute for “Novel Prostate cancer therapy based on m-aconitase inhibition” (March 2022 - February 2024).

February

  • Morteza Mahmoudi, PhD, Department of Radiology, was awarded $2,767,629 by the NIH for "A Nanostructured Skin Patch to Heal Chronic Wounds" (February 2022 - January 2027).
  • Jae Wook Jeong, PhD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $2,867,991 by the NIH to study the role of cholesterol biosynthesis in metastatic and recurrent endometrial cancer (February 2022 - January 2027).
  • Rodlescia Sneed, PhD, MPH, Division of Public Health, was awarded $50,000 by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation for "HEALTH (Harnessing Education and Lifestyle Change for Health) for Returning Citizens: A Feasibility Study."

January

  • Kenneth Rosenman, PhD, Department of Medicine, was awarded $75,000 by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for "Enhancement of Occupational/Environmental Medicine" (Janurary 2022 - September 2022).
  • Amy Custack, PhD, Department of Medicine, was awarded $135,750 by the Stephanie H. & David A. Spina Family Foundation for "Expansion of In-Person and Virtual Healthy Cooking Programs for Youth in Flint, Michigan" (Janurary 2022 - December 2022). 
  • Kenneth Rosenman, PhD, Department of Medicine, was awarded $100,000 by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for "Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance" (Janurary 2022 - September 2022).
  • Cara Poland, MD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $24,128 by the University of Michigan for "Pilot for Treatment of Post-partum Women" (January 2022 - September  2022)
  • Cara Poland, MD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $189,035 by the University of Michigan for the Michigan Opioid Collaborative (January 2022 - December 2022)
  • Genna Moldovan, graduate student in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $38,023 by the NIH for “Cytoskeletal regulation of the Hippo and Notch1 signaling pathways in endometrial stromal cell decidualization and endometriosis” (January 2022 - December 2023).
  • Yong Song, PhD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $23,528 by the Society of Endometriosis and Uterine Disorders for “Regulation of Endometriotic Lesion Development by E-proteins” (January 2022 - December 2024).

2021

  • Lorenzo F. Sempere, PhD, Department of Radiology, was awarded $2.8M by the National Cancer Institute for “Image-Guided Intraductal Ablative Procedure for Primary Prevention of Breast Cancer” (December 2021 - November 2026).
  • Andre Bachmann, PhD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $27,720 by the MSU-Molecular Discovery Group to study ODC inhibitors for the treatment of MYC- and MYCN-driven cancers (November 2021 - October 2022).
  • Andre Bachmann, PhD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $50,000 by the MSU Discretionary Funding Initiative to study the targeting eIF5A hypusination for the treatment of endometrial cancer (November 2021 - May 2023).
  • Cara Poland, MD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $114,165 by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for “Substance Use Disorder Demonstration” (October 2021 - September 2022).
  • Anna Moore, PhD, Precision Health Program, was awarded $7,966,972 by the NIH for the Large Animal Facility for Imaging and Image-guided Therapies at MSU (September 2021 - May 2026).
  • Michael Roland Williams, PhD, Department of Pediatrics & Human Development, was awarded $2.3M from NIH Mental Health to study the development of a small tag for the anterograde delivery of cargos (September 2021 - September 2024).
  • Xiaopeng Li, PhD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $553,359 per year for four years by the NIH to study how loss of CFTR leads to host defense defects in CF small airway epithelia, and whether viral vector-mediated delivery of CFTR cDNA to CF smal (August 2021 - July 2025).
  • Jeffrey P. MacKeigan, PhD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded $402,400 by the National Cancer Institute for “Therapeutic Potential of Targeting DNA Repair Deficiency in TSC- investigate the therapeutic potential of drugs targeting both germline DNA damage repair mutations and somatic mutations” (July 2021 - June 2023).
  • Anna Moore, PhD, Precision Health Program, was awarded $3,515,167 by the NIH for “anti-miR-10b Nanodrug for Treatment of Breast Cancer Metastasis: Study in Companion Animals” (July 2021 - June 2026)
  • Ryan Thomas, MD, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, was awarded the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Care Center Grant of $79,150 (July 2021 - June 2022).

Grants submitted before our previous issue of Med News can be found at the Office of Research website.