DALLAS – The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved grants totaling $3.6 million – more than any other medical center in the state – to fund 19 research projects at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
More than $61 million in grants was distributed to Texas universities under the state-funded 2001 Advanced Research Program (ARP) and Advanced Technology Program (ATP).
The UT Southwestern grants ranged from $70,875 to $295,348, with the largest going to an effort to develop a cancer-detecting blood test. Dr. Jonathan Uhr, professor of microbiology and internal medicine, is the lead investigator.
Uhr said his test captures tumor cells in the blood, and its first practical application, monitoring tumor burden and effectiveness of treatment, is in trials now. Other applications still in development include performing diagnostic screening to detect carcinoma at an early stage.
Uhr is working with Immunicon Corp., based in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., under a sponsored-research and exclusive-licensing agreement established between the company and UT Southwestern in 1999.
Dr. Perrie Adams, UT Southwestern’s associate dean for research, said the state-funded programs play a vital role in advancing early-stage research that might get passed over by national funding programs.
“You can use ARP/ATP funding to collect a volume of data, then leverage that into larger grants from institutions like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation,” he said.
The UT Southwestern awards were among 402 grants issued under the 2001 ARP and ATP programs. More than 300 proposals were reviewed by 119 scientists and engineers not associated with any Texas college or university.
UT Southwestern investigators and projects receiving grants this year, in addition to Uhr, are:
- Dr. Harold “Skip” Garner, professor of biochemistry and internal medicine, “Phase-Controlled Imaging With Digital Light Processing,” $250,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Gail Tomlinson, associate professor of pediatrics, “Genetics of Maternal/Fetal Xenobiotic Metabolism and Childhood Cancer Risk,” $236,553 (ARP);
- Dr. Daniel Garry, assistant professor of internal medicine and molecular biology, “Molecular Characterization of Human Cardiac Stem Cells,” $220,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Leon Avery, associate professor of molecular biology, and Dr. James Waddle, assistant professor of molecular biology, “A Test for HERG Blockers Based on Heterologous Expression in C. elegans,” $200,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Kathlynn Brown, assistant professor of internal medicine, “New Approaches for Cell-Specific Targeting of Lung Cancer,” $200,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Robert Gerard, associate professor of internal medicine and molecular biology, “Genetic Targeting of Adenoviral Gene Transfer Into Tumors,” $200,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Stephen Johnston, director of the Center for Biomedical Inventions, “Cancer Genomic Vaccines,” $200,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Eric Olson, chairman of molecular biology and director of the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Basic Research in Cancer and the Nearburg Family Center for Basic Research in Pediatric Oncology, “Therapeutic Targets for Treatment of Heart Failure and Cardiac Enlargement,” $200,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Philip Thorpe, professor of pharmacology, “Specific Coagulation of Tumor Vasculatures,” $200,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Carole Mendelson, professor of biochemistry and obstetrics and gynecology, “Nuclear Factor-kappaB Inactivation of Progesterone Receptor Function in the Initiation of Labor,” $192,000 (ARP);
- Dr. Peter Igarashi, chief of nephrology, “Methods for Generating Kidney Tubules from Stem Cells,” $180,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Kevin Luebke, assistant professor of internal medicine, “Light-Directed Control of Multicellular Assemblies Ex Vivo,” $170,000 (ATP);
- Dr. Michael Norgard, chairman of microbiology “Genetic Microarrays for the Discovery of New Lyme Disease Vaccines,” $175,104 (ARP);
- Margaret Phillips, associate professor of pharmacology, “Identification of Ornithine Decarboxylase Inhibitors for the Treatment of African Sleeping Sickness,” $144,000 (ARP)
- Dr. Andrew Zinn, assistant professor in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and assistant professor of internal medicine, “A New Mouse Model for Human Obesity,” $144,000 (ARP);
- Anne Satterthwaite, assistant professor of internal medicine and the Center for Immunology,“Characterization of a Novel Signaling Pathway Inhibiting Btk-Dependent Activation of B Lymphocytes,” $143,946 (ARP);
- Dr. Jef De Brabander, assistant professor of biochemistry, “Synthesis of Peloruside A,” $131,424 (ARP); and
- Dr. Jeffrey Cadeddu, assistant professor of urology, and Dr. Robert Eberhart, professor of surgery, “Transabdominal Magnetic Anchoring System for Trocar-less Laparoscopic Surgery,” $70,875 (ATP).
To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via e-mail, send a message to UTSWNEWS-REQUEST@listserv. swmed.edu. Leave the subject line blank and in the text box, type SUB UTSWNEWS.