 | |
| | | | 
| Project Title: Chronic Pain and Emotional Learning and Memory
Sponsor: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Budget Period: 2/1/08 - 1/31/09
Amount: $314,844 | | This grant will explore effects of cortical manipulations on ameliorating chronic pain-like behavior in rats, following either a peripheral nerve injury or persistent peripheral inflammation. It will explore abnormalities in conditioned learning behavior and other cognitive behavioral manifestations in such animals, examine neuronal populational response changes electrophyisologically, examine mechanisms underlying drug therapies that act directly on limbic cortex, as well as track cortical changes in excitatory neurotransmission and the involvement of glia and interlukines in chronic pain behavior. |
| | | 
| Project Title: Regulation of T Cell Migration by Histamine
Sponsor: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease
Budget Period: 2/1/08 - 1/31/2009
Amount: $377,500 | | The recruitment of immune cells into peripheral tissues is essential for protection against malignancy and infections, as well as the pathophysiological responses in many diseases. Our work showed that the H1R histamine receptor, that mediates responses to histamine release during allergy, is also essential for allowing T lymphocytes to migrate into the lung during inflammation. This grant is focused on establishing how this is regulated and how histamine might serve as a novel chemoattractant signal for the immune system. |
| | | 
| Project Title: Elucidating the Relations of Heat Shock Factors, Molecular Chaperones and Prions
Sponsor: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Budget Period: 2/1/08 - 1/31/09
Amount: $311,358 | Prion diseases belong to a group of fatal, infectious mammalian neurodegenerative disorders. This includes Mad Cow disease in cattle, chronic Wasting disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in human. It is generally accepted that the responsible agent of prion diseases is a host protein with altered and pathogenic conformations. However, the underlying mechanism of this protein conformation based infectivity is poorly understood. In yeast, there are several epigenetic elements that are also transmitted as altered and infectious protein conformations and thus known as yeast prions. This NIH funded project is to use the yeast prion model to dissect the cellular machinery responsible for prion-genesis. Specifically, the interplay among yeast prion proteins, heat shock transcription factor, and molecular chaperones will be systematically investigated. Novel cellular factors required for prion de novo formation, “strain” determination, and propagation will be hopefully identified. A successful outcome from this study will provide target genes for future drug discovery and new therapeutics for the devastating prion diseases. | back to top ^ |
 Click for more March 2008 FSM Sponsored Projects
| | | | 
| Project Title: Creating an Immune Privileged Site for Islet Transplantation
Sponsor: Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International
Budget Period: 9/1/07 – 8/31/08
Amount: $165,000 | | Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease wherein T lymphocytes destroy pancreatic beta cells in the islets of Langerhans which produce insulin leading to the inability of patients to regulate blood glucose levels. One therapy for T1D employed in humans involves the transplantation of islets from cadaveric donors to diabetic patients; however, these 'foreign' islets are ultimately rejected despite treating the patients with high doses immunosuppressive drugs which are toxic to the islet cells as well as rendering patients susceptible to opportunistic infections. Dr. Miller and Dr. Xunrong Luo (Dept. of Medicine, Div. of Nephrology) received a grant from the JDRF to study mechanisms whereby the rejection of transplanted foreign islet cells in a mouse model of T1D can be controlled by inducing antigen-specific tolerance to the foreign islets and/or by the use of regulatory T cells specific for the transplanted islets without the requirement for treatment with immunosuppressive drugs. |
| | | 
| Project Title: Mechanisms of Gonococcal Pilin Antigenic & Phase Variation
Sponsor: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease
Budget Period: 2/1/2008 – 1/31/2009
Amount: $377,500 | | The studies supported by this MERIT Award delve into the molecular mechanisms used by the human pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae to escape immune surveillance during infection. We are uncovering how this bacterium mediates high frequency gene conversion to produce antigenic variation of the pilus, a major virulence factor required for adherence to host tissues and motility across mucosal surfaces. | back to top ^ |
Click for more February 2008 FSM Sponsored Projects | | | | | 
| Project Title: Hormone Action in Endometriosis
Sponsor: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Total Award: $260,161 | | Endometriosis is a common gynecologic disorder characterized by pelvic pain and infertility. Work over the past 10 years led to the conclusion that there is a functional progesterone resistance in endometriosis tissue. This proposal was designed to study underlying molecular mechanisms leading to defective progesterone action in endometriosis. |
| | | 
| Project Title: Donor Stem Cells, Campath, T/B Cell Regulation in HLA Identical Renal Transplants
Sponsor: National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Total Award: $554,877 | | This clinical study evaluates the possibility of eliminating the need of taking anti-rejection medicines beginning at 18 months to 2 years post-transplant. Stem cells from donor bone marrow and blood are taken at the time of transplant and at 3 months which then are later infused into the recipient to create tolerance of the transplanted organ. | back to top ^ |
Click for more January 2008 FSM Sponsored Projects | | | | 
| Project: The Critical Role of Alternative Splicing in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
Sponsor/Award: Schweppe Foundation Career Development Award
Total Award: $100,000 | | The human genome contains no more than five times the number of genes of unicellular yeast. How then can the complexity of humans arise? The answer partially lies in RNA alternative splicing, a process that produces many forms of proteins from a single gene. These proteins can exert diverse functions that have profound biological consequences. We believe that aberrant alternative splicing plays a significant role in the development of cancer. We will test this hypothesis combining cell and animal models of cancer. Results from this study will likely provide a mechanistic paradigm of how regulated alternative splicing controls cancer pathogenesis. |
|
| | |  | Project: Multi-Center Trial to Evaluate Home-Based Assessment Methods for Alzheimer's Disease Prevention Research in People Over 75 Years Old
Sponsor: National Institute on Aging (via University of California, San Diego)
Total Award: $117,750 | This is a multi-center study of 600 non-demented elderly (75+ yrs) subjects, comparing three methods of home-based test administration and data collection. Subjects are randomly assigned to one of the assessment methods- either mail in questionnaires, automated phone assessment, or computerized test group. The trial lasts 4 years and the goal is to develop an accurate home-based assessment method that could be used in future clinical trials.
For current clinical trials at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, click http://www.brain.northwestern.edu/cbmg/volunteer.html |
| | |  | Project: Role of TNF in Bladder Inflammation
Sponsor: National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Total Award: $310,471 | Interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS) is a devastating disease without convenient diagnostic markers or effective therapies. In IC/PBS, elevated bladder lamina propria mast cell counts correlate with patient symptoms. Dr. Klumpp utilizes a mouse model of IC/PBS that recapitulates lamina propria mast cell accumulation and pelvic pain. He finds that the chemokine RANTES plays a key role bladder mast cell trafficking. In this project, he examines the potential for RANTES as a urinary biomarker of IC/PBS and as a therapeutic target. |
| | |  | Project: Toward Better Understanding of Neuroblastoma Behavior: Mechanisms of Drug Resistance and Elucidation of Cell Signalling Pathways
Sponsor: The John Anderson Foundation
Total Award: $50,000 | | The primary thrust of the research team focuses on studies to identify the basic biological processes that regulate adaptation of malignant tumor cells to stressful environments, such as those produced by anti-cancer drugs. Through understanding these processes Dr. Madonna hopes to be able to identify novel chemotherapeutic strategies. Although the group focuses specifically on neuroblastoma, these principals apply to all cancers. In addition, the project investigates the effect of growth factors on neuroblastoma cell differentiation and growth. Understanding these pathways may lead to the ability to manipulate cancer cell behavior. |
| | | Project: In vivo models of cyclin E-associated breast cancer
Sponsor/Award: Schweppe Foundation Career Development Award
Total Award: $100,000 |  | Increased levels of the cell cycle regulatory protein, cyclin E, are often found in human breast tumors. High cyclin E predicts a poor prognosis in breast cancers, but it is unknown how increased cyclin E contributes to cancer aggressiveness. The overall goals of this project are to utilize animal models to determine how increased cyclin E promotes tumorigenesis, specifically breast cancer development. Additionally, the key physiologic barriers against cyclin E-associated tumorigenesis will be defined. With an animal model in-hand that faithfully recapitulates cyclin E-associated breast cancers, further work to identify new potential therapies for these cancers will be facilitated. |
| | |  | Project: Mechanisms of Stress–Enhanced Aversive Conditioning
Sponsor: National Institute of Mental Health
Total Award: $237,825 | | The effects of stress on fear and anxiety, observed in humans as well as experimental animals, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study puts forward the hypothesis that key mechanisms triggered during acute stress, but activated with a delayed time course after cessation of the stressor, are the main mediators of sustained fear. If the hypothesis proves correct, the effects of acute traumatic events leading to psychopathology, such as PTSD, could be significantly prevented by post-stress interventions. |
| | |  | Project: Trajectories of Drug Abuse in High Risk Youth
Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Total Award: $632,815 | | This NIH grant initiates a new phase of the longitudinal study, the Northwestern Juvenile Project, which initially enrolled a random sample of over 1800 youth detained in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. This latest phase will focus on examining the dynamic relationships among patterns of drug use and disorder, risk and protective factors for drug use and disorder, and adult social role performance as these juvenile justice youth age from adolescence to emerging and young adulthood. | back to top ^ |
Click for more December 2007 FSM Sponsored Projects | | | |  | Project: Regulation of Coordination of Molecular Motors
Sponsor/Award: National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Total Award: $472,854 | The goal of our work is to understand the work of molecular motors in a living cell. Molecular motors move organelles and macromolecular complexes along cytoskeletal structures, microtubules, and actin filaments. Each organelle has several types of motor proteins attached to its surface. We want to know how multiple motors of different types function together to place cargo in a specific position at a specific time in response to physiological signals. Our work involves combination of molecular biology, biochemistry and high resolution microscopy. |
| | |  | Project: Collaborative Research: IPY: Reconstruction of Human Genetic History Along the North Slope
Sponsor/Award: National Science Foundation
Total Award: $164,277 | Dr. M. Geoffrey Hayes (Departments of Medicine and Anthropology, Northwestern University), in collaboration with Dr. Dennis O’Rourke (University of Utah), was recently funded by the National Science Foundation for an International Polar Year (IPY) project titled “Reconstruction of Human Genetic History Along the North Slope.” The IPY, is a large international scientific programme organized through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It will focus on a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009, involving thousands of scientists from over 60 nations. In their project, Drs. Hayes and O’Rourke will (1) document the geographic patterns of genetic variation in contemporary human populations along the North Slope of Alaska, (2) determine if the observed patterns were present in prehistory by assessing genetic variation in skeletal populations from the same region, and (3) assess how modern and ancient residents are related to other circumarctic populations. The advantage of this collaborative research approach lies in the ability to directly compare patterns of genetic variation in prehistoric populations and their possible modern descendants, and to place this biological variability in archaeological (temporal) context. Results from the confluence of the molecular and archaeological research will afford a definitive genetic characterization of the Inupiat people of the northern Alaska, and permit testing several hypotheses regarding the origin of the Canadian Inuit population, their archaeologically hypothesized descendants. Additionally, the research proposed here will permit a much more detailed analysis and understanding of the Thule expansion across the North American high arctic. This expansion represents one of the last great transcontinental migrations. A fuller understanding of this human dispersal will permit us to identify genetic signatures of rapid colonization, replacement versus admixing colonization models, as well as clarifying the history of North American arctic populations. The lessons learned from this relatively recent (approximately 1000 years ago) dispersal should be generalizable to earlier migrations, including the initial colonization of the Americas, or even the dispersal of modern human populations from Africa. |
| | | 
| Project: Career Development in Women's Health award
Sponsor/Award: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Total Award: $500,000 | Received the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) award of $500,000 administered by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development . The BIRCWH was developed to promote the career development of independent researchers working on women's health issues by pairing scholars with senior investigators in a mentored, interdisciplinary scientific environment. | back to top ^ |
Click for more November 2007 FSM Sponsored Projects |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|
