Thanks to a five-year, $25 million grant, the largest given to the University of Kansas by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), several campus research projects have been funded to promote research development in high priority areas.
The initial grant was used to establish Frontiers: University of Kansas Clinical and Translational Science Institute (KU CTSI) in the university’s medical center. Frontiers joins a network of 57 agencies throughout the U.S., funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the NIH, with the goal of connecting scientists to resources, facilitating collaboration among researchers, communities and institutions and offering training opportunities.
Nine clinical and translational research projects recently received $170,000 as part of the 2018-2019 Frontiers Pilot and Collaborative Studies Program to promote research development in high priority areas. The goal is to collect initial data and use it as preliminary data for a NIH grant submission.
Projects recently funded are:
- Jennifer Alsworth, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the departments of Biomedical and Health Informatics, UMKC School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City -- "Changes in Labor Management and Racial Disparities in Cesarean Deliveries."
- Allen Greiner, M.D., professor and research director in the department of Family Medicine, KU School of Medicine, KU Medical Center -- "Comparison of stool microbiota of non-smokers and heavy smokers from racially/ethnically diverse patient populations."
- Charley Lewis, M.P.H., Research Instructor of Family Medicine and Assistant Director for Data Management, Center for American Indian Community Health, KU Medical Center -- "Understanding American Indian knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors surrounding alternative tobacco product usage."
- Tara Lin, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the department of Internal Medicine, KU School of Medicine, KU Medical Center -- "Low Dose Daunorubicin to Target the Leukemia Stem Cell in Newly Diagnosed Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia."
- Crystal Lumpkins, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Family Medicine in the KU School of Medicine, KU Medical Center -- "Exploring Attitudes, Perceptions and Beliefs towards Genetic Counseling and Testing Risk Communication among Underserved and Minority Patient Populations.
- Laura Martin, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, KU School of Medicine, and Associate Director of fMRI, Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, KU Medical Center -- "Changing how the brain responds when making healthy decisions: Translating neuroscience into population health."
- Catherine Siengsukon, P.T., Ph.D., Associate Professor in the department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, KU School of Health Professions, KU Medical Center -- "Assessment of the feasibility of two innovative CBT-I delivery strategies in people with MS with symptoms of insomnia."
- Jason Springer, M.D., assistant professor in the department of Internal Medicine, KU School of Medicine, KU Medical Center -- "Development of Immunogenicity to Rituximab in ANCA-associated vasculitis."
- Yuxia (Lisa) Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics in the KU School of Medicine, KU Medical Center -- "Targeting RNA-binding protein HuR in liver cancer."
Earlier this year, Frontiers awarded nearly $1.3 million to 37 research projects as well as offered training and educational support to faculty members, post-doctoral students and medical students interested in research.
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