Valley Research Partnership Awards Fourth Round of Funding
The Valley Research Partnership has awarded $210,000 in grants to support collaborative research by scientists and clinicians throughout the Phoenix area.
The grants, developed by the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and four of its clinical partners, are meant to develop cross-institutional research collaborations to enhance extramural research funding, accelerate career development and discovery and improve health care.
The program has awarded $1.59 million to 48 research projects across the Valley in four rounds of funding. Collectively, these grants have led to more than 30 publications and 28 extramural grant submissions. In the latest round, three $50,000 grants were awarded to collaborative projects for faculty principal investigators and six mentored projects for students, post-docs and residents each received $10,000.
“The Valley Research Partnership is an ongoing effort by Phoenix metro area hospitals and the College of Medicine – Phoenix to stimulate research and academic pursuit,” said Paul Boehmer, PhD, interim associate dean of research at the college. “This is a very important mechanism through which we support collaborative projects to allow those to get started, with the desire that they translate into larger extramural grants.”
Partnering institutions include the College of Medicine – Phoenix, Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, Dignity Health, Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Maricopa Integrated Health System.
Fourth-round awardees include Dong Wang, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the college, and Gregory Turner, PhD, at Dignity Health, who received $50,000 to study “the novel role and underlying mechanism of corin in modulating cardiomyocyte survival after ischemic injury in heart.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Arizona, affecting 4.8 percent of Arizonans in 2018. Corin is an enzyme primarily in the heart which can generate mature hormones, and subsequently regulate the salt-water balance in the body.
Based on their preliminary studies, Drs. Wang and Turner want to define the fundamental role of corin in ischemic heart disease, such as a heart attack, and to investigate how corin protects heart muscle cells from death after such an injury occurs.
“Given the current status and future expectation of heart attack in Arizona, we, from both clinical and basic research, should move forward in making advances and trying to identify new therapeutic targets and strategies for better outcomes for these patients,” Dr. Wang said. “Our study will bridge the gap in understanding the connection between corin and clinical outcomes, address a crucial question about the role of corin after cardiac ischemic injury, and reveal novel, mechanistic insights into corin’s protective effects in ischemic heart disease.”
Dr. Wang said the grant will allow the researchers to combine molecular biochemical methods with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging/positron emission tomography (MRI/PET) imaging and provide a multi-dimensional “window” to dissect events in the heart. With the support of this grant, they will generate preliminary data and they expect to pursue future funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Round Four Awardees
| Investigator Names | Type | Title of the Project | Funding |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ella Nikulina, PhD – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Associate Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences Megan Rudolph, MS – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Research Intern, Department of Basic Medical Sciences |
P1 |
Elucidating the Neuronal Circuitry Underlying Social Stress-Induced Psychostimulant Sensitivity |
$10,000 |
| Jerome Lacombe, PhD – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Research Assistant Professor, Center for Applied NanoBioscience and Medicine Ashlee Harris, PhD – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, PhD Student, Center for Applied NanoBioscience and Medicine |
P1 |
Exploration of Plant-Based Scaffolds to Generate Engineered Skin Substitutes |
$10,000 |
| Karen Hastings, MD, PhD – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Associate Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences Jesse Washnock-Schmid – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, MS Student, Department of Basic Medical Sciences |
P1 |
The Role of MHC-II in Melanoma on Regulating the Anti-Tumor Immune Response |
$10,000 |
| Rachel Rowe, PhD – Assistant Professor, Translational Neurotrauma Research Program, Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, and the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Department of Child Health J. Bryce Ortiz, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow, Translational Neurotrauma Research Program, Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, and the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Department of Child Health |
P1 |
Integrated Analyses of the Bidirectional Relationship between the Growth Hormone Axis and Sleep Following Juvenile TBI |
$10,000 |
|
Shalini Sharma, PhD – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Assistant Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences William Martelly – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Graduate Student Intern, Department of Basic Medical Sciences |
P1 |
Understanding Functions of the Myelodysplastic Syndrome Associated Splicing Factor SF3A1 |
$10,000 |
|
Theresa Thomas, PhD – Assistant Professor, Translational Neurotrauma Research Program, Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, and the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Department of Child Health |
P1 |
Late-Onset Traumatic Brain Injury-Induced Anxiety-Like Behavior is Mediated through Changes in Gut Microbiota |
$10,000 |
|
Dong Wang, MD, PhD – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine Gregory Turner, PhD – Dignity Health, Program Manager, Preclinical Imaging, Keller Center for Imaging Innovation at Barrow Neurological Institute |
P2 |
The Novel Role and Underlying Mechanism of Corin in Modulating Cardiomyocyte Survival after Ischemic Injury in Heart |
$50,000 |
| Taben Mary Hale, PhD – UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, Associate Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences Richard Frye, MD, PhD – Phoenix Children's Hospital, Professor, Department of Child Health |
P2 |
Protecting cardiac and skeletal muscle against pediatric cancer chemotherapy: Understanding and unlocking new pathways |
$50,000 |
| Varina Boerwinkle, MD – Phoenix Children's Hospital, Associate Professor of Neurology Francisco Ponce, MD – Barrow Neurological Institute, Dignity Health Associate Professor of Neurosurgery |
P2 |
Cerebral Palsy Interventions Elucidated by Resting State Functional MRI |
$50,000 |
Topics
About the College
Founded in 2007, the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix inspires and trains exemplary physicians, scientists and leaders to advance its core missions in education, research, clinical care and service to communities across Arizona. The college’s strength lies in our collaborations and partnerships with clinical affiliates, community organizations and industry sponsors. With our primary affiliate, Banner Health, we are recognized as the premier academic medical center in Phoenix. As an anchor institution of the Phoenix Bioscience Core, the college is home to signature research programs in neurosciences, cardiopulmonary diseases, immunology, informatics and metabolism. These focus areas uniquely position us to drive biomedical research and bolster economic development in the region.
As an urban institution with strong roots in rural and tribal health, the college has graduated more than 1,000 physicians and matriculates 130 students each year. Greater than 60% of matriculating students are from Arizona and many continue training at our GME sponsored residency programs, ultimately pursuing local academic and community-based opportunities. While our traditional four-year program continues to thrive, we will launch our recently approved accelerated three-year medical student curriculum with exclusive focus on primary care. This program is designed to further enhance workforce retention needs across Arizona.
The college has embarked on our strategic plan for 2025 to 2030. Learn more.