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An innovative research collaboration at the University of Virginia's Faculty of Medicine that illuminates everything from cancer to diabetes to cardiovascular disease, received $ 12.5 million from the National Institutes of Health.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute grant will support the next five years of research for an initiative that is both unusual in purpose and approach. Rather than studying a particular disease, the initiative seeks to understand how cells communicate via "pannexin channels" in their membranes. By discovering exactly how this communication occurs, researchers are trying to manipulate the channels to better deal with a host of the most important health threats of the moment. For example, blocking pannexin channel mediated communication can help reduce high blood pressure.
More [newly developed] the drugs fail or do not work properly because we do not have a very good mechanism to control the functioning of drug targets or badociated complications. The approach taken by this team allows us to understand exactly how the pannexin channels work, as well as to perform drug screenings that provide us with very specific tools to tackle this channel, both to activate and to block if necessary. [That will let us] address it in the context of hypertension, atherosclerosis, hepatic steatosis, inflammation and related diseases. "
Researcher Kodi Ravichandran, PhD, Director of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology of the UVA
Scientists meet
For this ambitious mission, UVA has brought together an interesting mix of scientists who each bring a very particular skill set. The project includes teams led by Ravichandran (an expert on cell death in the body); Douglas A. Bayliss, PhD, Chair of the UVA Pharmacology Department (an expert in channel mechanisms); Brant Isakson, PhD, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics (Expert in Hypertension and Vascular Disease); and Norbert Leitinger, PhD, of the Department of Pharmacology of UVA (Specialist in Metabolic Syndromes). In addition, their work is supported by researchers from the Faculty of Medicine led by Ulrike Lorenz, PhD of the Carter Immunology Center and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology (expert in animal models of human diseases). , and Bimal. Desai, PhD, Department of Pharmacology (Expert in Cellular Membrane Channels and Cellular Communication).
"The beauty of such a broad and extensive effort lies in the fact that we can adopt approaches that approach the same problem from multiple angles," Bayliss said. "I think we're very fortunate to have a group that works extremely well together, which testifies to the highly collaborative nature of the School of Medicine."
The discoveries made by the group already have a significant impact on the scientific community. Articles published as part of this project have been published in leading scientific journals, including Nature, Communications with Nature, Scientific Signage, Circulation Research, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Immunology. The results of the group have already been cited in subsequent research by more than 1,000 scientists worldwide. "This is a fantastic example of a genuine team effort, where science comes first, and where we value and celebrate each other's individual and collective successes," he said. said Isakson.
"Metabolic diseases are complex, involving multiple cell types, and communication between cells at the tissue level and at the whole organism is really essential for treating diseases such as fatty liver and diabetes," said Leitinger. "Our goal for the next five years is to truly tackle some of these metabolic diseases using a combination of in vitro and in vivo approaches."
Eight trainees who participated in the project over the last five years have already held positions in other universities and in industry. "This original program project has also spawned new projects within the Faculty of Medicine on the role of pannexin channels in the treatment of lung lesions and aneurysms," said Ravichandran.
About the grant
The new grant is numbered HL-120840. Taking into account the previous five years of funding, the NHLBI has now funded the ambitious $ 25 million research project.
"Getting one of these grants is very difficult because it involves several projects, several people, and then they all have to work as a team," Desai said. "Repeat this feat and get a similar grant renewed in five years.I think that says a lot about the whole team and the positive perception of our team by the external review committees," he said. said Lorenz.
Source:
University of Virginia Health System
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