Once again, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has generously supported the research efforts of our faculty. This year, five Internal Medicine faculty members have received VA Merit grants. The awardees have shared details about their projects below. Mary E. Wilson Professor of Internal Medicine – Infectious Diseases Professor of Epidemiology Extracellular vesicles from […]
Chris Adams, MD, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, has successfully renewed a four-year, $650,000 VA Merit Award. Dr. Adams and his colleagues will use this renewal to continue their investigations of age-related skeletal muscle atrophy, or sarcopenia. Specifically, they will build on the previous grant’s work, which resulted in the […]
Peter Snyder, MD, Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine and of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, has received a four-year, $650,000 VA Merit grant to study a link between diabetes and hypertension. Incidences of hypertension is found twice as often in people with diabetes than in the general population and dramatically increases the risk for cardiovascular complications. Dr. […]
Mary Wilson, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine, Epidemiology, and Microbiology & Immunology, has been awarded a four-year, $650,000 VA Merit grant, “Innate Inflammatory Cells in Leishmaniasis.” The grant will allow Dr. Wilson to continue her research into the pathophysiology of the insect-borne parasitic disease leishmaniasis, which occurs in different clinical forms including ulcerative skin lesions […]
A number of Internal Medicine members have received favorable responses to VA Merit Award applications. We would like to congratulate four of those researchers, who describe the work these grants will fund below. Lee-Ann Allen, PhD Professor of Internal Medicine – Infectious Diseases Professor of Microbiology and Immunology Dysregulation of the inflammatory response by Francisella tularensis […]
Dr. Warren Schmidt, Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, has been awarded a four-year, $625,000 VA Merit grant to study the connections between Hepatitis C virus (HCV), cirrhosis, and liver cancer. HCV is a leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer and has been shown to influence telomerase, a cellular enzyme that promotes immortal cellular growth […]
Dr. Marin Schweizer, Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine and Epidemiology, has been awarded a 3-year, $912,000 VA Merit grant through Health Services Research and Development to potentially develop more reliable guidelines for prescribing indefinite oral antibiotics, also known as chronic antibiotic suppression (CAS). CAS can last anywhere from 6 months to 10 years and […]
Dr. Isabella Grumbach, Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, has just had her VA Merit proposal funded with a four-year, $650,000 grant. Dr. Grumbach provided a detailed description of what she and the researchers in her lab will study: At least 30% of the estimated three million veterans with hypertension do not reach the current target […]
Dr. Jack Stapleton, Professor of Infectious Diseases, has just had his grant “Novel viral immune interference mechanisms: HCV as a model system” funded by a four-year, $650,000 VA Merit grant. Dr. Stapleton provided a detailed description of what specific avenues of research this will fund: Viruses have evolved mechanisms to evade recognition by the immune […]