Research Highlights

Researchers with the University of Alabama at Birmingham are using micro computer tomography, or microCT, to create a high resolution 3D atlas of lungs damaged by tuberculosis or COVID-19. “This atlas could be used to identify novel imaging biomarkers,” said senior author Adrie Steyn. Partial support for this research came from the NIH.

The research, published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine — with one of the 3D images featured on the journal cover, was led by Adrie Steyn, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and member of the Africa Health Research Institute, or AHRI, University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Durban, South Africa, along with UAB and AHRI researchers and colleagues at various South African institutions.

Researchers from the Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham used an AI tool known as mediKanren that flagged useful clinical evidence, helping them identify low-dose ketamine as a potential therapeutic target for activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) syndrome. Findings from the NIH-funded trial were published in Human Genetics and Genomic Advances.

A total of 13 DE-INBRE Pilot Project Investigators (PPI) have begun their work in 2022.

• Mitra Assadi-Khansari, MD, Christiana Care
• Carissa Baker-Smith, MD, MPH, Nemours
• Roghayeh Barmaki, PhD, University of Delaware
• Aditya Dutta, PhD, University of Delaware
• Amanda Hernan, PhD, Nemours
• Hakeem Lawal, PhD, Delaware State University
• Fabrizio Sergi, PhD, University of Delaware
• Lisha Shao, PhD, University of Delaware
• Kevin Solomon, PhD, University of Delaware
• Shubhika Srivastava, MD, Nemours
• Murali Temburni, PhD, Delaware State University
• Elizabeth Wright-Jin, MD, Nemours
• Xuyi Yue, PhD, Nemours

The National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc. hosted its Annual Induction Ceremony on Sept 23, at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

In addition to celebrating two inductees, SC INBRE member institution Benedict College received a check for $10,000 from the HBCU Change Foundation.

New Hampshire NSF EPSCoR NH BioMade researcher Jeffrey Halpern’s publication, “Nanostructured Cyclodextrin-Mediated Surface for Capacitive Determination of Cortisol in Multiple Biofluids” was featured as the Sept 21 issue cover of ACM Applied Materials & Interfaces.

The larval health of an Antarctic cold-water coral species may be resistant to warming water temperatures, a University of Maine study finds, bringing new hope for the climate change resilience of deep-sea ecosystems in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The study was published in the journal Coral Reefs. The research was funded by the NSF.

University of Louisville research could help spur new medicines by extending the usable life of test heart tissue from one day to 12. The findings were published in the journal Nature – Communications Biology.

“We’ve created a complete cardiac cycle within the chamber, so the heart tissue stays pumping and viable for longer,” said Tamer M. A. Mohamed, an associate professor of medicine who led the research. “This system will save time and costs of clinical trials during Phase 1 research, which includes testing for toxicity and proof of efficacy.” Research was supported in part by grants from NIH and DOD.

A Kansas State University-led study has found that reintroducing bison — a formerly dominant grazer — doubles plant biodiversity in a tallgrass prairie. The research includes more than 30 years of data collected at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, an NSF-supported Long-Term Ecological Research site, and is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The rapid spread of monkeypox is unlike the virus’ past outbreaks and may be a result of genetic mutations identified by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researchers. Led by Dr. David Ussery, a professor in the College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics and director of the Arkansas Center for Genomic and Epidemiology Medicine at UAMS, the UAMS team published its findings this month in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. The work was supported in part by an NIH IDeA CTPR grant and Arkansas NSF EPSCoR Track-1 DART.

NIH NIGMS recently featured Mikhail Bobylev, a professor of chemistry at Minot State University who has mentored more than 70 undergrad researchers in his lab through support from North Dakota INBRE, in a Biomedical Beat Blog article entitled, “Training Students and Communicating Science on Capitol Hill.” Bobylev focuses on training students to conduct rigorous, meaningful research and to communicate it clearly to a variety of audiences, including the general public, scientists, and policy-makers.