Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at The University of Iowa has been awarded a three-year, $630,000 Institutional Research Grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS) to help young UI investigators launch pilot projects in cancer research. The grant, which continues 30 consecutive years of the ACS Institutional Research Grant, will be effective Jan. 1.

The UI has received more than $2.8 million from the ACS Institutional Research Grant program since 1977. The funding has provided 168 seed grants to junior faculty campus-wide. In 2008, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center expects to award seven seed grants of up to $30,000 each to UI researchers, said Dr. George Weiner, the grant’s principal investigator and director of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. For more on this award, please click here.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded the UI a seven-year, $23.7 million contract to conduct clinical trials of promising vaccines and therapies for infectious diseases.

The UI was one of eight sites nationwide selected to serve as Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs), responsible for testing vaccines in specific populations and bolstering NIAID’s ability to direct clinical research to quickly respond to public health needs. Other VETU contracts were awarded to medical centers in Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston, Nashville, Seattle and St. Louis.

Dr. Patricia Winokur, UI associate professor of internal medicine, infectious diseases specialist, and researcher and staff physician at the Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System, is the principal investigator for the project. She said the UI center will continue to conduct clinical trials on traditional flu vaccines that are developed each year as well as flu vaccines with new adjuvants.

The UI and other VTEU sites also will study vaccines related to emerging public health issues. Winokur noted that she and her UI colleagues have been involved in NIH-led studies testing new smallpox vaccines as well as vaccines for H5N1 avian influenza.

“The ability to develop and test vaccines in response to emerging diseases or biochemical agents is always important, and it will be a key component of the consortium,” Winokur said. “Obviously, NIH will take the lead in establishing the key targets from a national health perspective, but this partnership strengthens our ability to respond rapidly and efficiently.”

For more on this award, see the news release here.

Three CCOM researchers have been awarded a total of $120,000 in 2007 Breast Cancer Grant Opportunity awards, which were made through the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UI. Drs. Adam Dupuy, Sonia Sugg and Sujatha Venkatarama each received a one-year, $40,000 grant effective Nov. 1.

Dupuy, UI assistant professor of anatomy and cell biology, will investigate how a gene called Plag1 contributes to breast tumors in mice. The researchers also will try to identify new breast cancer genes in mouse models.

Sugg, UI associate professor of surgery, aims to identify the influence of genetic background on susceptibility and resistance to breast cancer caused by carcinogens in a rat model.

Venkataraman, UI assistant research scientist in radiation oncology and the free radical and radiation biology program, will study prolyl hydroxylase enzymes, which regulate key genes that control tumor growth.

For more detailed information about these three research projects, see the full news release here.

A five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) will establish at the UI a Center of Research Translation (CORT) for post-traumatic osteoarthritis, which is the joint degeneration, pain and stiffness that develops after joint injury.

A lack of understanding about the biological and mechanical processes that underlie development and progression of osteoarthritis following injury has seriously hampered progress toward preventing post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), according to Dr. Joseph Buckwalter, the Dr. Arthur A. Steindler Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery, professor, and head of orthopaedics and rehabilitation. Buckwalter is principal investigator (PI) of the study.

The UI researchers, led by Buckwalter and co-principle investigator Dr. Thomas Brown, the Richard and Janice Johnston Professor of Orthopaedic Biomechanics, professor, and director of the UI orthopaedic biomechanics laboratory, will investigate how joint injuries propagate and develop new methods to assess joint injuries, prevent PTOA and promote joint healing. The collaborative, translational research will capitalize on UI strengths in cartilage and matrix biology, joint biomechanics, imaging, and clinical studies of PTOA.

The CORT award will support four research projects. To read about these projects, see the full news release here.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Sept. 18 The University of Iowa as one of 12 academic health centers nationwide to receive a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). The five-year, $33.8 million award is the second-largest research award in UI history.The CTSA will support the University’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, formally approved by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa in December 2006, to expand and enhance “bench-to-bedside” research.

“The University of Iowa is the recipient, but the planning and application for this award came from the entire state of Iowa. Over the past two years we have worked to create a statewide network of hospitals, physicians and community health centers that will participate in the Institute,” said UI President Sally Mason. “The fact that we are among an elite group of institutions to receive a CTSA is yet another indication of our status as one of the nation’s top research universities.”

To read more about the CTSA and what it means for the CCOM and The University of Iowa, click here.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to celebrate the receipt of the $33.8 million Clinical and Translational Science Award at a reception to be held in the MERF Atrium on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 5 p.m., with remarks at 5:30 p.m.

The five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health is among the largest ever awarded to the UI and makes the UI part of a national consortium that is transforming how research moves from the research laboratory to the clinical setting.

Click here for more information about the UI CTSA.

Dr. M. Sue O’Dorisio, UI professor of pediatrics, will serve as the principal investigator on a Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Seed Grant for Translational Project Development and Clinical Trials. The $10,000 grant will run from Sept. 1, 2007, through Aug. 31, 2008.O’Dorisio’s research project is “Dual-Target, Dual-Isotope Radiotherapy in Pediatric Solid Tumors: A Pilot Dosimetry Study of 131I-MIBG and 111In-DOTA-tyr3-Octreotide.” Cancers such as neuroblastoma in children and neuroendocrine tumors in adolescents will take both drugs into malignant cells simultaneously, resulting in two “hits” to each tumor cell and increasing the likelihood of killing the cancer cells. This will be the first time that these two anti-cancer agents have been used together in children or young adults.

Leaders with Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa announced the upcoming renewal of an $11.9 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for lymphoma research from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The five-year grant is the first lymphoma SPORE grant ever to be renewed by the NCI. It is currently one of three lymphoma SPORE grants in the country. The SPORE is a joint effort of the UI and Mayo Clinic and is under the direction of Dr. George Weiner, director of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. To read more, click here.