NIH Awards Additional $3.7 Million to UAMS to Continue Groundbreaking Research into High Blood Pressure

By Linda Satter

LITTLE ROCK — In a major boost to cardiovascular research, the National Institutes of Health has awarded an additional $3.7 million to Shengyu Mu, Ph.D., and his team of researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to continue their groundbreaking study on the role of immune cells in hypertension.

Mu, an associate professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, was awarded an initial $1.89 million grant in 2019 to fund his laboratory’s exploration of the link between immune cells and hypertension, a widespread and serious health condition.

During that time, the team made substantial discoveries indicating that immune disorders contribute to high blood pressure, paving the way for the next phase of research.

NIH Awards Additional $3.7 Million to UAMS to Continue Groundbreaking Research into High Blood Pressure

NIH Awards UAMS $1.54 Million to Tackle Brittle Bone Disease

By David Robinson

LITTLE ROCK — A UAMS research team is using a $1.54 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support its goal of finding better treatments for osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), also known as brittle bone disease.

The four-year award from the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute will allow Roy Morello, Ph.D., and his interdisciplinary team to test whether lung abnormalities in OI patients can be treated separately from OI’s bone-related defects.

An estimated 25,000 to 50,000 people in the United States live with OI, a rare genetic disorder of connective tissues that has no cure. It is mainly caused by mutations in the genes responsible for producing Type I collagen, a protein that normally holds bones together and makes them strong. With inadequate collagen, bones become brittle and prone to fractures.

NIH Awards UAMS $1.54 Million to Tackle Brittle Bone Disease

Roy Morello, Ph.D., in his lab at UAMS.

UAMS Testing New Noninvasive Device for Diagnosing Fetal Heart Conditions

By David Robinson

Three grants in six months from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are helping University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researcher Hari Eswaran, Ph.D., explore promising noninvasive methods for diagnosing serious fetal health conditions.

The grants total $4.4 million and support his pioneering work with sensor arrays that can reveal important functional details of fetal development in the later stages of pregnancy. The NIH grants are just part of Eswaran’s externally supported research, which totals $12.8 million in active funding.

https://news.uams.edu/2022/04/27/uams-testing-new-noninvasive-device-for-diagnosing-fetal-heart-conditions/

UAMS researcher Hari Eswaran, Ph.D., first will test the new optically-pumped magnetometer's effectiveness detecting fetal heart conditions. The noninvasive imaging technology will be tested in the future for its ability to reveal other important functional details of fetal development.

UAMS Receives $18.9 Million NIH Award to Address Health Disparities

By David Robinson

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has received $18.9 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support new research and interventions that will focus on reducing cancer and cardiovascular disease disparities among people who live in rural areas and African American populations across Arkansas.

The five-year award from the NIH National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) will support the establishment of the Center for Research, Health and Social Justice – one of only 11 Multiple Chronic Disease (MCD) Centers funded in the United States. Leading the grant are Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health faculty members Carol Cornell, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, and director of the NIMHD-funded Arkansas Center for Health Disparities, and Pebbles Fagan, Ph.D., MPH, a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco.

The overall goals of the center are to:

• Advance the science of chronic disease health disparities through multidisciplinary team science to improve cancer and cardiovascular outcomes.

• Facilitate research and training opportunities to strengthen the capacity of researchers and community members to develop interventions that reduce cancer and cardiovascular disease disparities using social justice principles.

• Support academic-community partnerships to address the root causes of chronic disease disparities among African Americans and in rural areas in the state.

https://news.uams.edu/2021/11/15/uams-receives-18-9-million-nih-award-to-address-health-disparities/

Members of the research team include, (back row, l-r) Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., FNP-BC, RN, Pebbles Fagan, Ph.D., Carol Cornell, Ph.D., Linda Luster and Christina Hamilton; (front) Elizabeth Taylor, Theresa Prewitt, Dr.P.H., and Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D. Pictured separately are, from top: Mark Williams, Ph.D., Chris Long, Ph.D., and Mignonne Guy, Ph.D. (Virginia Commonwealth University).

$10.8 Million NIH Grant to Establish Metabolic Research Center

A $10.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will enable an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the U of A and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to address the role of cell and tissue metabolism in rare and common diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity and mitochondrial disorders.

The five-year award, funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, establishes the Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center as an NIH-designated Center of Biomedical Research Excellence. The award recognizes the university’s unique combination of expertise in advanced imaging techniques, bioenergetics and data science.

“Our center will support important scientific contributions not only in specific biomedical fields associated with metabolic diseases, but also broader contemporary research on metabolism, exploring issues such as the sensitivity of mitochondrial biomarkers to explain the onset and progression of rare and common diseases,” said Kyle Quinn, associate professor of biomedical engineering. “Ultimately, the center will help cultivate a critical mass of researchers determined to solve multiple human health problems with metabolic underpinnings that have been particularly devastating in Arkansas and the southeastern United States, such as cancer, diabetes and obesity.”

https://biochemistry.uams.edu/2021/04/07/10-8-million-nih-grant-to-establish-metabolic-research-center/

Top row, from left: Kyle Quinn, director of Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center and associate professor of biomedical engineering; Chenguang Fan, assistant professor of biochemistry; Shilpa Iyer, assistant professor of biological sciences; and Isabelle Racine Miousse, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Bottom row: Adam Paré, assistant professor of biological sciences; Narasimhan Rajaram, associate professor of biomedical engineering; Young Hye Song, assistant professor of biomedical engineering; and Justin Zhan, professor of computer science and computer engineering.