Numerous School of Medicine faculty recently have received grants of $1 million or more to fund research on topics ranging from the hepatitis C virus to neuropeptides to a tropical parasite called Leishmania.
Charles M. Rice, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology, has received a five-year $1.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. Rice is identifying factors that enable the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to establish a successful infection. HCV is a major cause of liver disease in many parts of the world and the prime reason for liver transplants in the United States.
Michael J. Holtzman, M.D., the Selma and Herman Seldin Professor of Medicine and professor of cell biology and physiology, has received a four-year $1.4 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He will study changes in the body's airways that follow viral infection.
Timothy M. Lohman, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, has received a four-year $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study the unwinding of DNA, the genetic material of living organisms.
Virginia L. Miller, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics and of molecular microbiology, has received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She is studying a bacterium called Yersinia enterocolitica. This small, rod-shaped bacterium causes a gastrointestinal disease with symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, fever and abdominal pain.
Samuel A. Santoro, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and medicine, has received a $1.4 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Santoro will study how endothelial cells and other cells attach to structural components in tissues.
Paul H. Taghert, Ph.D., associate professor of neurobiology, has received a four-year $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Taghert is examining the functions of small transmitter molecules in the brain called neuropeptides, which regulate activities such as appetite and mood.
David G. Russell, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology, has received a four-year $1.2 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study a tropical parasite called Leishmania. Leishmaniasis is endemic in 86 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
