Press Release
August 13, 2007
Contact: Jerry Carey
Phone: (856) 566-6171
careyge@umdnj.edu
UMDNJ Researchers to Share $3 Million
from Foundation Grants Program
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NEW BRUNSWICK — Researchers throughout the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey will share $3 million from the Foundation of UMDNJ Annual Grants Program (Foundation grants plus matches) to fund an array of research projects, from the role of predatory bacteria in oral health to early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and new therapeutic approaches to cancer and spinal cord injuries. The 50 individual grants range from $9,700 to $35,000 each and are matched by funds available to the researchers from other sources. The total amount awarded is $1 million more than was awarded through this program last year.
Since its establishment in 1974, the Foundation has provided funding for an annual grants program exclusively to meet UMDNJ faculty needs in research and educational enrichment/educational technology. Recipients apply for the grants through the deans of their schools. The proposals are reviewed and scored by a committee of researchers at each school and recommended proposals are then forwarded to the Foundation committee responsible for the final selections.
“These grants will help further both new and existing research that could lead to breakthrough medical discoveries,” said Sandra Brown Sherman, Esq., secretary of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees and chair of the 2007 committee. “Many of the researchers who receive these awards are then able to develop their projects to the point where they can qualify for much larger research grants from other organizations such as the National Institutes of Health.”
Recipients of the awards include UMDNJ faculty from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey Medical School, the School of Osteopathic Medicine, the School of Public Health, the School of Health Related Professions, New Jersey Dental School, the School of Nursing, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities, and the Public Health Research Institute. A complete list of the researchers who received awards follows this release.
The Foundation of UMDNJ is a not-for-profit, independent 501(c)(3) organization that solicits private funds for the benefit of research, education and patient care programs at the university.
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Berrin Ergun-Longmire, M.D., Ian Marshall, M.D., Sunanda Gaur, M .D., and Anna Petrova, M .D., Ph.D., “Factors Affecting Bone Mass Accrual in HIV-Infected Children and Adolescents”
Daniel S. Hirsch, M.D., Effects of Vitamin D on Inflammation in Neonates
Eunsung Junn, Ph.D., DAXX/ASK1 Pathway in Parkinson’s Disease
Judith C. Keen, Ph.D., Targeting ER mRNA stability as a novel strategy for breast cancer therapy
Kouichi Ito, Ph.D., David P. Crockett, Ph.D., and Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut, M.D., Combination therapy using T helper cells and neuronal progenitor cells for spinal cord injury
Morgan R. Peltier, Ph.D., and John C. Smulian, M.D., M.P.H., Development of vaccines against Pathogens that cause preterm birth
Alla Kostyukova, Ph.D., Role of phosphorylation in regulating tropomodulin functions
Maya Ramagopal, M.D., The Interaction of Weight and Asthma in Children
Jerome A. Langer, Ph.D., Type I Interferon Antagonists for Lupus and Autoimmunity
Eric H. Rubin, M.D., Mechanisms of Tumor Suppression by TOPORS
Sarah E. Hitchcock-DeGregori, Ph.D., Regulation of Contraction in Muscle and Nonmuscle Cells
Michael Hampsey, Ph.D., The Coupling of mRNA Transcription to 3’-end Formation
Vassiliki Karantza-Wadsworth, M.D., Ph.D., Autophagy as a therapeutic target in breast cancer
Julie A. Williams, Ph.D., The role of the NFKB Relish in Sleep and immune-related behavior
Sharon Lohrmann, Ph.D., Adoption of Interventions to Improve the Social Conditions of Schools: Protective and Risk Factors
New Jersey Medical School
Jiang-Hong Ye, M.D., Alcohol and mesolimbic glutamatergic transmissions
Debkumar Pain, Ph.D., Role of GTP in iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis of mitochondrial aconitase
Ian Paul Whitehead, Ph.D., Endosome-mediated Regulation of Src by Ccpg1
Richard D. Howells, Ph.D., Cross-talk between Opioid and Oncogenic Signaling in Human Multiple Myeloma
Stella Elkabes, Ph.D., Mechanisms of Purkinje cell function and pathology: role of PMCA2
Lawrence E. Harrison, M.D., Development of an in vivo model of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion
Samuel Joseph Leibovich, Ph.D., Toll-like Receptors, Adenosine and Angiogenesis
George P. Studzinski, M.D. Ph.D., Vitamin D Analogs in Leukemia Therapy
Erik Cohen, M.D., and Robert Wieder, M.D., Ph.D., Signal pathway activation signature of cisplatin resistance in head and neck cancer
Brajesh K. Lal, M.D., Neurocognition after Endarterectomy versus Stent Trial (NEST)
Christine Rohowsky-Kochan, Ph.D., Analysis of Human Th17 Cells
Hong Li, Ph.D., and Junichi Sadoshima, M.D., Ph.D., Proteomic Analysis of Trx1 Mediated Redox Signal Transduction Mechanism
Purnima Bhanot,Ph.D., and Vivian Bellofatto, Ph.D., Study of Casein kinase 1 of Trypanosoma brucei
Patricia Soteropoulos, Ph.D., Issar Smith, Ph.D., and Gloria Marcela Rodriguez, Ph.D., Ultra-Sensitive DNA Nanoarray
New Jersey Dental School
Gill Diamond, Ph.D., Bacteria-Host Cell Interactions in Periodontal Disease
Daniel E. Kadouri, M.Sc, Ph.D., Predatory bacteria: Mechanisms involved in predator prey interactions and the use of Bdellovibrio to reduce biofilms of oral pathogens
Vincent K. Tsiagbe, M.Sc., Ph.D., Probing mechanisms of osteoclatic bone resorption in periodontal disease
School of Nursing
Melissa Scollan-Koliopoulos, Ed.D., APRN, CDE, BC-ADM, Multigenerational Legacies of Diabetes and Self-care Decision-making
Kathleen L. Patusky, Ph.D., APRN-BC, Self Care Management of Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review
School of Public Health
Pamela Ann Ohman Strickland, Ph.D., David Q. Rich, Sc.D., Junfeng Zhang, Ph.D., and Leonard Bielory, M.D. , Relation between Airborne Pollen Concentrations and Daily Cardiovascular Hospital Admissions
Irina B. Grafova, Ph.D., Overweight Children: Assessing the Contribution of the Neighborhood Environment
School of Health Related Professions
Deborah Ann Josko, Ph.D., A Bioinformatics Approach to Identify and Test Analogs of Paraquat and Maneb, Compounds known to cause Parkinson’s Disease in an Animal Model
Alexander Kister, Ph.D., Protein misfolding disease: amyloidosis. Structural and sequence analysis of amyloid formation
Diane Rigassio Radler, Ph.D. R.D., Daniel Fine, Ph.D., D.M.D., and Riva Touger-Decker, Ph.D., R.D., FADA, Is metabolic syndrome associated with periodontal disease in the US population?
Laura Byham-Gray, Ph.D., R.D., Thomas Cavalieri, D.O. (SOM), Anita Chopra, M.D. (SOM). Claire DiVito, D.T.R., C.M.T. (SOM), Sherry Pomerantz, Ph.D. (SOM), and Riva Touger-Decker, Ph.D., R.D., FADA, Effect of Medical Nutrition Therapy on Clinical and Patient-Oriented Outcomes Among Overweight/Obese Older Adults Treated by the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging (NJISA)
Hafiz M. R. Khan, Ph.D., A Novel Approach to Predictive Inference for Future Responses from Censored Data
School of Osteopathic Medicine
Jennifer A. Fischer, Ph.D., dUTPase as an effector of mitochondrial DNA damage in normal cellular aging and in response to chemotherapeutic agents
Michael F. Henry, Ph.D., and Randy Strich, Ph.D., The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism for autism
David Mason, D.O., Use of biomarkers to monitor patient response to OMT for treatment of chronic low back pain
William T. McAllister, Ph.D., Identification of transcription factors associated with mitochondrial RNA polymerase
Robert G. Nagele, Ph.D., Steve Dinsmore, M.D., and Venkat Venkataraman, Ph.D., Biomarkers to identify possible risk for Alzheimer’s disease
Michael Anikin, Ph.D., Molecular Organization of Yeast Mitochondrial Transcription Complexes
Gary S. Goldberg, Ph.D., Src, Cas, Cx43, and gap junctional communication
T. Peter Stein, Ph.D., Phthalate Exposure and Pregnancy Outcome
Dmitry Temiakov, Ph.D., Transcription by a novel single subunit human nuclear RNA polymerase
UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.
