More than $6 Million in Grants from James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program and Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program to Begin January 1

Miller School physicians and scientists took another step forward in their ongoing fight to save patients from cancer, heart disease and other ailments by winning a dozen grants for crucial research and equipment with the potential to boost scientific discoveries and ultimately enhance patient care and disease prevention.

The UM researchers won more than $6.5 million for proposals submitted to the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program and the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program, both highly competitive Florida Biomedical Research Programs. Administered by the Florida Department of Health's Office of Public Health Research, the James and Esther King program supports research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and/or cure of tobacco-related diseases. The goals of the Bankhead-Coley program include initiatives that can drastically reduce the state's inordinately high cancer burden, and stimulate economic development, particularly in the biotechnology industry.

"The Florida Biomedical Research Programs are intended to build research capacity in Florida through merit-based peer review," said Dr. Richard Bookman, UM's vice provost for research, executive dean for research at the Miller School, and chair of the state council that oversees the grant programs. "UM's faculty pursued every opportunity to obtain resources for their exciting ideas and won. UM is proud of its talented scientists!"

This special round of grants, executed under a tight schedule, is funded by increased revenue collected in tobacco taxes. Bookman said the grants were leveraged off the NIH's stimulus package funding and called for highly meritorious "Challenge" grant applications, making it easy for scientists to apply for the funding for "highly innovative projects with breakthrough potential."

Lisa Baumbach, Ph.D., research associate professor of pediatrics, neurology and biochemistry, who received a two-year $544,463 Bankhead-Coley Challenge grant for her "Defining Ethnic-Specific Transcriptional Differences in Breast Tissue" project, described the award as "a shot in the arm -- a good one!"

"It provides funds for a new project and allows us to hire additional personnel and fund a graduate student -- all of these are intended outcomes for these Challenge grants," said Baumbach, whose team will follow up on initial observations that there may be underlying differences in gene expression in normal breast tissue across ethnicities. "This is wonderful news before the holidays. The state has been very generous and we truly appreciate the support."

Alan Pollack, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of radiation oncology, won two of UM's five "Challenge" awards under the Bankhead-Coley program, established in 2006. Pollack, a nationally known prostate cancer expert, will be funded over two years for his projects, "Prostate Cancer Imaging and Gene Therapy Delivery Using a Nanosphere Vector," awarded $764,456, and "Genomic and Dosimetric Determinants of Radiotherapy Outcome in Prostate Cancer," awarded $884,621.

Dorraya El-Ashry, Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine, also was awarded a Bankhead-Coley Challenge grant for her project, "Restoring ER Expression and Anti-Estrogen Response in ER-Negative Breast Cancer," at $607,587 over two years. Richard Riley, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology, was awarded a shared instrument grant of $492,334 for one year for an L.S.R. Fortessa + H.T.S. Flow Cytometry analysis system.

UM researchers, including Joshua Hare, M.D., also won grants under the James and Esther King Program. Hare, Louis Lemberg Professor of Medicine and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, was awarded a one-year, $500,000 shared instrument grant for a fixed-base biplane imaging laboratory for experimental models and pre-clinical therapeutic studies in cardiovascular diseases caused by tobacco.

"This facility will allow any member of the faculty to perform research that requires sophisticated angiography and will greatly advance the mission of translational research," Hare said of the biplane angiography suite that will be part of a new experimental laboratory in the Biomedical Research Building. "The interdisciplinary nature of the project is evident from the participation of investigators from the departments of Medicine, Surgery, Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, and Neurology in the grant award."

Vincent Moy, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and biophysics, and Matthias Salathe, M.D., chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, also were awarded shared instrument grants. Moy will receive $489,496 for one year for acquisition of a Nikon A1-R-SI confocal laser microscope for an integrated confocal-AFM system.

Salathe will receive $204,902 over one year for a computer-controlled tobacco smoke delivery system for cell cultures. The mechanism, which has a revolving chamber that can hold a lit cigarette, will deliver different kinds of smoke to human cells. "The goal," says Salathe, "is to find out how cells would react to smoke and how this causes airway diseases such as chronic bronchitis and, potentially, lung cancer."

Others receiving James and Esther King Program Challenge grants are: Antoni Barrientos, Ph.D., associate professor of neurology, $660,000 for two years for "Slowing Degenerative Processes by Bolstering Cellular Bioenergetics;" Adam Wanner, M.D., Joseph Weintraub Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Biomedical Engineering, $748,400 for two years for "The Airway Microbiome in COPD;" and John Bixby, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and neuroscience, $663,262 for two years for "Combination Therapy in SCI: Proof of Concept for New Compounds & Candidate Genes."

"The funding from the state is extremely timely," said Bixby. "Our NIH-funded experiments have given us insight into cellular mechanisms of axonal growth, and the state funding will allow us to test our ideas in an animal model of nervous system injury such as stroke."

Additionally, Stuti Dang, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine and an investigator at the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the Miami VA Medical Center, was selected for a James and Esther King award in the category of technology transfer/commercialization partnership. The $99,999 grant is for one year to research "A Novel Fully Integrated Mobile Management Solution Using Cell Phone Technology for Heart Failure."

Statewide, 35 scientists won awards totaling more than $19.5 million. Of the 66 grant applicants, 31 sought funding from the James and Esther King Program and 35 from the Bankhead-Coley Program. The new awards are effective Jan. 1, 2010.

"Our faculty are so grateful for this state support and will put it to work immediately to expand their research teams." Bookman said. "It's a huge win-win for UM and for the state of Florida."