The University of Nebraska Medical Center has been awarded more than $11.2 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, funding that will allow the university to continue and expand its cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research into nanotechnology. The grant, which will be awarded over five years, will fund the continuation of an Institutional Development Award to the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE). UNMC researcher Tatiana Bronich, Ph.D., is the principal investigator on the grant. Dr. Bronich is the Parke-Davis Chair in Pharmaceutics, UNMC College of Pharmacy, and the director of the Nebraska Center for Nanomedicine. Nanomedicine uses nanomaterials, small polymeric particles, to deliver drugs safely to disease sites, such as cancer tumors. In addition, the grant will support two research core facilities: the bioimaging core, directed by Michael Boska, Ph.D., radiology department; and the nanomaterials core, co-directed by Dr. Bronich and Dong Wang, Ph.D., pharmaceutical sciences.
The COBRE grant will support five projects: MUC4 nanovaccine for pancreatic cancer, Renal drug targeting for the treatment of lupus nephritis, The role of nanoformulated Cu/ZnSOD in reducing systemic hypertension in obesity, Development of metabolically active linkers (MALs) to improve diagnostic and radiotherapeutic HPMA copolymers, and Neuroprotective regulatory T cells as vehicles for nanoformulated growth factor delivery to an injured brain.
Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu.