News

June 22, 2012

Researchers at the UH Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling (CNRCS) recently were awarded multiple federal grants to pursue projects related to prostate cancer, diabetes and obesity. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) will fund two new prostate cancer projects, while a third NIH grant will support expanded uses of the Center’s state-of-the-art zebrafish laboratory. Center research projects now account for eight active NIH grants, a key indicator in Tier One rankings.

“Success in today’s competitive federal funding landscape is validation of the motivation and ingenuity of our researchers,” says Dr. Jan-Åke Gustafsson, director of CNRCS. “With these new awards we are now able to explore new avenues of investigation into the treatment and prevention of these important diseases.”

The Department of Defense awarded in June a grant of more than $337,000 to fund assistant professor Daniel Frigo’s project, “CaMKK beta-AMPK Signaling Axis as a Biomarker and Therapeutic Target for Advanced Prostate Cancer.” Prostate cancer, the second most common cancer in American men, is a major research focus of the Frigo laboratory. The award will further the team’s work with CaMKK beta-AMPK, a signaling pathway that may be an effective target for treating prostate cancer. The project is scheduled to begin by the end of June.

“Grants are critical to our research, not only for funding but also building and maintaining a reputable track record on the national level,” says Frigo. “Our team is eager to begin these new projects as we focus on identifying drug targets for possible clinical trials in the next phases of research.”

In May, Frigo was awarded an additional grant of $150,000 from the NIH’s National Cancer Institute to expand his established research involving the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer. The project, “Modulation of Branched-Chain Fatty Acids for the Prevention of Prostate Cancer,” will examine how the convergence of specific biological cues and diets may function to promote cancer and could provide guidance for preventing the disease. The project is Frigo’s third to be funded by the NIH since joining the Center in 2010.

CNRCS director Gustafsson also was notified in May of a new NIH award. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences awarded his team more than $375,000 to collaborate with UH computer science professor Ioannis Kakadiaris on diabetes and obesity research. The project is expected to be led by Maria Bondesson, a research assistant professor with the center. The project, “Detection of Obesogens and Diabetogens by Zebrafish Screening Models,” will entail screening the effects of chemical compounds that may disrupt the development of the endocrine system. It is widely hypothesized that exposure to certain chemical compounds in developed countries may be responsible for the steady increase in obesity and diabetes in the U.S.

The Gustafsson lab currently has nine active grants, including the NIH award and existing funding from state and private entities. The NIH and DOD awards bring the total number of active grants for the Frigo lab to six. Overall, CNRCS active projects account for more than $18 million in research funding at UH, another significant metric for Tier One status.

Established in 2009, CNRCS is a focal point of the UH health initiative. Led by Gustafsson, a world-renowned expert in the field of nuclear receptors, CNRCS researchers are involved in many aspects of nuclear receptor research, all focused on understanding the roles of these receptors in health and disease. CNRCS researchers are working toward the goal of finding new treatments for an array of significant diseases including cancer, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and degenerative neurologic diseases. Working from the Center's world-class labs, CNRCS researchers combine interdisciplinary research and dynamic collaboration with the Texas Medical Center and industry partners.

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