New Research Grants - June 2018
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Daniel Leung, MD
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National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Our goal is to develop and validate clinical decision tools for management of pediatric diarrhea. We will use machine learning and other statistical methods on data from two large pediatric diarrhea studies - IMPACT (1200 kids in 5 ERs in USA) and GEMS (15,000 kids in 7 low and middle-income countries). We will derive and externally validate scores for bacterial etiology, scores for need for further testing, and prognostic scores for kids who go on to poor outcomes. This grant is in collaboration with investigators at the University of Utah (Andy Pavia, Tom Greene, Ben Haaland, Per Gesteland), Intermountain Healthcare (Jeff Ferraro), University of Maryland (Karen Kotloff), and Brown University (Adam Levine). |
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Richard Nelson, PhD |
VA Merit Award, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs The major goal of this project is to assess the impact of the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF), the largest homeless program in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Specifically, we will (1) describe geographic variation in the amount of SSVF services provided and identify predictors of this variation for SSVF recipients, (2) measure the impact of the rapid re-housing component of SSVF on housing, health, and healthcare cost outcomes through retrospective cohort analyses, (3) conduct grantee-specific and overall economic evaluations of the SSVF program compared to usual care, and (4) identify barriers and facilitators to SSVF use and Veterans’ satisfaction with the program using semi-structured interviews with VA operations partners, SSVF grantee employees, VA homeless services providers, and Veterans using SSVF services. |
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Daniel Leung, MD |
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Current methods to detect cholera are largely based on clinical reporting, with infrequent microbial confirmation. Such surveillance is often inadequate due to poor infrastructure in places where cholera occur, and the high proportion of non-medically attended cases. To optimize cholera control efforts, accurate estimates of cholera exposure and risk are needed. In this grant, we will work with investigators from Bangladesh (icddrb), Haiti (GHESKIO), Johns Hopkins, and University of Florida, using computational methods to determine how antibody decay data may help us estimate cholera exposure incidence. We will also develop and validate field-adapted methods (such as use of dried blood spots and lateral flow devices) to facilitate cholera sero-surveillance in low-resource settings. |
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Megan Vanneman, PhD |
VA Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D) Service Directed Research (SDR) grant In 2014, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) created the Veterans Choice Program (VCP), which expanded access to health care for VHA enrollees by purchasing care through new private Community Care networks. Prior to VCP, VHA purchased care in the community, but on a much smaller scale. For the current study, we will examine variation in utilization and access of VHA vs. Community Care (CC) over time (FY15-FY19); develop and test a methodology to compare costs between VHA and CC; and examine use of specialty care, specifically surgery and mental health. |
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My Helms, PhD |
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Dr. My Helms, PhD has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of Health to investigate the biophysical properties of lung epithelial cells in health and disease. The grant will allow Dr. Helms and her research team to continue building on their novel discovery that alveolar type 1 and type 2 cells both express functional epithelial sodium channels (ENaC) in the airspace. ENaC is an integral membrane protein, and its activation serves as the rate limiting step for net salt and water removal from the airspace by generating osmotic gradients for subsequent water transport. In the lung, the regulation of ENaC is fine-tuned so that a precise volume of water continually lines the airway epithelium, which keeps the lungs appropriately moist for effective gas exchange. In some patients with lung injury, it is not clear why lung ENaC fails to function. The NIH award, officially entitled “Oxidized glutathione regulation of epithelial sodium channels in newborn lung injury” will evaluate whether sustaining ENaC activity under hyperoxia-induced cell stress can protect the lungs from injury. The proposal also explores potential new avenues of increasing ENaC function under prolonged oxidative stress. The NIH support will maintain the lab’s great momentum in making novel discoveries. In addition to Dr. Helms, the research team consists of the University of Utah faculty members, Dr. Kurt Albertine, PhD and Dr. Mike Sanguinetti, PhD. The researchers will also collaborate with Pacific North West National Laboratory Investigator, Dr. Wei Jun Qian, PhD |
