Baylor College of Medicine and the 兔子先生 are teaming up for new research collaborations. The two Texas Medical Center member institutions have awarded grant funding for nine research projects, each with investigators from both schools, as part of a pilot program resulting from a 2019 Memorandum of Understanding between Baylor College of Medicine and UH to foster new partnerships and research collaborations.
The grants will give awardees $60,000 over 18 months, with each institution providing half the funding. The winners cover research in a wide variety of subjects, including oncology, cardiology, genetics, biochemistry, virology, ophthalmology, molecular biology, nutrition and health services.
鈥淏aylor College of Medicine and the 兔子先生 have unique strengths and resources that can contribute to an outstanding platform for population health and precision medicine,鈥� said , vice president for academic integration at Baylor. 鈥淣ine excellent projects were selected from a very large and competitive pool. This joint research collaboration will greatly enhance scientific innovation and discovery that will benefit both our institutions and the city of Houston.鈥�
鈥淭he impact of the synergy between the clinical research depth of Baylor and the fundamental and technological biomedical research of the 兔子先生 will be transformative,鈥� said Amr Elnashai, UH vice president for research and technology transfer. 鈥淭he cohesion of the two research visions was demonstrated from the very first meeting and continues to date. I cannot think of a better, more collaborative and capable research partner than Baylor.鈥�
The full list of winners is:
- , assistant professor of medicine 鈥� cardiovascular research at Baylor, and Bradley K. McConnell, associate professor of pharmacology at UH, will work on a project titled, 鈥淩eprogrammed Cardiac Progenitor Cells into Cardiac Conduction Cells for Heart Repair.鈥�
- , associate professor of molecular and cellular biology and director of the metabolics core at Baylor, and , assistant professor of pharmacology at UH, will work on a project called 鈥淩ole of Trimethylamine-N-Oxide in renal aging.鈥�
- , professor of surgery and director of clinical research in the division of vascular surgery and endovascular therapy, and Beom Chan Lee, assistant professor of health and human performance at UH, will work on a project called 鈥淩emotely-Supervised Game-Based Exercise Platform for Improving Cognition and Motor Function in Adult Cancer Survivors Using Telemedicine.鈥�
- , Nancy Chang, Ph.D. Endowed Professor in the Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor, and Qin Feng, associate professor of biology and biochemistry at UH, will work on a project called 鈥淒iscovery of pharmacological modulators for NEAT1 IncRNA and reactivation of latent HIV-1.鈥�
- , professor and Alvin Romansky Chair in biochemistry and molecular biology at Baylor, and Joydip Das, professor of medicinal chemistry at UH, will work on a project called 鈥淪tructural Basis for Munc13-1鈥檚 Regulation by Bryostatin 1.鈥�
- , professor of pediatrics 鈥� nutrition and molecular and human genetics at Baylor, and Xinli Liu, associate professor of pharmaceutics at UH, will work on a project called 鈥淒ietary Plant-Based Exosome-Like Xanoparticles Impact the Human Gut Microbiome.鈥�
- , assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology and at Baylor, and , associate professor of engineering technology and computational health informatics at UH, will work on a project called 鈥淚mpact of Cell Microenvironment on Differentiation and Physiology of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells into Pancreatic Islet Cells.鈥�
- , Sid W. Richardson Professor, and Margarett Root Brown Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the Cullen Eye Institute at Baylor, and , assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology at UH, will work on a project called 鈥淐ataract Surgery Transformation Through Development of a Novel Artificial Hydrogel.鈥�
- , professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor, and , professor of biology and biochemistry and director of the Somatic Stem Cell Center at UH, will work on a project called 鈥淗aploid Genome Duplication: Mechanistic Insights into a Shortcut in Cancer Evolution.鈥�