New Funding

Ben Philpot receives funds from the Angelman Syndrome Foundation, NIH

September 2009 - Assistant professor Ben Philpot has been awarded a two-year grant from the Angelman Syndrome Foundation for his research proposal titled "Novel therapeutics for Angelman syndrome by manipulating Ube3a expression." Funds have been allocated for support of these studies in collaboration with Dr. Bryan Roth.

Additional funding for new equipment in the Philpot lab comes in the form of an R01 grant from the National Eye Institute.

Mark Zylka receives Transformative R01 Grant

September 2009 - Assistant professor Mark Zylka was awarded one of 42 NIH Roadmap Transformative RO1 grants for his project Harnessing Ectonucleotidases to Treat Chronic Pain.

More Americans suffer from chronic pain than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined. Unfortunately, existing analgesics are not completely effective for all pain conditions and have serious side effects. A critical challenge for modern biomedical research is the need to provide pain relief without serious side effects. This project addresses this need by harnessing enzymes, called ectonucleotidases, that are found in nociceptive (pain-sensing) circuits in nervous system dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and in the spinal cord. Ectonucleotidases degrade purine nucleotides (like ATP and ADP) that cause pain into adenosine-a compound that has analgesic properties in rodents and humans. These studies are important in developing new proteins and small molecules that target ectonucleotidases for the treatment of acute and chronic pain, and have the potential to transform how we treat pain in millions of patients with fewer side effects.

Press:

NIH Roadmap for Medical Research - Transformative R01 Program - 2009 Recipients

UNC news press release

EurekAlert press release

Mark Zylka

Daniel Meechan, PhD, receives a NARSAD award

Daniel Meechan, a research associate in the LaMantia lab, has been awarded a two-year grant from NARSAD.  The grant title is "Cortical progenitor cell proliferation defects in mouse models of DiGeorge syndrome."

Psychiatric illness is prevalent in DiGeorge syndrome, a common chromosomal deletion disorder present in approximately 1/3000 births. Using mouse models of DiGeorge syndrome we are trying to determine if there are defects arising during embryonic brain development that make these individuals susceptible to psychiatric illness.

Following on from my recent publication in PNAS where we characterized proliferative and migratory defects in the embryonic cortex of a faithful genetic mouse model of DiGeorge syndrome, this grant supports a project to determine the contribution of individual DiGeorge genes towards proliferative and migratory defects in DiGeorge syndrome mouse models.

Funding renewals and extensions

September 2009 - Department Chair Dr. James Anderson received a competitive renewal for "Z0-1 & Cytoplasmic Scaffolding of the Tight Junction."  The Elsa Pardee Foundation approved a second year of funding for the Otey lab research project "The protein palladin as a biomarker for detection of pancreatic cancer."

Three faculty members receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act supplements

September 2009 - Associate Professor Kathleen Caron, PhD, received a supplement for her R01 grant on "Adrenomedullin Signaling at the Maternal-Fetal Interface,"  Professor Anthony LaMantia, PhD, was awarded a supplement to his grant for "Regional Differentiation during Forebrain Development," and Associate Professor Carol Otey, PhD, was funded for "Structure and Function of Palladin Ig Domains."

NC TraC$10K awards go to postdoctoral fellows in Zylka, Philpot labs

May 2009 - Sarah Street, PhD, (a postdoc in Mark Zylka's lab) and Hsien-Sung Huang, PhD, (a postdoc in Ben Philpot’s lab) each received an NC TraC$10K Pilot Program award, given by the North Carolina . Out of 70 applicants, 19 awards were given. The Zylka and Philpot labs appear to be the only two labs from a basic science department to receive this award. Link to the list of awardees here.

Stanford L. Steelman, Sr., bequests $100,000 to the department

Dr. Sandord L. Steelman, a native of Hickory, NC, and alumnus of Lenoir-Rhyne College, has provided $100,000.00 to the department, and has specified that "the annual income from this fund shall be used to support a needy physiology graduate student on a year to year basis, the student to be selected by the faculty of the Department of Physiology" and that "preference in the awarding of this scholarship should be given to students born in the State of North Carolina, or to American Indians."

Dr. Steelman earned a doctorate in biochemistry and physiology from the University of North Carolina ’s School of Medicine in 1949. Following his graduation, he joined Armour Pharmaceutical Company and earned distinction as a biomedical research scientist. Two years later he assumed leadership of the biochemistry department. In 1956 he became associate professor of biochemistry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. From there, Steelman joined Merck Research Labs and worked in various leadership capacities, including serving as director of international clinical pharmacology. He wrote more than 100 articles in scientific publications and obtained five patents. He retired as senior scientific investigator from Merck & Co. Inc.*

*credit to http://www.sagebrushcentral.com/L-R%20News.htm for biographical information on Dr. Steelman

Adrenomedullin Signaling at the Maternal-Fetal Interface (Caron lab) granted funding from the March of Dimes

April 2009 - More good news from the Caron lab, which received a 3-year research grant from the March of Dimes Foundation to study the Role of Adrenomedullin Signaling at the Maternal-Fetal Interface.

Philpot lab postdoc receives a NARSAD Young Investigator Award

April 2009 - Hsien-Sung Huang, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Philpot lab, was recently awarded a NARSAD Young Investigator Award for his work examining the postnatal regulation of genomic imprinting.

NARSAD Young Investigator Award Program "provides support for the most promising young scientists conducting neurobiological research" whose research is " relevant to serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, or child and adolescent psychiatric disorders." 

Faber lab's Dan Chalothorn, PhD, is funded by NIH Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

April 2009 - Research Associate Dan Chalothorn, PhD, has received a K99 grant from the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for his work in the Faber lab on Genetic Determinants of Collateral Wall Specialization and Ischemic Remodeling.

Cell & Molecular Physiology benefits from the generosity of the Thomas H. Maren Foundation

Susan Fellner

March 2009 - Research Professor of Cell & Molecular Physiology Susan K. Fellner, MD, through the generosity of the Thomas H. Maren Foundation, recently secured three notable financial gifts to the department. The largest gift will support the graduate program and will fund tuition for approximately six graduate students. Additional gifts will provide 2 years of support to the Tzima lab for a postdoctoral position, and 2 years of support to the Goy lab for a research technician.

The Foundation is the legacy of Dr. Maren who was, for many years, the chairman of pharmacology at the University of Florida. Dr. Fellner worked in his laboratory before she attended medical school. They became lifelong friends and colleagues.

The Maren Foundation also funded a distinguished professorship to be administered by this department and the UNC Kidney Center.

Caron receives funding for Adrenomedullin Signaling at the Maternal-Fetal Interface

Kathleen Caron

March 2009 - Assistant professor Kathleen Caron, PhD, received RO1 funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development for her lab's study of Adrenomedullin Signaling at the Maternal-Fetal Interface.  Congratulations to the Caron lab!