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Charles E. Culpeper
Biomedical Pilot Initiative:
CULPEPER BIOMEDICAL PILOT GRANTS: PREVIOUS GRANTEES
CULPEPER PILOT GRANT PROPOSAL
GUIDELINES
The Goldman Philanthropic Partnerships
Culpeper Biomedical Pilot Initiative Grants
Charles E.
Culpeper Biomedical Pilot Grants and Resolutions:
June, 2004
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO:
KECK
GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES:
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE:
THE
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE:
BOSTON
UNIVERSITY
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
$25,000 to the University of
California, San Diego for the research of Joseph Vinetz, MD,
entitled “Stable Transfection of the Avian Malaria Parasite,
Plasmodium gallinaceum”; $25,000 to the Keck Graduate
Institute of Applied Life Sciences for the research of
Brenda K. Mann, PhD, entitled “Microarrays of Cell-Seeded
Hydrogels”; $25,000 to the Washington University School of
Medicine for the research of Steven Weintraub, MD, entitled
“The Mechanism by which Oncogenic Tyrosine Kinases Supress
Bcl-xl Deamidation”, $25,000 to The Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania for the research of
David Teachey, MD, entitled “Treatment of the Autoimmune
Lymphoproliferative (ALPS) with Rapamycin”; $25,000 to
Boston University for the research of Natalia E. Broude,
PhD, entitled “Protein complementation for SARS
diagnostics”, $25,000 to the University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center for the research of Benoit de Crombrugghe,
MD, entitled “Control of Differentiation and Proliferation
of Intestinal Epithelial Cells”, and $25,000 to Purdue
University for the research of Ji-Xin, Cheng, PhD, entitled
Three-Color Coherent Anit-Strokes Raman Scattering
Microscopy for Imaging Specific Molecules Without
Fluoreophore Labeling”.
Traditional sources of funding for
scientific research, such as the National Institutes of
Health and the National Science Foundation, generally
require grantseeking investigators to submit substantial
preliminary data to support their hypotheses. The Biomedical
Pilot Initiative is intended to provide seed money to
researchers to enable them to achieve the momentum required
to secure longer-term support for their work.
PROGRAM
RELEVANCE:
Advances the Goldman Philanthropic
Partnerships’ interest in stimulating the development of
promising new approaches to contemporary health care
challenges.
No previous support to the
University of California, San Diego, Keck Graduate
Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Washington University
School of Medicine, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, University of
Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Purdue University for
the research of Ji-Xin, Cheng, PhD. We supported the
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston for the
research of Joseph Vinetz, a Culpeper Scholar Recipient in
1999.
UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA: SAN DIEGO
Malaria is one of the world’s most prevalent diseases,
killing 1-3 million people (mostly children) annually.
Mosquitoes spread malaria to humans. This project will use
genomics to determine how malaria moves from humans to
mosquitoes and back, testing a breakthrough to keep the
malaria parasite from reproducing in the mosquito, breaking
the transmission cycle. After understanding this mechanism,
novel methods of interrupting the transmission of malaria
can be created.
KECK GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF APPLIED LIFE
SCIENCES
Drug development must
identify compounds that are toxic to healthy human cells.
Early toxicity identification reduces the danger to patients
and cost to the pharmaceutical companies. Lab studies
do not always predict how the drug will affect cells when it
is given to animals or humans in clinical studies because
test cells are not in the actual “body environment”.
This project will create a three dimensional structure in
the lab with test cells in contact with each other,
mimicking the “body environment”. This tissue-like
environment should more accurately predict toxicity of drugs
when they are actually given to humans.
Chemotherapy agents cure few
types of cancer and have significant side effects. These
agents have many effects on cancer cells, and little is
known about which effects cause cancer cell death. Many
drugs kill cancer cells by modifying cell proteins that
cause cell death. When the modification is blocked, the
cells become resistant to chemotherapy. Recently, it was
discovered that compounds found in many cancers block the
chemotherapy protein changes. Cancers with these compounds
are quite resistant to chemotherapy. Understanding the
mechanism by which these cancer compounds block chemotherapy
could lead to an improvement in the treatment of a wide
variety of cancers.
THE CHILDREN'S
HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL
OF MEDICINE:
Normally, the body creates new cells and eliminates worn
out cells in a process called apoptosis, or cell death. In
ALPS (Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome), the body
accumulates old white blood cells, which damage organs and
red blood cells causing anemia, fatigue, internal bleeding,
and infection. The drug Rapamycin prevents organ transplant
rejection and is also effective in treating white blood cell
cancers, through apoptosis. Rapamycin might be effective in
treating ALPS. This study will first test the drug in a
mouse model of ALPS. If it works, the drug will be tested
on ALPS patients, who have no other effective form of
therapy and usually do not survive the disease.
BOSTON
UNIVERSITY
SARS is a deadly human illness that first appeared in 2002
in China and has spread to more than 30 countries. SARS is
caused by a coronavirus, the genome of which has been
sequenced. Knowledge of the SARS genome makes it possible
to develop an early detection test for SARS, preventing the
global spread of SARS. This study will develop this
innovative test for SARS, which would hook a molecule that
glows in the dark to a protein that would attach a specific
spot on the SARS gene. An infected patient’s blood sample
would immediately glow, simplifying and speeding up
detection at a very low cost.
THE
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER
The walls of gut are folded
into numerous valleys and peaks that increase surface area
for absorbing nutrients. The surface cells are consistently
renewed from stem cells located toward the bottom of the
valleys. In most colorectal cancer, a protein becomes
abnormally active in these stem cells and they multiply out
of control. This proposal will discover whether control of
this protein could halt colorectal cancers.
PURDUE
UNIVERSITY
This
project will develop a new highly sensitive microscopy for
the imaging of molecules using vibrational imaging.
Traditional microscopy suffers from noticeable background
noise that limits its sensitivity when looking at the
smallest molecules. Vibrational imaging records
simultaneous pictures of the molecules and superimposes them
on each other eliminating the background noise. This imaging
technique will “clearly” bring microscopy to a new level.
______________________________________________________________________________________
RESOLVED, that the sum of $25,000 be and it hereby is
appropriated to the University of California, San Diego for
the research of Joseph Vinetz, MD, entitled “Stable
Transfection of the Avian Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium
Gallinaceum”.
RESOLVED, that the sum
of $25,000 be and it hereby is appropriated to the Keck
Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences for the research
of Brenda K. Mann, PhD, entitled “Microarrays of Cell-Seeded
Hydrogels”.
RESOLVED, that the sum
of $25,000 be and it hereby is appropriated to the
Washington University School of Medicine for the research of
Steven Weintraub, MD, entitled “The Mechanism by which
Oncogenic Tyrosine Kinases Supress Bcl-xl Deamidation”.
RESOLVED, that the sum
of $25,000 be and it hereby is appropriated to The
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania for the research of David Teachey, MD, entitled
“Treatment of the Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative (ALPS) with
Rapamycin”.
RESOLVED, that the sum
of $25,000 be and it hereby is appropriated to Boston
University for the research of Natalia E. Broude, PhD,
entitled “Protein complementation for SARS diagnostics”.
RESOLVED that the sum
of $25,000 be and it hereby is appropriated to the
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for the
research of Benoit de Crombrugghe, MD, entitled “Control of
Differentiation and Proliferation of Intestinal Epithelial
Cells”.
RESOLVED that the sum
of $25,000 be and it hereby is appropriated to Purdue
University for the research of Ji-Xin, Cheng, PhD, entitled
"Three-Color Coherent Anit-Strokes Raman Scattering
Microscopy for Imaging Specific Molecules Without
Fluoreophore Labeling”.
CULPEPER BIOMEDICAL PILOT GRANTS: PREVIOUS GRANTEES
CULPEPER PILOT GRANT PROPOSAL
GUIDELINES
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