A-State Professor Receives $1.7 Million National Health Research Grant
by July 1, 2015 8:26 pm 211 views
A program at Arkansas State University made history Wednesday as researchers will now study the development of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis.
Dr. Shiguang Yu, assistant professor of immunology in the Arkansas Biosciences Institute at Arkansas State University, has been awarded a $1.7 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health, university officials said.
The research project grant program (R01) is the original and oldest grant mechanism used by NIH. The R01 grant is an award to support a specified project by an investigator in an area representing the investigator’s specific interest and competencies. It is the most esteemed investigator research award used by NIH and the most prestigious research award.
“This first NIH R01 award to A-State provides further recognition of the quality of our faculty and the research they are able to produce,” said Dr. Andy Sustich, vice provost for research and graduate studies. “The R01 grant review is a rigorous process with review by highly regarded scientists and we are very proud of Dr. Yu’s achievement in being awarded this grant.”
“We are enthusiastic about this project and look forward to start working,” Yu said. “This project will provide more opportunities for undergraduate students and graduate students at A-State to conduct important biomedical research.”
The grant, which will be distributed over a five-year period, is designated for Yu to continue studying mechanisms leading to development of autoimmune diseases. Dr. Jing Chen, is a co-investigator in this project.
Yu’s research is focused upon understanding how dysfunctional immune cells mediate autoimmune inflammation. The long-term goal of his research is to find novel therapeutic targets for intervention on autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammation in the brain and spinal cord. There is no cure for multiple sclerosis. Current available clinical treatments have severe side effects.
Using a mouse model for human multiple sclerosis, Drs. Chen, Ulus Atasoy (University of Missouri) and Yu previously demonstrated that a protein called HuR promotes a subset of pathogenic immune cells (called Th17 cells) to induce inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS). Specific depletion of HuR in immune cells reduces the severity of inflammation in CNS. The aim of the current project is to further understand how HuR controls target protein expression in pathogenic immune cells that cause multiple sclerosis.
Approximately 23.5 million people currently suffer from autoimmune diseases and the prevalence is increasing. Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues of its own, mistaking them to be infections. Currently available immunosuppressant treatments for these diseases lead to devastating long-term side effects.