UAMS researcher lands $1.8 million grant for chemotherapy study

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researcher Amanda Stolarz, Pharm.D., Ph.D., recently received a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Stolarz, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the UAMS College of Pharmacy, is the principal investigator on a study investigating possible prevention of a major complication from chemotherapy in cancer patients.

Doxorubicin is a chemotherapeutic drug commonly used in breast cancer that carries a risk for lymphedema, a debilitating and often painful accumulation of fluid in the body. Stolarz’s project explores how doxorubicin directly inhibits contractions of lymph vessels, which remove fluid from tissues to prevent lymphedema.

There are no FDA-approved medications to alleviate doxorubicin-related lymphedema, but Stolarz’s team has identified a potential new therapy. Ryanodine receptors, which are proteins essential to muscle contraction, could be blocked as a new treatment strategy to prevent doxorubicin-related lymphedema.

“I am beyond excited to receive this award,” Stolarz said. “It is a culmination of many years of research and will serve as the foundation to building my own independent research program. I am grateful for the support of UAMS, the College of Pharmacy and all of my mentors and collaborators who contributed to this application. We have a great team of scientists working on this project who were instrumental in putting this proposal together, and I look forward to continue working with them.”

Co-investigators on the project are:

• Nukhet Aykin-Burns, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy
• Andrew Morris, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the College of Medicine, and holder of the Mehta-Stebbins Chair in Cardiovascular Research
• Reid Landes, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics in the College of Medicine and Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health
• Theodore Brown, M.D., associate professor of pathology in the College of Medicine and the state’s chief medical examiner

“It is exciting to see one of our junior faculty receive such a prestigious grant and become a major contributing member of the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute,” said Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D., director and UAMS vice chancellor.