UA gets $12M grant to study aging

EDUCATION/RESEARCH

Inside Tucson Business

Posted: Friday, March 25, 2011 5:00 pm

UA gets $12M grant to study aging

The University of Arizona has won an $11.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study declining immunity among the aging.

The UA Department of Immunobiology and the Arizona Center on Aging won the five-year contract from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for its “Protective Immunity in Special Populations” study.

As people grow older, their immune systems also age, leading to a gradual decline in the body’s ability to fight infections.

UA will collaborate with other research centers, including the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida and the Washington University College of Medicine in St. Louis.

News & Notes
 
Arizona Daily Star

Posted: Friday, March 18, 2011 12:00 am

TUCSON

MSDx grant aims to find simple blood test for MS

Tucson-based MSDx Inc. has won an Arizona Commerce Authority grant of up to $226,000.

The grant will help the company develop a simple blood test for multiple sclerosis, a disease that has not previously had a blood test, Marie Wesselhoft, MSDx president, said in a news release Thursday.

In 2008, MSDx discovered a novel source of biomarkers that reflect the disease activity in an MS patient. The company is located at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park’s business incubator, the Arizona Center for Innovation.

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UA researchers win $12M grant to study immunity issues in older people

Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, March 18, 2011 1:31 pm

UA researchers have  won a nearly $12 million grant to study declining immunity among older adults.

“This is a large and complex project,” UA researcher Dr. Janko Nikolich-Zugich, principal investigator, said in a news release. “Our main goal is to understand why older adults seem to be susceptible to certain infections and conditions, and to see what can be done to correct that.”

The University of Arizona Department of Immunobiology and the Arizona Center on Aging won the five-year, $11.8 million federal contract. It was awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

 As people grow older, their immune systems also age, leading to a gradual decline in the body’s ability to fight infections, respond to vaccinations and prevent diseases like cancer, Nikolich-Zugich said in the news release.

Cancer center researcher receives $3M for broccoli

EDUCATION/RESEARCH

Posted: Friday, March 11, 2011 5:00 pm

Inside Tucson Business

Cancer center researcher receives $3M for broccoli 0 comments

Arizona Cancer Center researcher Cynthia Thomson, PhD, RD, has received a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study whether a compound found in broccoli can enhance the health-promoting effects of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen in women at risk of developing breast cancer or those previously treated for early-stage breast cancer.

Tamoxifen is an accepted treatment for breast cancer.

Dr. Thomson, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Arizona, notes that data from diet studies of people who have a higher intake of cruciferous vegetables – cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and broccoli – suggest that intake may reduce the risk of certain cancers, including breast, colorectal, bladder and possibly prostate.

UA receives grant to monitor foot injuries

EDUCATION/RESEARCH

Posted: Friday, March 11, 2011 5:00 pm

UA receives grant to monitor foot injuries 

Researchers in the University of Arizona department of surgery have been awarded a $1.2 million grant to use a computerized undershirt to monitor the activity of diabetics with foot wounds.

Dr. David G. Armstrong, a professor of surgery and co-founder of the UA department of surgery’s Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance, is taking a lead role in the international collaborative.

Armstrong hopes the study, funded by the Qatar National Research Foundation, ultimately will result in fewer infections and amputations.

Over the course of the three-year study, 112 people with diabetes who are suffering from foot wounds will be enrolled at the UA and at Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar, and monitored through the undershirt, which Armstrong said is comfortable. Partnering in the collaboration is the Center for Lower Extremity Ambulatory Research in Chicago.

UA could benefit if NASA goes ‘smaller’

Tom Beal Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, March 8, 2011 12:00 am

NASA should scale back or delay its big “flagship” missions to planets and moons in our solar system if the agency can’t cut its costs, according to a review team of scientists asked to set priorities for lunar and planetary exploration.

The recommendations of the National Research Council, released Monday, could actually be good news for University of Arizona scientists competing for smaller missions, said Mike Drake, director of the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

“Smaller” is a relative term. Drake is principal investigator for a proposed mission to a nearby asteroid whose budget cap is $650 million, with an estimated $100 million of that to be spent locally.