Announcements

MIT Solve – The Horizon Prize    With over 7,000 rare diseases affecting over 400 million people worldwide, people with rare diseases often find themselves misunderstood and underserved by heath care systems. An estimated 4 in 10 patients with rare disease experience initial misdiagnoses-often resulting in unnecessary harm, frustration, expense, and disease progression. Some estimates indicate these patients may wait nearly 5 years and see an average of 7 different health care providers before their condition is accurately diagnosed.    The Horizon Prize seeks technology-base solutions that use data to help rare disease patients get the right care faster and more accurately.     This Challenge seeks solutions that:          Leverage big data and analytics to improve the detection and diagnosis of rare diseases          Address the unjust and disproportionate burden of rare diseases faced by disinvested communities and historically underrepresented identity groups          Promote community and connection among rare disease patients and their advocates          Unlock collaboration among patients, scientists, and health care providers to improve patient outcomes.    Funding up to $150,000 is available for up to 2 solution teams selected.    Finalists will be invited to pitch their solutions to a panel of judges on September 2021.    Deadline to submit: June 18th Full info link: https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/horizonprize#:~:text=The%20Horizon%20Prize%2C%20powered%20by,and%20diagnosis%20of%20rare%20diseases

Simons Foundation – 2021 Genomics of ASD: Pathways to Genetic Therapies – RFA          Grants awarded through this RFA are intended to advance our understanding of the genetic basis of ASD and the molecular and cellular consequences of genetic risk, and to provide a foundation for the development of treatments for select genetically defined forms of the condition. Special emphasis is placed on the use of scalable methods, especially as applied to genes that are suitable targets for genetic therapies          Annual budget between $200,000 - $400,000 inclusive is 20% indirect costs, for a period of 2 – 3 years          Application Deadline: July 6th Full info link: https://www.sfari.org/grant/2021-genomics-of-asd-pathways-to-genetic-therapies-request-for-applications/?tab=how-to-apply

Foundation Funding Opportunities file:///C:/Users/grpate/Downloads/NIH%20Funding%20Opportunities%20(36).pdf

NIH Funding Opportunities https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/WeeklyIndexMobile.cfm  

DOD Funding Opportunities https://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/

Upcoming Events

BCCOE Monthly Meeting Date/Time:     Tuesday, May 25th (12 pm – 1 pm) Speaker:         Dr. Fei Xing, PhD – Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology – WFSOM Title:               “Obesity mediated c-Met/SOS1 signaling promotes breast cancer metastasis in African American women.” Webex:           https://wakehealth.webex.com/wakehealth/j.php?MTID=md4dfd751e9782ef1418591a34b0d6556 Meeting #: 161 865 2802 Passcode: PqyjAftq237 

Comparative Medicine Research Strategy Meeting Date/Time:     Tuesday, May 25th (3:30 pm – 4:30 pm) Speakers:        Dr. Brendan Johnson (Comparative Medicine) Title:  “Evaluating the long-term functional consequences of radiation-induced brain injury in macaques following TBI” 

Dr. Shane Sills (Comparative Medicine) Title:  “Leveraging the radiation survivor cohort as a model total body irradiation-induced cancer” Webex:           https://wakehealth.webex.com/wakehealth/j.php?MTID=mc1925b9a3f05975753eb2da57cebdf0a Meeting #: 161 990 6853 Passcode: 3mvFgTJPa95 

Geriatrics – Presentation from Mitochondrial faculty candidate Date/Time:     Wednesday, May 26th (1:00 pm) Presenter:       Joseph M. Valentine, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of California San Diego Title:               “Inflammation at the Crossroads of Adipose Tissue and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism” Zoom:             https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83665995939?pwd=Tkw3eVJ2Qm9hbGJOMC9hYVhtbjJJdz09 Meeting ID#: 836 6599 5939 Passcode: 978263

Recent Publications

Castello JP, Pasi M, Abramson JR, Rodriguez-Torres A, Marini S, Demel S, Gilkerson L, Kubiszewski P, Charidimou A, Kourkoulis C, DiPucchio Z, Schwab K, Gurol ME, Viswanathan A, Anderson CD, Langefeld CD, Flaherty ML, Towfighi A, Greenberg SM, Woo D, Rosand J, Biffi A. Contribution of Racial and Ethnic Differences in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Subtype and Burden to Risk of Cerebral Hemorrhage Recurrence. Neurology. 2021 Apr 21;10.1212/WNL.0000000000011932. PMID: 33883240. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000011932 

Pratte KA, Curtis JL, Kechris K, Couper D, Cho MH, Silverman EK, DeMeo DL, Sciurba FC, Zhang Y, Ortega VE, O’Neal WK, Gillenwater LA, Lynch DA, Hoffman EA, Newell Jr JD, Comellas AP, Castaldi PJ, Miller BE, Pouwels SD, Hacken NHTT, Bischoff R, Klont F, Woodruff PG, Paine R, Barr RG, Hoidal J, Doerschuk CM, Charbonnier J-P, Sung R, Locantore N, Yonchuk JG, Jacobson S, Tal-Singer R, Merrill D, Bowler RP. Soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) as a biomarker of COPD. Respir Res. 2021 Apr 27;22(1):127. PMCID: PMC8076883. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc8076883/ 

Su J, Huang LS, Barnard R, Parks G, Cappellari J, Bellinger C, Dotson T, Craddock L, Prakash B, Hovda J, Clark H, Petty WJ, Pasche B, Chan MD, Miller LD, Ruiz J. Comprehensive and Computable Molecular Diagnostic Panel (C2Dx) From Small Volume Specimens for Precision Oncology: Molecular Subtyping of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer from Fine Needle Aspirates. Front Oncol. 2021 Apr 16;11:584896. PMCID: PMC8085404. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc8085404/ 

Thakur P, DeBo R, Dugan GO, Bourland JD, Michalson KT, Olson JD, Register TC, Kock ND, Cline JM. Clinico-pathological and transcriptomic analysis of radiation-induced lung injury in non-human primates. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2021 Apr 10;S0360-3016(21)00360-6. [Online ahead of print]. PMID: 33848608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2021.03.058 

Chen Y, Wang Z-L, Yeo M, Zhang Q-J, Lopez-Romero AE, Ding H-P, Zhang X, Zeng Q, Morales-Lazaro SL, Moore C, Jin Y-A, Yang H-H, Morstein J, Bortsov A, Krawczyk M, Lammert F, Abdelmalek M, Diehl AM, Mikiewicz P, Kremer AE, Zhang JY, Nackley A, Reeves TE, Ko M-C, Ji R-R, Rosenbaum T, Liedtke W. Epithelia-sensory neuron crosstalk underlies cholestatic itch induced by lysophosphatidylcholine. Gastroenterology. 2021 Apr 2;S0016-5085(21)00576-X. [Online ahead of print]. PMID: 33819485. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2021.03.049

Member News

Congratulations to Swapan Das, MSc, PhD for being one of the winners of this year’s Research Day Top Scientific Papers!

CPM Faculty Member Highlights

Dr. Zhu will be promoted to Associate Professor effective July 1st. Early in her career, Dr. Zhu trained as a medical school student. Because of her keen interest in biomedical research, she went to graduate school in China to pursue her Ph.D. Her doctoral research focused on characterizing the secondary structure and function of apolipoprotein A-I and its mutants. After graduation, she joined Dr. John Parks’ lab as a postdoctoral fellow at Wake Forest School of Medicine, where she studied how cholesterol transporter ABCA1-mediated cholesterol metabolism regulates macrophage inflammation and impacts acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. Soon after her promotion to Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine-Section on Molecular Medicine, she was awarded a National Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association (Jan 2015-Dec 2018). In 2016, she was awarded an R01 grant from NHLBI (Mar 2016 - Feb 2021). For this grant, she is studying how glucose-6-phosphate transporter solute carrier protein (SLC)37A2 regulates macrophage inflammation and atherosclerosis by reprogramming macrophage glucose metabolism.
Dr. Zhu’s primary research goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms of macrophage inflammatory activation, focusing on metabolic reprogramming. She is interested in understanding subcellular organelle-specific metabolic processes and signaling during macrophage inflammation using interdisciplinary approaches, including molecular biology, immunology, and multi-omic techniques. She also studies mechanisms by which NLRP3 inflammasome and autophagy influence acute and chronic metabolic disorders.  Complete List of Published Work:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/xuewei.zhu.1/bibliography/51729851/public/?sort=date&direction=descending Selected publications: Wang Z, Zhao Q, Nie Y, Yu Y, Misra BB, Zabalawi M, Chou JW, Key CC, Molina AJ, Quinn MA, Fessler MB, Parks JS, McCall CE, Zhu X*. Solute carrier family 37 member 2 (SLC37A2) negatively regulates murine macrophage inflammation by controlling glycolysis. iScience. 2020; 23 (5): 101125 (* corresponding author) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32428862/

Zhu X*, Long D, Zabalawi M, Ingram B, Yoza BK, Stacpoole PW, McCall CE. J. Leukoc. Biol. 2020 Mar; 107(3):467-484. Stimulating pyruvate dehydrogenase complex reduces itaconate levels and enhances TCA cycle anabolic bioenergetics in acutely inflamed monocytes. J Leukoc Biol. 2020; 107: 467-484 (* co-corresponding author) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31894617/

Wang Z, Sequeira RC, Zabalawi M, Madenspacher J, Boudyguina E, Ou T, Nelson JM, Nie Y, Zhao Q, Fessler MB, Zhu X*. Myeloid atg5 deletion impairs n-3 PUFA-mediated atheroprotection. Atherosclerosis. 2020; 295: 8-17 (* corresponding author) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31978760/

Shen L, Yang Y, Ou T, Key CC, Tong SH, Sequeira RC, Nelson JM, Nie Y, Wang Z, Boudyguina E, Shewale SV, Zhu X*. Dietary PUFAs attenuate NLRP3 inflammasome activation via enhancing macrophage autophagy. J Lipid Res. 2017; 58: 1808 (* corresponding author) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28729463/

Zhu X, Chung S, Bi X, Chuang CC, Brown AL, Liu M, Seo J, Cuffe H, Gebre AK, Boudyguina E, Parks JS. Myeloid cell-specific ABCA1 deletion does not worsen insulin resistance in HF diet-induced or genetically obese mouse models. J Lipid Res. 2013 Oct;54(10):2708-17. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23894207/

Zhu X, Westcott MM, Bi X, Liu M, Gowdy KM, Seo J, Cao Q, Gebre AK, Fessler MB, Hiltbold EM, Parks JS. Myeloid cell-specific ABCA1 deletion protects mice from bacterial infection. Circ Res. 2012 Nov 9;111(11):1398-409. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22955730/

Zhu X, Owen JS, Wilson MD, Li H, Griffiths GL, Thomas MJ, Hiltbold EM, Fessler MB, Parks JS. Macrophage ABCA1 reduces MyD88-dependent Toll-like receptor trafficking to lipid rafts by reduction of lipid raft cholesterol. J Lipid Res. 2010 Nov;51(11):3196-206.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20650929/ 

Zhu X, Lee JY, Timmins JM, Brown JM, Boudyguina E, Mulya A, Gebre AK, Willingham MC, Hiltbold EM, Mishra N, Maeda N, Parks JS. Increased cellular free cholesterol in macrophage-specific Abca1 knock-out mice enhances pro-inflammatory response of macrophages. J Biol Chem. 2008 Aug 22;283(34):22930-41. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18552351/