Congressman Cohen Announces $3.9 Million in NIH Grants to St. Jude and UTHSC

WASHINGTON - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) today announced five grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which will provide a total of $3,956,287 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC).

The first St. Jude grant, for $665,425, is for research into deciphering the complexities of inflammasome activation following RSV infection under the direction of Dr. Steven M. Varga from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. RSV is one of the leading causes of severe respiratory disease in children, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals, and there is no currently available vaccine for it. The inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes which are responsible for the activation of inflammatory responses. This project aims to enhance our understanding of how RSV generates inflammatory responses and will impact the evaluation and design of new therapeutic targets for RSV. A second grant, for $1,834,564, is for research into sickle cell disease under the direction of Dr. Shannon McKinney-Freeman from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Sickle cell disease is associated with the development of additional hematological diseases as the patient grows older, however the mechanisms underlying the acquisition of additional diseases isn't fully understood. This project aims to test a new potential drug therapy for sickle cell disease in cell and non-human disease models and discern whether the body's own stem cells can return to normal function, and restore function to the bone marrow.

The first of three UTHSC grants is for $687,753 to research the role of genetic factors on nicotine abuse under the direction of Dr. Burt M. Sharp from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The second, for $517,060, is for research into therapeutic targeting of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeler under the direction of Dr. Lawrence M. Pfeffer from the National Cancer Institute. Chromatin are the tightly wound packages of DNA in the cell's nucleus, and the SWI/NSF chromatin remodeler plays a major role in gene transcription in eukaryotic cells. In glioblastoma, the most common primary malignancy of the adult brain, a portion of the SWI/NSF chromatin remodeler enhances the ability for the tumor cells to repopulate and resist treatment with drugs such as temozolomide. This project will evaluate a potential new treatment which targets that portion of the SWI/NSF chromatin remodeler to restore sensitivity to other therapeutic compounds in non-human and cell models. A third grant, for $251,485, is for biomedical research training under the direction of Dr. Shannon J. Moore. This project aims to promote healthcare-associated job training and learning for fields such as clinical laboratory sciences, to high school students.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

"This important investment in medical research conducted in Memphis will reveal critical insights. I congratulate Drs. Varga, Sharp, Pfeffer, McKinney-Freeman and Moore for receiving this funding and thank them for the work they do."

# # #