UWF professor receives $543K NIH grant for inflammation control research

The University of West Florida's Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering Associate Dean and Associate Professor, Dr. Peter Cavnar, has received a Support for Undergraduate Research Excellence, or SuRE, grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Over a four-year period, the $543,756 award will support research investigating how dopamine and dopamine receptors regulate neutrophil responses to inflammation, with the goal of discovering new therapeutic strategies to control harmful inflammation.

Neutrophils are the most common type of white blood cells in the body and are critical components of the immune system because they act as the first line of defense against infections. However, when these blood cells become overactivated, they can contribute to tissue damage in autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. Dopamine and dopamine receptors are chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters and are often targeted by existing drugs because of the critical role they play in affecting mood, movement and attention.

By investigating how these neurotransmitters regulate neutrophil responses to inflammation, Cavnar and his students hope to discover innovative therapeutic strategies for controlling harmful inflammation in diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Alzheimer's disease.

"This is a tremendously exciting opportunity for our lab," Cavnar said. "Dopamine-targeting drugs are used to treat a wide range of conditions, from Parkinson's disease and ADHD to schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Despite how common these drugs are, we know surprisingly little about how dopamine affects the immune system. Neutrophils, which sit at the center of the inflammation seen in diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Alzheimer's disease, are a natural place to start. Understanding how dopamine signaling shapes neutrophil behavior could open up an entirely new avenue for treating these conditions."

Entitled, "Exploring Dopamine's Influence on Human Neutrophil Inflammatory Responses," this newly funded research project will be a continuation of several years of pilot research driven by undergraduate students working in Cavnar's lab.

"One of the defining strengths of research at UWF is that it is driven by students," Cavnar noted. "At its core, the R16 SuRE mechanism exists to build research capacity by putting undergraduates directly into the process of scientific discovery, not as classroom observers but as original contributors to unanswered questions. The grant provides direct financial support for student researchers, funding their participation in the project rather than relying solely on volunteer or course-credit arrangements. Every experiment funded by this grant will be designed and carried out with undergraduate researchers as genuine collaborators, many of whom will go on to careers in research or health professions."

The SuRE award is an R16 program that supports research capacity building through funding investigator-initiated research in biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences that fall within the National Institutes of Health mission areas. Eligible institutions must award undergraduate or graduate degrees in biomedical sciences and have at least 25% of enrolled undergraduate students supported by the Pell grant for the two most recent years of reported data. Award recipients must also promote objectivity in their research by establishing standards that provide a reasonable expectation that the design, conduct and reporting of the research will be free from bias.

To learn more about the Department of Biology at UWF, visit uwf.edu/biology. To learn more about undergraduate research opportunities at UWF, visit uwf.edu/our.