Nirav Dhanesha, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Translational Pathobiology, received a 5-year $2.24 million R01 grant from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for his project “Mechanisms for Deep Vein Thrombosis following Stroke.”
RESEARCH at LSU Health Shreveport
Faculty, staff and students at LSU Health Shreveport are actively engaged in research in a variety of biomedical areas, with concentrations in cancer, cardiovascular sciences, virology and neuroscience. A core part of the institution’s mission, research on campus ranges from basic science to translational research and testing the latest therapies in clinical trials.
The School of Graduate Studies helps to train future scientists, and our eight centers, four of which are Centers of Excellence, further elevate the research portfolio. The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research supports these endeavors and is comprised of the Office for Sponsored Programs and Technology Transfer, Research Development and Management, Human Research Protections Program (HRPP), the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and the Research Core Facility.
Research by the NUMBERS
TOTAL Federal Grant Funding (FY21-22)
$18,490,000
>300% increase in grant funding since FY15
Technology Transfer (FY20-21)
Invention Disclosures: 32
Patents Filed: 421 l Patents Issued: 8 U.S. / 1 Foreign
Licenses and Options: 6
Total Licensing Income: $519,000
Ranked 2nd in the LSU System for tech transfer
RESEARCH RESOURCES
CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE
RECENT RESEARCH AWARDS
Oren Rom, PhD, RD, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Translational Pathobiology, has been awarded a 5-year, $1.6 million R01 grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) for his project, “Lipidated Amino Acids in Cardiometabolic Diseases.”
The Center for Redox Biology and Cardiovascular Disease CoBRE at LSU Health Shreveport, led by Principal Investigator Chris Kevil, PhD, was awarded a $730,000 supplement award from the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) for “SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance in North Louisiana.”
School of Graduate Studies student Brenna Pearson-Gallion was awarded a F31 Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) for her project “EphA2 in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease”.
Chris Kevil, PhD, Vice Chancellor for Research at LSU Health Shreveport, was awarded a 4-year NIH R01 grant for $1.7 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for his project, “CSE regulation of vascular remodeling.”
Dr. Arrigo DeBenedetti receives Spring 2021 Feist Weiller Cancer Center (FWCC) Bridging Award grant in the amount of $100,000.
Diana Cruz, PhD, Assistant Professor, joined the LSUHS Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology in July 2016. Her current research looks at the interface between the endocrine and cardiovascular systems, emphasizing the effects of stress signaling (glucocorticoid receptors) on cardiovascular health.
Dr. Sushil Jain, a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at LSU Health Shreveport, has been awarded a 3-year, $1.52 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project entitled: Optimization of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels in African Americans.
Dr. David Gross, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health Shreveport, has been awarded a 4-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for a project entitled “Genome Architecture and Gene Control in Response to Stress.”
LATEST NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Three LSU Health Shreveport second year medical students have been chosen to participate in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All of Us Research Scholar Program: Reagan Abadie, Nicholas Jones and Tyler Tran. The program aims to address the critical need to reduce disparities in healthcare and the biomedical workforce.
Medscape - Alexandre Malek, MD, assistant professor of medicine at LSUHS, pointed to "a growing number of preclinical studies evaluating the role of vaccines as adjunct to immunotherapy to overcome cancer resistance by converting cold tumors to hot." That research includes a study of a seasonal influenza vaccine and another of adenoviral based-vaccines.
Louisiana Radio Network - After a recent report from the LSUHS Louisiana Addiction Research Center showing Shreveport’s wastewater contained double the amount of methamphetamine than anywhere else in the country, many were shocked.
National and Local News Report: LSUHS is now enrolling participants in a Phase 3 clinical trial to compare the effectiveness of standard flu vaccine to an investigational mRNA flu vaccine until mid-December.
LSUHS Louisiana Addiction Research Center hosted a meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 9, to discuss methamphetamine as an emerging drug threat in our region. Local law enforcement and community leaders were invited to have an open conversation and share information on drug problems in the region and determine how to raise awareness.
Dr. Chris Kevil’s laboratory at LSUHS has discovered that a clinically approved cyclodextrin-based drug called Sugammadex can act as a hydrogen sulfide donor that restores vasoactive hydrogen. This innovation has already gone through initial in vivo testing with promising results.
KSLA12 - Hosted by LSUHS, LSU Tech and ULM, Biomedical Reseach And Industry Day (BRAID) attracted students who are interested in furthering careers in biomedical fields and to learn more about non-academic jobs in the industry.
“Medicine in general is considerably complex and neurosurgery is extremely complex, with cavernous malformations among the most difficult to manage,” said Dr. Caleb Stewart, neurosurgeon at LSUHS. LSUHS, LSUS, Ochsner Health, and collaborators in Australia are now leveraging big data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to solve this challenge and improve care for patients.
The LSU Health Shreveport Department of Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery led by Chair Dr. Cherie-Ann Nathan has received notification of manuscript CCR-21-4290R1 being selected for publication in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
SMART Program
The Science & Medicine Academic Research Training Program provides academically advanced high school seniors who are interested in careers related to medicine, scientific research, and biomedical engineering opportunities to engage in intensive research with medical clinicians, researchers, and academic staff.