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NIH Awards $2.39 Million for Research on Amino Acids, IBD
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The National Institutes of Health have awarded a five-year $2.39 million grant to Uma Sundaram, MD, vice dean for research and graduate education at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, for research on amino acid absorption in the GI tract and its effects on inflammatory bowel disease.
Uma Sundaram
This research project, called “Regulation of amino acid absorption in the mammalian small intestine,” will study the regulation of glutamine absorption in the intestine and its relationship with IBD, according to a press release. The hope is that this research will contribute to the development of better nutritional therapies for IBD.
“This project will tackle a very significant health issue in West Virginia,” Sundaram said in the press release. “Our work will focus on immune-based nutritional treatment for IBD. It will also have a potential application for preventing the growth of colon cancers, which are more malignant and common in IBD, a condition that impacts our state and Appalachia.”
This RO1 grant is the largest of its kind received by the university and is the oldest type of grant historically used by the NIH, according to the press release.
“I’m very excited that our team of researchers, led by Dr. Sundaram, has received this very important grant,” Joseph I. Shapiro, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, said in the press release. “It is an important boost to our existing research operation in that it provides new extramural funding, which is mission critical as we face declining state support.”
Photo credit: Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine