A $20,328 grant enabled Richard N. Day, Ph.D., professor of cellular and integrative physiology, to hire an undergraduate research assistant for this summer and next, which he said has speeded up his lab's research into mutations of a particular protein in the pituitary gland that blocks the production of important hormones, including growth hormone.

Laura Whitis, the IUPUI biology major working in the lab, said her goal is to do research and find effective treatments for genetic disorders.

A grant of nearly $419,000 will enable Reuben Kapur, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics, to continue studying how vital cells in the bone marrow - called hematopoietic stem cells - renew themselves. These adult stem cells are responsible for the creation of all the body's red and white blood cells and are the key component in bone marrow and cord blood transplants used to treat leukemia, lymphomas and other diseases. In particular, Kapur and his team will evaluate a compound that could make it easier to grow the cells in the laboratory, which could improve the availability and effectiveness of the cord blood and bone marrow transplants.

Without the grant, Dr. Kapur said, it would have been necessary to reduce his laboratory staff by three full time positions, including two post-doctoral researchers and a laboratory technician.

Dr. Kaplan also received $385,000 to continue research in the body's immune system to better understand the genetic and cellular processes that produced inflammation in such diseases as Type 1 diabetes, arthritis and colitis. The grant, which continues work in an area Dr. Kaplan has been studying for 11 years, saved three jobs in his laboratory.

As part of the project, Dr. Kaplan and pediatric gastroenterologist Steven Steiner, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, will be studying children with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease to determine whether the presence of different forms of a particular protein - STAT4 - can be used to develop a blood test for those and other immune diseases.

Drs. Kaplan and Kapur are members of the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research and the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center. Dr. Yoder is a member of Indiana Institute for Biomedical Imaging Sciences and the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute. Drs. Blum, Brutkiewicz, Kaplan and Wilkes are members of the Center for Immunobiology at the medical school.

Source: Indiana University