Feature: MSU's Inter-Disciplinary Focus Helps Land More NIH Research Funds
Some examples of collaborative MSU research show why the NIH has increased its support of MSU scientists.
In fiscal 2006, the amount of research funding MSU received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) stood at around $56 million, marking the second year in a row NIH funding increased.
“And those were just the awards that came directly to MSU,” says Ian Gray, vice president for research and graduate studies. “When you add up the contracts for NIH awards that flow through other universities, that total is somewhere around $61 million.”
In fiscal 2005, MSU’s NIH funding stood at around $40 million, which was up from $33 million the year before.
Gray says there are any number of reasons why the university is seeing a marked improvement in these numbers. One of the most important is the multidisciplinary nature of the research conducted at MSU.
The NIH is now funneling many of its dollars to programs that cross scholarly boundaries, so it only makes sense that MSU is reaping the benefits of that.
“The successful address of problems requires multidisciplinary approaches,” he notes. “Here at MSU we’ve done this for years. There are no barriers. It’s something we take for granted.”
Gray cites other reasons why MSU is poised to be even more successful in earning NIH funding:
- The establishment of a Clinical Research Office, which serves as an information center for MSU’s biological research. Under the interim directorship of Gregory Fink, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology, the office facilitates clinical trials, works closely with community partners, and does whatever it takes to move clinical research forward.
- Providing young faculty with what Gray calls “internal investments,” that is, the offering of smaller grants to faculty that are designed to help them get their research off the ground and in a position to apply for larger NIH grants.
“What we want to do is put young faculty with more experienced faculty,” Gray explains. “Put them in a scholarly environment, an encouraging environment and mentoring environment.”
Following are examples of five NIH-funded research projects currently ongoing at MSU.
Looking for molecular causes of hypertension
At least 64 million people in the United States have high blood pressure, or hypertension; of those, more than 70 percent don’t even know they have it; and hypertension-related illnesses kills thousands if not millions of Americans every year.
Here’s a stunning fact: The causes of most hypertension cases are not known.
What is known, however, is that some people have certain sensitivity to salt—their salt intake increases, their blood pressure goes up.
And that is where Donna Wang, an MSU professor of medicine and a researcher, comes in.
Using NIH grants totaling more than $5 million, Wang is working on several projects trying to figure out what role salt plays in hypertension.
“The molecular basis is just not clear,” says Wang, who also is director of investigative medicine in the MSU College of Human Medicine. “Why is this subset of the population sensitive to salt?”
In an effort to answer this question, Wang and her colleagues are studying the nervous system.
The thought is that salt, causing water retention, expands blood volume and increases extra-cellular fluid, constricting blood vessels and making the heart work harder to pump blood throughout the body.
When this happens, the molecules in the body detect and act to help the body excrete the salt and fluid.
It is to these particular molecules that Wang and colleagues are paying extra attention.
“These molecules, expressed in the body’s nervous system as well as cardiovascular tissues, will control and facilitate sodium excretion and water excretion,” Wang explains. “When these molecules are not working or their function is impaired, a high-salt diet might be harmful because retained salt and water in the body would increase cardiovascular burden.”
Wang is one of MSU’s most successful NIH-grant recipients. She credits much of her success to her ability to work with other researchers across the campus.
“Because of the rapid development of technology and the complexity of the questions or problems we address, it is very difficult for anyone to stand alone,” she says. “That’s why we collaborate, not only with colleagues in the same discipline, but with those working across disciplinary and other boundaries.”
MSU cancer center covers all angles
Founded in 2003, MSU’s Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Center is one of only four in the country and has been a key attraction in bringing talented breast cancer researchers to MSU. Initially funded by an NIH grant of $5 million, researchers at the center focus their attention on any number of potential causes of breast cancer.
“Our ultimate goal is prevention and reducing the risk of breast cancer,” says Sandra Haslam, professor of physiology and center director.
Breast cancer accounts for nearly one in three cancer diagnoses for women in the United States. And despite the research that happens not only at MSU but all over the world, its causes remain somewhat a mystery.
“Breast cancer research is like pushing a balloon in one direction, only to have it be forced in a different direction,” Haslam says. “Until you can control all other factors, like the wind blowing the balloon away, can you truly understand breast cancer and create truly effective treatments.”
The center’s research examines environmental effects on breast cancer growth and development. These factors can include plant materials and chemicals, which can alter how hormones work and interact within the body.
One of the unique aspects of the center is that it is the only center that has a communication outreach and translation core.
Specifically, the communication team examines different ways that breast cancer information is relayed to the public and seeks to understand how the public learns about breast cancer. For example, different levels of language complexity and style are being tested to determine the best way to convey scientific evidence about breast cancer risks.
“Communication is important in translating laboratory research into useful and understandable information for the public, and in effectively disseminating facts and advice to millions of women who are concerned about addressing the risks of breast cancer to themselves and their daughters,” says Charles Atkin, professor and chairperson of communication who is leading the center’s communications efforts.
Other affiliated research includes:
- Susan Conrad, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, who studies the effects of the steroid hormones—progesterone and estrogen—and how breast cancer cells proliferate. “Many breast cancer tumors require hormones to grow,” Conrad says. “Treatment blocks the effects of these hormones, but tumors can develop resistance to the treatment.” Conrad has expanded her research beyond the cellular level to examine the development of the normal mammary gland and how it relates to breast cancer.
- Hua Xiao, associate professor of physiology, has identified a gene that suppresses tumors and examined how this gene prevents cancer. “We have been able to create genetically-engineered mice without this gene and these mice spontaneously develop tumors,” he says.
- Kathleen Gallo, associate professor of physiology and biochemistry and molecular biology, and her team are interested in understanding the signaling pathways that allow breast tumor cells to survive and multiply. Gallo’s research is aimed at finding which proteins are critical for tumor cell signaling, because blocking these proteins is a good approach to killing tumor cells. In addition, Gallo directs the “Breast Cancer Signaling Networks” group, which is using MSU seed money to enhance MSU breast cancer research and develop a large research center, training, and program grants.
- Haslam’s research, which has been continuously NIH funded since 1980, has largely centered on the role of progesterone, a hormone that promotes cell proliferation in normal breast and is implicated among the causes of breast cancer.
The Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Center has also enjoyed community ties to organizations including the American Cancer Society, the Komen Foundation and the Michigan Environmental Council.
MSU is site for national Parkinson’s disease study
MSU is one of 51 sites nationwide participating in an NIH study to test the effectiveness of a drug that could slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
The study is trying to determine if a dietary supplement known as creatine helps slow the progression of a disease that affects more than one million Americans.
Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder of the brain in which patients develop symptoms such as tremor, slowness of movements and stiffness of muscles that progressively worsen as the disease evolves.
“Pilot studies have given us an indication that creatine may be effective, but conducting a large, controlled clinical trial is the only way to be certain,” says John Goudreau, MSU associate professor of neurology and ophthalmology who is leading MSU’s part in the study.
Nationwide, the study will attempt to recruit as many as 2,000 patients, half of which will receive the creatine, the other half a placebo. Patients will be asked to participate for five to seven years.
Goudreau says one major advantage of this study is that patients do not have to abandon any of the care they are already receiving.
“Every medication or treatment a doctor would do for the patient to help them manage their Parkinson’s disease they will continue to do,” he says. “The goal is to evaluate a community-based sample of patients to see how creatine works in people who are cared for in a routine fashion.”
To be eligible for the study, one needs a confirmed case of Parkinson’s disease and be on medications that control symptoms, such as Sinemet, Requip or Mirapex, for at least nine months but no longer than two years.
Creatine is a nutritional supplement that supports energy production in brain cells affected by Parkinson’s disease. While creatine can be found in health food stores and online in small amounts, Goudreau and other researchers are quick to point out that the supplement will not directly treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
“It is unclear if the supplement will slow the progression of the symptoms over many years; that is why it is so important to do a controlled study of this type,” he says. “One thing we want to get across is that you can’t go to the store, buy small amounts of creatine and think it’s going to improve your Parkinson’s symptoms. We don’t want anyone to think this is a panacea for Parkinson’s.”
This is one of several Parkinson’s-related projects at MSU. In total, the university has been awarded nearly $2 million in funded research relating to Parkinson’s disease.
Controversial use of race as a classification in health research
With a variety of health conditions affecting large numbers of racial and ethnic groups, the use of race to define groups in scientific research is not uncommon.
However, Linda Hunt, an associate professor of anthropology at MSU, says the concept of race as a classification in scientific studies is an inadequate marker, often created for “administrative and political purposes.”
“Race is a poorly defined variable,” Hunt says. “Classification systems require mutually exclusive and clearly defined categories. However, the familiar racial categories routinely used in health research do not meet these criteria. They are often overlapping and ambiguous.”
When faced with choosing a racial category, such as “African American,” the increasing number of mixed-race persons further confounds the problem of using race as a biological variable.
In her current research project, funded by the NIH, Hunt and colleagues interviewed 30 genetic scientists about their use of racial/ethnic identification in their research. Hunt and her research team conducted open-ended interviews with geneticists across the country and in Canada who worked at universities, hospitals and research institutes.
“We found that the racial categories most commonly used are those defined by the Office of Management and Budget; categories like ‘African American’ and ‘Hispanic,’” she said. “These are broad categories, based on diverse criteria such as language and skin color, that force a person to choose to identify with a specific trait of his or her identity, and they serve as poorly defined research variables.
“These categories were originally created for administrative and political purposes.”
Hunt’s interest in the use of race in health research grew from a previously NIH-funded project that examined the commonly held beliefs of health care providers and their subsequent treatment of pregnant Hispanic women.
Hunt’s two NIH-funded studies combined have brought over $1 million to MSU.
“In the field of anthropology, race is generally recognized as a socially constructed concept as inappropriate as a biological variable,” she says. “One of my goals is to expand the reach of this anthropological research by publishing my findings in health journals.”
Studying bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic disease involving the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms include abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. In the long run, the disease can lead to severe complications, even death.
Vincent Young, assistant professor in the Depts. of Medicine and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at MSU, heads up an MSU research effort aimed at understanding its causes.
“We think IBD arises from an abnormal interaction between the immune system and the microbes that normally inhabit the gut,” says Young. “What we hope to do is identify those abnormalities that can set the stage for the development of IBD.”
Young and his colleagues have received $1.3 million from the NIH to study how GI bacteria assemble into communities, and the role these internal ecosystems play in triggering IBD.
Young's lab, located in MSU's National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, has focused for several years on the activity of gut bacteria—collectively known as the "microbiota”—in both health and disease.
Cases of IBD have increased significantly in the U. S. over the last 50 years, Young notes. The disease now affects about four people in every 1,000. That increase coincides with society's growing use of antibiotics, which can indiscriminately kill as many good bacteria as bad ones.
Young and others suspect the link between IBD and antibiotic use is not just a coincidence. Other abnormal immune responses, including asthma and allergies, also may be rising in developed countries because of widespread antibiotics and a decrease in previously common childhood infections—an irony described by biomedical researchers as the "hygiene hypothesis."
Young and his collaborators are studying laboratory mice to determine how changes in the microbiota may lead to IBD. The team also will explore whether certain antibiotics and "probiotics" are useful in treating the illness.
Collaborating with Young is Thomas Schmidt, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics.
“Our collaboration represents the application of a traditional strength of MSU, microbial ecology, to problems of human health," Young notes. "This kind of multidisciplinary approach to disease is the focus of the new NIH roadmap for biomedical research.”
Tom Oswald covers health and medicine for MSU University Relations. Laura Min Mercer, ’07, interned for MSU University Relations and graduated in May with an M.A. in health communication. She currently works for Northwestern University’s Dept. of Emergency Medicine.
