By Kate O’Neill

The following UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School faculty were recently awarded grants of approximately $1 million or more: 

The National Institutes of Health:

Joseph P. Dougherty, PhD, professor of molecular genetics, micro-biology, and immunology: a three-year, $1,595,632 grant titled “High Throughput Screening to Identify Antagonists of HIV-1 Latency.”

Masayori Inouye, PhD, professor and chair, Department of Biochemistry: a five- year, $1,084,045 grant for his study titled “Signal Transduction by Histidine Kinases and Their Response Regulators.”

Sunita G. Kramer, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine: a five-year, $1,219,350 grant for her study titled “Myotube Guidance in Drosophila Melanogaster.”

Grace Lu-Yao, PhD, MPH, associate professor of environmental and occupational medicine: a four-year, $916,684 award for a study titled “Evaluation of Palliative Prostate Cancer Care among Elderly Men.”

Jianjie Ma, PhD, university professor of physiology and biophys- ics: a five-year, $2,131,176 grant titled “Ca Sparks in Muscle Aging and Dystrophy.”

Kiran E. Madura, PhD, professor of biochemistry: a five-year, $1,462,988 grant from the NCI for his study “Functional Analysis of RAD23 Protein.

Industry Funding:
Hoffman-La Roche awarded $1,286,684 to Moti L. Tiku, MD, associate professor of medicine, for a long- term study of safety during treatment with tocilizumab (MRA) in patients completing treatment in MRA core studies.

Published Research:

The following is a representative sample of articles in leading biomedical journals by RWJMS faculty members.

Cory Abate-Shen, PhD, professor of medicine, senior author of “Combina-
torial Activities of Akt and B-Raf/Erk Signaling in a Mouse Model of Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer,” an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2006:103(39):14477–14482. The
article’s co-authors included Xuesong Ouyang, PhD, adjunct instructor of medicine, and Michael M. Shen, PhD, professor of pediatrics.

Chavela M. Carr, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, senior author of “Specific SNARE Complex Binding Mode of the Sec1/Munc-18 Protein, Sec1p,” an article published in November 2006 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

An article titled “Subcutaneous Unfractionated Heparin vs. Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin for Acute Thromboembolic Disease: Issues of Efficacy and Cost,” by Jeffrey L. Carson, MD, Richard C. Reynolds Professor of Medicine, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association 2006:296(8):991–993.

Masayori Inouye, PhD, professor and chair, Department of Biochemistry, author of “Signaling by Transmembrane Proteins Shifts Gears,” published in the September 8, 2006, issue of Cell 126(5):829– 831.

Estela Jacinto, PhD, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics, first author of “SIN1/ MIP1 Maintains Rictor-mTOR Complex Integrity and Regulates Akt Phosphorylation and Substrate Specificity,” published in the October 6, 2006, issue of Cell 2006:127 (1):125–137.

Terri Goss Kinzy, PhD, professor of molecular genetics, microbiology, and immunology, a co-author of “Structure of eEF3 and the Mechanism of Transfer RNA Release from the E-site,” published in Nature 2006:443:663–668.

Michael P. Matise, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience and cell biology, senior author of “Wnt Signaling Inhibitors Regulate the Transcriptional Response to Morph-
ogenetic Shh-Gli Signaling in the Neural Tube,” published in the September 11, 2006, issue of Developmental Cell 11(3): 325–337.

Yufang Shi, DVM, PhD, professor of molecular genetics, microbiology, and immunology, senior author of “Pivotal Roles of CD8+ T Cells Restricted by MHC Class I–like Molecules in Autoimmune Diseases,” published in the November 6, 2006, issue of Journal of Experimental Medicine. Co-authors included Gobardhan Das, PhD, adjunct assistant professor of molecular genetics, microbiology, and immunology.

Vasily M. Studitsky, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology, senior author of “Nucleosomes Can Form a Polar Barrier to Transcript Elongation by RNA Polymerase II,” an article published in Molecular Cell 2006:24(3):469–479.

Harvey R. Weiss, PhD, professor of physiology and biophysics, senior author of “Importance of Ryanodine Receptors in Effects of Cyclic GMP Is Reduced in Thyroxine-Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy,” an article published in the May 10, 2006, issue of the European Journal of Pharmacology 537(1–3):45–51. The article’s co-authors included Peter M. Scholz, MD, professor of surgery.

James Q. Zheng, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience and cell biology, senior author of “An Essential Role for Beta-actin mRNA Localization and Translation in Ca2+-Dependent Growth Cone Guidance,” an article published in Nature Neuroscience 2006:10:1265–1273.