News From U-M
Tuberculosis protects itself against toxic agents sent to destroy it
Tuberculosis fights off the toxic agents, acidity and oxidants, that our immune system sends to destroy it, which is why the maddeningly drug-resistant bacterium can survive in harsh conditions in our bodies for essentially as long as its human host lives, new research shows. Researchers believe they're closer to understanding how TB survives in a cell's harshest of environments as long as it does, said Tapan Biswas, research scientist in the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. Biswas is the lead author on a paper that describes the structure of the protective protein that allows TB to live inside the macrophage. [Read more...]
Personalized Medicine-understanding how each person’s genetic makeup affects drug responses
Scientists have long known that people vary widely in how they react to a particular medication or dosage. To help them understand why this occurs, scientists are now focusing on pharmacogenomics, the study of how a person's genome affects response to a specific drug. As an associate professor in both the U-M College of Pharmacy and the College of Medicine, Professor Vicki Ellingrod heads up the U-M’s Clinical Pharmacogenomics Laboratory where she has studied the risk factors of metabolic syndrome in people with schizophrenia. [Read more...]
U-M study finds broccoli component limits breast cancer stem cells
A compound derived from broccoli - sulforaphane - could help prevent or treat breast cancer by targeting cancer stem cells -- the small number of cells that fuel a tumor’s growth -- according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Researchers found sulforaphane targeted and killed the cancer stem cells and prevented new tumors from growing. “Sulforaphane has been studied previously for its effects on cancer, but this study shows that its benefit is in inhibiting the breast cancer stem cells. This new insight suggests the potential of sulforaphane or broccoli extract to prevent or treat cancer by targeting the critical cancer stem cells,” says study author Duxin Sun, associate professor at the U-M College of Pharmacy and a researcher with the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. [Read more...]
ChemReader software given boost by U-M’s Small Company Innovation Program
U-M faculty Kazuhiro Saitou (mechanical engineering, College of Engineering) and Gus Rosania (pharmaceutical sciences, College of Pharmacy) have found a partner in Ann Arbor-based firm Polyergic Informatics, thanks to the Small Company Innovation Program (SCIP) in the Center for Entrepreneurship. SCIP is making it possible for Saitou and Rosania's ChemReader image-recognition software to receive needed refinement in a commercial environment. [Read more in MBusinessLink...]
New NIH EUREKA awards fund highly innovative research, promise big payoffs
Four U-M faculty among 56 grantees
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $67.4 million to support highly innovative research projects that promise big scientific payoffs. The new awards are part of the EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) program, which helps scientists test new, unconventional ideas or tackle major methodological or technical challenges. U-M recipients of EUREKA awards are Joseph Holoshitz (Medical School), Matthew B. Soellner (College of Pharmacy), Jon-Kar Zubieta(Medical School), and H.V. Jagadish (College of Engineering). [Read more...]
U-M joins other leading research universities to launch futurity.org
A group of leading research universities has launched Futurity (www.futurity.org), an online research channel covering the latest discoveries in science, engineering, the environment, health and more. The University of Michigan is one of 35 partners supporting the project. Given the changes occurring in the news business, the partner universities are looking for ways to share important breakthroughs with the public in a new and direct way. [Read more...]
U-M exceeds $1 billion in annual research spending for the first time
Research spending at the University of Michigan in 2008-09 exceeded $1 billion for the first time, a milestone that highlights the university’s role as an economic resource benefitting the entire state. In the midst of the most severe recession since the Great Depression, research spending at the university rose 9.4 percent over the previous fiscal year, totaling $1.02 billion. The federal government provided 64.4 percent of the funds, and federal research spending at the U-M rose 7.1 percent over 2007-08. [Read more...]