Research

Supporting pioneering translational research

The Foundation supports pioneering translational “bench to bedside” research, converting pure research to results through research grants, endowed professorships, and other research projects.

Professorships

Damiano Rondelli, MD

Michael Reese Professor of Hematology

Dr. Rondelli received his medical degree and fellowship training at the University of Bologna, Italy. He pursued further research in immunology of stem cell transplantation at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA before joining the UIH staff. His work in stem cell research has resulted in cure of patients with sickle cell disease using state of the art advances in transplant research.

Stem Cell Transplantation for Sickle Cell Disease

1 out of 500 African-American children are born with sickle cell disease (SCD). SCD is treatable, but still results in a lifetime of pain, infection and other disabling symptoms shortening life expectancy to 53 for men and 58 for women. It is curable in children through hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT); however, patients with advanced symptoms are not candidates for this cure. Stem cell transplantations with reduced intensity conditioning regimes have so far been done on a handful of adult patients nationwide. This form of stem cell transplant shows great promise for curing SCD in adults.

Gail Prins, PhD

Michael Reese Professor of Urology

Dr. Prins received her Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from the University of Illinois. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Urology and Reproductive Science at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. For many years she pursued research in Reproductive Biology at Michael Reese before moving to the University of Illinois where Dr Prins is a Professor in the departments of Urology and Biophysics, and Director of the Andrology Laboratories. Her ground-braking work in the biology of prostate cancer resulted in the FDA banning bisphenols from use in baby bottles and infant formula packaging.

Urology

Prostate cancer afflicts men of all races and backgrounds, but in the U.S., African American men have highest incidence and mortality rates for this disease. In Illinois, these rates are 48% higher in African American men than in European American men, and nearly 3 times as high as Asian or Hispanic American men. Dr. Prins developed an innovative model to demonstrate the connection in humans using embryonic and adult prostate stem cells, resulting in the discovery that human prostate stem cells are indeed highly responsive to estrogens, both natural and environmental. To reduce the morbidity and mortality rates for prostate cancer, especially among African Americans, this cutting-edge research needs to continue, and it will with the support of this endowment.

Stephen Roth, MD

Michael Reese Professor of Anesthesiology

Steven Roth MD. FARVO received his medical education at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, residency in anesthesia at New York University Medical Center and fellowship training in neuroanesthesia at the Cleveland Clinic. With almost three decades of NIH funding for research in perioperative visual loss and numerous academic awards, he is also focusing on the complications of surgery in the elderly and immunocompromised patient.

Anesthesiology

Long-term consequences of anesthesia and surgery were not considered until 1996. “Preventable anesthetic mortality” has declined in the last 30 years to less than 1 in 100,000, but only in the context of generally healthy patients under the age of 65 having routine operations from which they do not die during or immediately after the surgery due to anesthetic causes. Are there complications that anesthesia causes for elderly, immuno-compromised or cancer patients, increasing their risk of one-year mortality after surgery? Are there safer ways to anesthetize these patients during surgery to reduce those risks? Through the department of anesthesiology at UIC College of Medicine Chicago, this endowment will push research into these overlooked areas of anesthesiology safety with the goal of reducing unnecessary one-year deaths after surgery for the elderly and seriously ill.

Alan Schwartz, MS, PhD

Michael Reese Professor of Medical Education

Alan Schwartz PhD joined the department of medicine in 1997 after receiving his PhD in cognitive psychology and a master’s degree in organizational behavior and industrial relations from the University of California, Berkley. His research interests include the psychology of decision making in both patient’s and clinicians. His work has focused on contextual errors in decision making and updating of beliefs when exposed to new evidence. He has received numerous teaching awards including the Excellence in Teaching award, the UIC highest recognition for teaching.

Medical Education

In order for patients to ultimately benefit from medical research with new treatments, it is necessary to train the practitioners who will deliver those treatments. To fulfill the vision of excellent medical care for all, it is also essential to ensure widespread availability of practitioners with advanced training. The Department of Medical Education (DME) at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, founded in 1959, is one of the first and longest continuously functioning centers for collaboration, education and leadership development available to health professionals all over the world. This endowment will help develop the pipeline of knowledge between the DME and the global community to ensure widespread training and availability of highly trained medical practitioners world-wide.

Edith Nutescu PharmD, MS CTS, FCCP

Michael Reese Professor of Pharmcotherapy

Edith Nutescu PharmD, MS CTS, FCCP is a clinical pharmacist and clinician-scientist. She received her education at the University of Illinois. Her research focuses on comparative effectiveness and safety of cardiovascular pharmacotherapy and thromboembolic diseases. For over 2 decades she has contributed to the development of patient-centered models of care which have contributed to improvement in clinical outcomes in patients with cardiovascular and embolic disorders.

College of Pharmacy

The Michael Reese endowed professorship in Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy will have a lasting impact by supporting an outstanding professor working in cardiovascular pharmacotherapy research. Dr Glen Schumock, dean of the UIC College of Pharmacy stated “This valuable support furthers our ability to discover novel therapies and treatments for patients, and impacts the education we provide to promising young pharmacists. This endowed professorship provides significant support to our research mission and our campaign goals” The gift builds on the College’s long history of excellence in cardiovascular drug research and practice innovations. To date, the college’s practice innovations include interdisciplinary programs shown to improve patient outcomes and reduce emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to medication-related complications. Associated research has led to high-impact publications and national consensus statements and practice guidelines for the treatment and prevention of venous thrombosis, safe use of direct oral anticoagulants, and the delivery of optimized inpatient and outpatient anticoagulation therapy.

Research Projects Funded

Research Grants & Projects

Translational Research Grants Awarded by the Michael Reese Research & Education Foundation

The Foundation has awarded over $3 Million to 32 investigators at 5 institutions since 2014 for translational research or “bench to bedside” projects aimed at converting pure research into results that directly benefit people. These projects span a variety of health topics including cancer treatments, viral studies, heart disease, transplantation, diabetes, sickle cell disease, and many other issues and fund original patient centered studies, but not clinical trials.

These include the Pioneer in Research Award at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which funds grant applications that NIH study sections deemed to have “outstanding potential” to produce significant new treatments. Our investment in these projects has successfully furthered the project quality and resulted in more than a $21 million return in NIH funding for the investigators we supported.

In addition, the Foundation has endowed a Bench to Bedside Translational Research Award at the University of Chicago which is awarded annually to one or two new young investigators as selected from applications submitted to the University of Chicago research review committee.

ATP Sensitive Potassium Channel

A Novel target to prevent atrial fibrillation in heart failure.

Cevher Ozcan, PhD

University of Chicago

Treating nerve damage

Mechanisms of axonal degeneration in hereditary spastic paraplegia neurons

Xuejun Li, PhD

Associate Professor, Biomedical Sciences

University of Illinois at Chicago

Understanding liver disease

Protective role of OPN-High macrophages in NASH

Natilia Nieto, PharmD, MSc, PhD

Professor, Pathology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Treating the Ebola virus

Optimizing ridaifen-B analogs as potential therapeutics for Ebola viruses

Lijun Rong, PhD

Professor, Microbiology and Immunology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Muscle cells and wasting diseases

The role of skeletal muscle endothelial dysfunction in cachexia

Young-Mee Kim, PhD

Research Assistant Professor, Medicine Cardiology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Monitoring breast cancer

Mechanosurveillance in breast cancer metastasis

Ekreen Emrah Er, PhD

Associate Professor, Physiology and Biophysics

University of Illinois at Chicago

Preventing the spread of eye cancer

Role of VEGFR2 trafficking in the metastasis of uveal melanoma

Kaori Yamada, PhD

Assistant Professor, Pharmacology

University of Illinois at Chicago

 

Predicting ovarian cancer outcomes

Predicting ovarian cancer outcome by elucidating myeloid derived suppressor cell function

Maureen L. Drakes, PhD

Research Associate Professor, Medicine

Loyola University

Using stem cells for reconstructive surgery

Engineered adipose therapeutics for reconstruction (EASTR)

Summer Hanson, MD

Associate Professor, Surgery

University of Chicago

Relationship between gut bacteria and heart disease

Gut dysbiosis and insulin resistance in heart failure

Ann B. Nguyễn, MD

Assistant Professor, Medicine Cardiology

University of Chicago

Managing blood cancers

Modeling and treating high-risk clonal hematopoiesis in hereditary hematopoietic malignancies

Ann B. Nguyễn, MD

Assistant Professor, Medicine

University of Chicago

Treating lung disease

Exosomal miRNA of Acute Chest Syndrome

Gabrielle Lapping-Carr, MD

Assistant Professor, Pediatrics

University of Chicago

Understanding diabetic eye disease

Evaluation of the inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy

Andrius Kazlauskas, PhD

Professor, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

University of Illinois at Chicago

Understanding pancreatic cancer

Elucidation of the role of MLK4 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and strategies to prevent oncogenic signals from mutant KRAS

Ajay Rana, PhD

Endowed Professor, Surgical Oncology

Jesse Brown VA, UIC College of Medicine

Treating lung cancer

Evaluation of inhibition of endothelin-1/endothelin receptor axis in relieving vasoconstriction preventing drug penetrance in non-small cell lung carcinoma

Takeshi Shimamura, PhD

Visiting Associate Professor, Cancer Center

University of Illinois at Chicago

Treating cancer with immunotherapy

Oncolytic herpes simplex virus (HSV) in cancer immunotherapy

Bin He, PhD

Associate Professor, Microbiology and Immunology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Probing RNA epigenetics-mediated drug-resistant chromatin structures for more effective treatment of hematologic malignancies

Jason Cheng, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, Pathology

University of Chicago

Improving treatment for blood cancers

Probing RNA epgenetics-mediated drug-resistant chromatin structures for more effective treatment of hematologic malignancies

Dr. Jason Cheng

Assistant Professor, Medicine

University of Chicago

Understanding diarrhea after kidney transplants

Gut microbial markers of post-kidney transplantation diarrhea

Pratik Shah, MD

University of Chicago

High cholesterol’s effects on heart function

Impact of dyslipidemia on endothelial biomechanics

Irena Levitan, PhD

Professor, Medicine

University of Chicago

New ways to develop diabetes treatments

Development of novel assays to identify new Type 2 diabetes drug leads

Brian Layden, MD PhD

Associate Professor, Endocrinology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Preventing brain injury from tapeworms

Neurocysticerocosis: A natural human model of epilepotogenesis

Jessica Herrick

Attending Physician, Infectious Diseases

University of Illinois at Chicago

Drugs to improve heart rhythm

A Pharmacogenomic approach to treating atrial fibrillation

Dawood Darbar, MD

Professor, Medicine Cardiology

University of Illinois at Chicago

FSH and IGF1 Receptor signaling crosstalk in ovarian GCs

Carlos Stocco, PhD

Associate Professor, Cancer Center

University of Illinois at Chicago

Recovery from lung injury

Regulation of type II cells in the repair of alveolar epithelial injury

Yuru Liu, PhD

Associate Professor, Pharmacology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Better imaging during breast cancer surgery

Development of a new fluorescent agent for intraoperative image-guided breast cancer surgery

Tohru Yamada, PhD

Associate Professor, Surgery

University of Illinois at Chicago

Risks to vision during surgery

Risk factor analysis of perioperative visual loss

Steven Roth, MD

Endowed Professor, Anesthesiology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Improving our understanding of ovarian cells

FSH and IGF1 R signaling crosstalk in ovarian GCs

Dr. Carlos Stocco

University of Illinois at Chicago

Pediatric Sickle Cell Program

Lewis Hsu, MD, PhD

Professor, Pediatric Oncology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Treating Sickle Cell Disease in Children

Expansion of insulin-producing beta cells for diabetes therapy.

Jose Oberholzer, MD; Solomon Afelik, PhD

University of Illinois at Chicago

Cellular treatment for diabetes

Expansion of insulin-producing beta cells for diabetes therapy.

Jose Oberholzer, MD; Solomon Afelik, PhD

Endowed Professor, Surgery

University of Illinois at Chicago

New approaches to treating lung disease

Nrf2 activators to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Terry Moore, PhD; Sekhar Reddy, PhD

Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

University of Illinois at Chicago

Preventing blood clots from sickle cell disease

Novel Strategy for Preventing Microvascular Thrombosis in Sickle Cell Disease.

Richard D Minshall, PhD; Roberto Molokie, MD

Professor, Anesthesiology

University of Illinois at Chicago

New ways to treat multiple myeloma

Inhibitors of DNA repair as new treatments for multiple myeloma.

Pritseh Patel, MD; Damiano Rondelli, MD

Associate Professor, Radiology

University of Chicago

Treating prostate cancer

Identification of estrogen targets in human prostate cancer stem cells.

Gail S Prins, PhD; Wen-Yang Hu MD

Endowed Professor, Medicine Urology

University of Illinois at Chicago

A prospective study of breast cancer patients with abnormal myocardial deformation treated with anthracycline and trastuzumab-based chemotherapies

Nausheen Akhter, MD

Attending Physician, Medicine Cardiology

Northwestern University Medical School

Improving cell transplants for sickle cell disease

Preclinical model to prevent stem cell rejection in haploidentical transplant of selected CD34+ cells in sickle cell patients.

Damiano Rondelli, MD; Annie Oh, MD

Endowed Professor, Medicine Hematology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Chemotherapy for breast cancer patients with heart conditions

Chemotherapy for breast cancer patients with heart conditions

Nausheen Akhter, MD; Kameswari Maganti, MD; Vera Rigolin, MD; William Gradishar, MD

Northwestern University

Preventing drug-resistant brain cancer

Effects of glycolysis inhibition in the development of drug resistance of neuroblastoma.

Fei Chu, MD, PhD; Mary Beth Madonna, MD

Research Assistant Professor, Pediatrics

Children’s Memorial Hospital