2023 Pilot Project Awards

Interdisciplinary Pilot Project Award:

Principal Investigator:Jiapeng Huang, M.D., Ph.D.
MPIs/Co-Investigators:Lu Cai, M.D., Ph.D. (MPI); Lihui Bai, Ph.D. (MPI); Xiaoyu Chen, Ph.D. (MPI); Yash Kothari, M.D. (Co-I); Luz Huntington-Moskos, Ph.D., RN, CPN (Co-I)
Title: Metallomics and Machine Learning to Improve Risk Stratification and Optimize Treatment in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Description of Project: In Louisville Regional Community, there are thousands of patients who suffer pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to bad genes, industrial pollutions, smoking, or lung and heart diseases. PH happens when the pressure in the blood vessels leading from the right heart to the lungs is too high and the right heart eventually fails over time. There is not enough unoxygenated blood going to the lungs causing low oxygen levels. PH is not reversible, and most patients die within 2 to 3 years after the diagnosis. Many PH patients have severe trouble breathing even at rest with poor quality of life. There is no cure for PH because we do not understand what causes PH in many cases. Our team found several metals are significantly different in PH patients when compared to controls in a pilot study for the first time. Metals could directly cause PH or change levels when patients develop PH. This project will evaluate 25 metal levels in the world’s largest collection of PH patients’ data and samples from many hospitals across USA. This large sample size enables us to draw solid conclusions confidently. We will use cutting edge mathematical prediction tools and decision support systems to help diagnose PH earlier, treat PH better, and find new medications targeting metals. The sooner appropriate PH treatments are started, the better the patient will do.

Interdisciplinary Pilot Project Award:

Principal Investigator: Kenneth Palmer, Ph.D. 
Collaborators: Daniel J. Conklin, Ph.D. and Anna Gumpert, Ph.D.
Title: Effects of Acrolein and Hypertension on COVID-19 (Sars-CoV-2) and Cardiopulmonary Injury in Mice 
Description of Project: From early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the National network of twelve regional biocontainment laboratories (RBL), including the University of Louisville Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (CPM) facilitated many biomedical innovations including novel COVID-19 diagnostics, vaccines and antiviral therapeutics. Our RBL rapidly developed preclinical models of SARS-CoV-2 infection and made major contributions to several community-engaged research projects. This has led to targeted investment from NIH/NIAID in enhancing our facilities and equipment. Since the University of Louisville is recognized as a distinguished Center of Excellence in Environmental Research, Dr. Palmer and Dr. Conklin are working together to build collaborations between infectious disease researchers in the CPM and environmental health researchers in the CIEHS and affiliated centers to better understand how environmental conditions impact emerging infectious disease problems. The common environmental pollutant acrolein is toxic to the lungs, heart, and the circulatory system and increases cardiovascular disease risk. Given the reality that COVID-19 outcomes are worse in patients with underlying cardiometabolic disease, we propose that studies focused on understanding how acrolein exposure impacts the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice will be a useful way to start integrating environmental exposure studies with emerging infectious disease research.