A team of UA scientists hope they have made progress toward a next-generation drug that may slow tumor growth and boost radiation’s effectiveness in patients with glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer. The team includes BIO5 member Dr. Michael Hammer, Co-Director of the UA Cancer Center Genomics Shared Resource.
Scientists lead by The BIO5 Institute's Dr. Michael Worobey at the University of Arizona were able to extract from the tissue a nearly complete genetic sequence of an HIV virus — the oldest nearly full-length genetic code for an HIV-1 virus recovered thus far, and one that supports the theory that the virus that causes AIDS began to transmit among people within the first decade or two of the 20th century.
The Flinn Foundation awarded the Division of Clinical Data Analytics and Decision Support (CDADS) at the UA College of Medicine - Phoenix $1.5 million to incorporate pharmacogenomics and clinical decision support into clinician training and medical practice. BIO5's Dr. Raymond Woosley, is Co-Director of the Division of Clinical Data Analytics and Decision Support.
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, has identified a polio-like virus as a potential cause of an outbreak of a disease known as Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM), a crippling condition that causes muscle weakness and paralysis usually among children. Dr. Bonnie LaFleur, UA Professor of Biostatistics and BIO5 member, aided in data analysis for the study.
A new study co-authored by Dr. Bruce Tabashnik, Regents’ Professor in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Department of Entomology and member of the BIO5 Institute, identifies a dominantly inherited mutation that confers resistance to engineered cotton in caterpillars of the cotton bollworm, one of the world’s most destructive crop pests. The study will be invaluable in promoting more sustainable pest control.
The KEYS Summer Research Internship Program lets high school students work alongside university faculty in top research labs. “Our interns learned to use tools that data scientists use every day...Their contributions will be used by many of the researchers that take advantage of our open access platform,” said Nirav Merchant, BIO5 member, CyVerse Co-Principal Investigator and Director of Data7.
UA students study honey bees to find out how bacteria in their guts and the foods they eat are connected to life expectancy. They hope the insects can serve as model systems to discover clues about how genetics, gut bacteria and diet influence aging in humans. The study resulted from an interdisciplinary collaboration between the UA, the BIO5 Institute and the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center.
BIO5 Researchers Drs. Julie Ledford and Monica Kraft, are looking to genetics as a possible new treatment for Asthma. They’re studying the protein surfactant, which is one of the most abundant proteins in the lungs and is known for helping people clear out infections.
Two BIO5 members, Drs. Donato Romagnolo and Ornella Selmin, also of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, have been awarded a $1 million research grant from the Department of Defense to study the impact of soy isoflavones intake and risk of breast cancer.
The UA received a $1.1 million grant to study the biology underlying the connection between type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. BIO5 member Dr. Yann Klimentidis is a lead researcher on the study, which will utilize publicly available health and genetic information from databases across the world, covering at least 650,000 people.
