Grants and Contracts
Congratulations to the following individuals for obtaining extramural funding from federal, state, and/or independent sources between August 1 and October 31, 2025!
NOTE: If any information has been inadvertently omitted, please contact the editor (dflock@lsuhsc.edu) and a correction will be printed in the next issue of The Pulse.
National Institutes of Health – R01
Rajani Maiya, PhD (Physiology)
“Kappa Opioid Receptor Modulation of BLA Inputs to the BNST and Stress-Escalated
Drinking”
David Welsh, MD (Medicine – Pulmonary/Critical Care), Robert Siggins, PhD (Physiology)
and Christopher Taylor (Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology) (multi-PI award)
“Geroprotective Precision Medicine Strategies in PWH that Use Alcohol”
Guoshun Wang, DVM, PhD (Microbiology, Immunology, Genetics and Medicine)
“The Role of Neutrophils in Cystic Fibrosis Pathogenesis”
National Institutes of Health – R21
Scott Edwards, PhD (Physiology) and Amanda Pahng, PhD (Physiology) (multi-PI award)
“Targeting the Renin System for the Treatment of Pain and Opioid Use Disorder”
Nicholas Gilpin, PhD (Physiology)
“Validation of a Rat Model of Co-morbid Cocaine and Alcohol Use”
National Institutes of Health – U54
Charles Wood, PhD (Interdisciplinary Oncology)
“KS in the Era of ART in Africa Program (KEAAP)”
National Institutes of Health – R35
Xiaolin Tian, PhD (Neuroscience Center of Excellence)
“Unmask the Roles of Mask as an mTOR-independent Autophagy-Promoting Factor”
National Institutes of Health – T32
Patricia Molina, MD, PhD (Physiology)
“Biomedical Alcohol Research Training Program”
National Institutes of Health – P60
Patricia Molina, MD, PhD (Physiology)
“LSUHSC-NO Comprehensive Alcohol-HIV/AIDS Research Center (CARC)”
David Welsh, MD (Medicine - Pulmonary/Critical Care)
“LSUHSC-NO Comprehensive Alcohol-HIV/AIDS Research Center” Subproject entitled “Alcohol,
Immunosenescence, & Senodynamics in People with HIV”
National Institutes of Health – R13
Nicholas Gilpin, PhD (Physiology)
“Travel Support for the 7th International Drug Abuse Research Society (IDARS) Meeting”
Patricia Molina, MD, PhD (Physiology)
“National Science Network on Drug Abuse Annual Conference”
NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence
Giulia Monticone, PhD (Genetics)
Center for Viral Oncology (CTVO) Pilot Project entitled “HIDRAs: Developing First-in-class
Holistic Immunomodulatory Drugs with Antiviral and Anticancer Activity Against Viral
Oncogenesis”
National Science Foundation
Michael Dunham, MD (Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery)
“Collaborative Research: SaTC 2.0: RES: A Privacy-Preserving Framework for Sharing
and Learning from Scarce Medical Data”
Sunyoung Kim, PhD (Genetics)
“EPSCoR CREST Phase 1: Center for Adaptive Nanomotor Development”
FDA-American Association for Cancer Research
Giulia Monticone, PhD (Genetics)
Oncology Educational Fellowship
Pharmaceutical, Professional Society and Private Grants
Amma Agyemang, MD, PhD (Obstetrics and Gynecology)
GOG Foundation
“Phase 4 Single Arm Study of Ocular Assessments in Patients Treated with TIVDAK in
Recurrent or Metastatic Cervical Cancer”
Haydee Bazan, PhD (Neuroscience Center of Excellence)
Octapharma
“Novel cell signaling in Pandas Syndrome Patients”
Tara Castellano, MD (Obstetrics and Gynecology)
AbbVie, Inc
“A Single-Arm Phase II Study of Combined Carboplatin and Mirvetuximab Soravtansine
in Neoadjuvant Setting for Folate Receptor a High Expression Patients with Advanced-Stage
Serous Epithelial Ovarian, Fallopian Tube or Primary Peritoneal Cancer”
Tara Castellano, MD (Obstetrics and Gynecology)
GenMab Inc
“Phase III Randomized, Open-Label Study of Rinatabart Sesutecan (RINA-S) Versus Treatment
of Investigator's Choice in Patients with Platinum Resistant Ovarian Cancer”
Harvey Chim, MD (Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery)
Neuraptive Therapeutics
“A Phase 3, Multicenter, Randomized, Subject and Evaluator Blinded, Controlled Study
Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of NTX-001 Compared to Standard of Care (Neurorrhaphy)
in the Treatment of Upper Extremity Transected Nerves Requiring Surgical Repair”
Rutledge Clement III, MD (Orthopaedic Surgery)
Scoliosis Research Society
“Improving Materials for Vertebral Body Tethering Using Soft Tissue Allografts”
Priyanka Jadhav, PhD (Medicine - Pulmonary/Critical Care)
Wetmore Foundation
“Evaluating the Diagnostic Efficiency of AI-Assisted Chest X-Ray Interpretation for
TB Detection”
Stephen Lindsey, MD (Internal Medicine - Rheumatology)
Bristol Myers Squibb
“Efficacy and Safety of Deucravacitinib Compared with Placebo in Participants with
Active SLE Phase 3”
Shelby MacRae, MD (Medicine/Pulmonary-Critical Care)
Wetmore Foundation
LSU Health's Bronchiectasis and NTM Care Center Program Patient Support Group
Mary Maluccio, MD (Surgery)
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
“Phase III Multi-center, Randomized, Open-label Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and
Safety of LU-DOTA-TATE in Patients Newly Diagnosed with Grade 1 and 2 (ki-67<10%)
Advanced GEP-NET with High Disease Burden”
Alison A. Smith, MD, PhD (Surgery)
Zimmer Biomet
“ASSET Course Combined Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma”
Gala True, PhD (Medicine - Community & Population Medicine)
Face the Fight Foundation
“Infrastructure Support and Expansion of The Armory Project”
Amy Wolfe, MD (Medicine - Pulmonary/Critical Care)
Wetmore Foundation
“NoLA TB Support: Coming Together to Fight TB”
LSUHSC Intramural Program
Clinical Research Grants
Robert Siggins, PhD (Physiology)
“Alcohol, Dysbiosis, Immune Exhaustion & Senescence, Checkpoint Inhibitors and Colorectal
Carcinoma”
Research Enhancement Program
Fokhrul Hossain, PhD (Genetics)
“Phosphodiesterase 10A: A Novel Therapeutic Target for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
(TNBC)”
David Welsh, MD (Medicine - Pulmonary/Critical Care)
“Role of the Microbiota and Senescent/Exhausted T cells in Alcohol-related Cancers”
LA CaTS
Amanda Pahng, PhD (Physiology)
“Role of Alpha2 Adrenergic Receptor Antagonism in Treating Misuse of Fentanyl Adulterated
with Xylazine”