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Kaptur:
$1.3 million in Federal Awards to University of Toledo
Research related to opioid use disorder, mental health,
cancer, and antimicrobial technology
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) last week welcomed news
that the University of Toledo received four federal awards
from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and
the National Science Foundation totaling at over $1.3
million.
“The University of Toledo continues to advance its strong
research base, this time in the two critical areas of
innovative drug targets for cancer risk and also to public
health and opioid crisis education,” said Kaptur. “The
University of Toledo’s leadership in pioneering treatments
and therapies for everything from heart disease to detecting
a substance use relapse has earned it the attention of
granting agencies. Securing competitive federal awards is
no easy task. Congratulations to UT for identifying and
competing in very competitive space.”
Cheryl Mccullumsmith, PhD, professor and chair of the UT
Department of Psychiatry, was awarded a three-year, $449,076
grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration to expand education about opioid use disorder
across all disciplines within UT’s College of Medicine and
Life Sciences. “We are training a generation of family
medicine doctors, surgeons and internists to actively
prevent and treat opioid use disorders,” Mccullumsmith said.
Linda Lewandowski, PhD, dean of the UT College of Nursing
and co-chair of the UT Opioid Task Force, was awarded a
three-year, $371,723 grant from the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration for an
interdisciplinary public health project that will provide
evidenced-based mental health awareness training to UT
students, faculty and staff, as well as the wider northwest
Ohio community. “By providing ‘mental health first aid,’ we
will empower our students, faculty and community to
recognize mental health and substance abuse problems and
respond appropriately,” Lewandowski said. “This type of
training is especially important during this time of the
pervasive opioid crisis affecting our state and the nation.”
Maria Diakonova, PhD, professor in the UT Department of
Biological Sciences, was awarded a three-year, $449,667
grant from the National Institute of General Medical
Sciences to focus on a protein called JAK2 as she works to
identify new drug targets to reduce the risk of cancer. “Our
goal is to explain the JAK2-mediated intracellular pathways
and have a better understanding of the mechanisms involved
in cell proliferation, or cell division, which could provide
insight into future therapeutic approaches to cancer,”
Diakonova said.
Terry Bigioni, PhD, professor in the UT Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry, was awarded a $50,000 grant from
the National Science Foundation to research broad-spectrum
antimicrobial coatings for garments and textiles.
Antimicrobial treatments are already used in medicine, as
anti-infective treatments and in garments and textiles for
odor control. This technology could bring odor control to a
wider range of products and reduce the need to launder many
garments, improving garment lifespan and reducing their
environmental impacts. “We think our antimicrobial
technology could bring a lot of added value to the garment
and medical industries and create new manufacturing jobs
right here in northwestern Ohio,” Bigioni said.
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