Projects
Coulter Funded Projects
UVA's Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research builds networks of relationships around our researchers, connecting them with veteran entrepreneurs, investors, and experts in such fields as clinical trials, regulation, and patents and licensing. Because every new technology has its own requirements and follows its own path to the marketplace, we approach each project differently. The exchange of ideas, insight, and information is the engine that moves innovative technologies from university laboratories to the marketplace. We now have sixteen years of experience taking biomedical innovations born in the academic environment and translating them into practical use.
Projects Funded for 2023-2024
Alpha-2-Macroglobulin to Enhance Cardiomyocyte Survival After Myocardial Infarction
Jeff Saucerman, Ph.D. (BME), Antonio Abbate, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine), and Stefano Toldo, Ph.D (Cardiovascular Medicine)
Despite the marked improvements in therapies, acute myocardial infarction (AMI – ‘heart attack’) and its consequences (ischemic heart disease) are among the most common causes of death worldwide, estimated to cause 1 in 7 deaths every year (>375,000 in the USA alone)1. Furthermore, current therapies have shown a significant reduction in early mortality but also a paradoxical increase in the incidence of heart failure after AMI1. This likely reflects a complex series of concomitant events: on one hand more patients are surviving AMI leading to ‘sicker’ patients leaving the hospital alive but with a degree of heart injury that predisposes them to failure; on the other hand the population is aging, the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity is rising, and these constitute risk factors for heart failure.
Model-driven design of microbial therapies to resolve C. difficile infection
Jason Papin, Ph.D. (BME) and Laurie Archbald-Pannone, MD (General Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Care)
C. difficile infections affect approximately 500,000 people per year in the United States with annual healthcare costs approaching $5 billion. Treatment often involves the use of antimicrobials that can disrupt the gut flora and consequently create conditions that increase the possibility of recurrent infections. Recurrent infections, which can occur in approximately 20% of patients, are often further treated with antimicrobials, leading to a vicious cycle of disease. Fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) have emerged as a highly successful treatment option leading to resolution of >90% cases. However, there are several complicating factors, including the risk of infection by pathogens that are not screened for, logistics of donor collection and processing, among others.
Clinical Translation of Real-time Cine and Strain MRI for a 20-minute Cardiotoxicity Exam
Frederick Epstein, Ph.D. (BME and Radiology),Craig H. Meyer, Ph.D. (BME and Radiology), and Amit Patel, MD (Medical Imaging and Radiology)
The overall goal of this project is to translate advanced cardiac MRI methods developed at the University of Virginia to clinical use at the University of Virginia Health System within two years. The methods that will be translated are real-time cine for rapid assessment of cardiac volumes and function, and myocardial strain imaging to quantify heart muscle deformation. These methods will enable a 20-minute cardiotoxicity exam.
Combining Adenosine Receptor Blockade with Focused Ultrasound (FUS) for Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Natasha Sheybani, Ph.D. (BME) and Patrick Dillon, MD, (Hematology/Oncology)
The propensity of breast cancer for metastasis to distant sites poses a major clinical challenge. In particular, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered to be the most aggressive, with the highest risks of metastasis and recurrence. To date, no FDA-approved targeted therapies are available for TNBC patients, and their prognoses are thus invariably grim (see Clinical Need & Epidemiology section), With spontaneous regression or complete immunological rejection being rare in this setting, there is an increasingly urgent need for novel combinatorial treatment paradigms that can combat primary and disseminated lesions, while preserving patients’ comfort and quality of life.
Therapeutic Ultrasound for the Treatment of Degenerative Mitral Stenosis
John Hossack, PhD (BME) and Patricia Rodriguez, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine)
Degenerative mitral stenosis, marked by mitral annular calcification (MAC), is an increasingly frequent cause of mitral valve (MV) dysfunction [1, 2]. MAC prevalence is estimated at from 4.3% to 15%, increasing with age as well as other cardiovascular risk factors [3]. The presence of mitral stenosis (MS) marks a high-risk cohort with limited treatment options. Emerging minimally invasive and transcatheter therapies have been developed, but none are consistently associated with ideal outcomes and available for all patients. We address this need.
Commercializing an injectable fibrous hydrogel for treating pelvic organ prolapse
Steven Caliari, Ph.D. (BME &CHE), and Monique Vaughan, MD (Obstetrics and Gynecology)
Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a common condition affecting roughly 50% of parous women in the United States. It is estimated that 300,000 prolapse repair surgeries are performed annually in the US, at a cost of $300 million in ambulatory care and $1.012 billion in direct surgical costs. Polypropylene (PP) mesh was once a common material used in POP repair, but it was removed from the market in 2019 due to unacceptable post- surgical complications. While PP mesh is still used by many pelvic surgeons to perform sacrocolpopexies, the current international climate and associated litigation surrounding the use of mesh leads many patients and their surgeons to seek mesh-free treatment options. One such mesh-free treatment option is the uterosacral ligament suspension (USLS) procedure. USLS is a common suture-only treatment for POP due to its lower incidence of complications, but it is plagued by a relatively high failure rate of up to 40%. Therefore, there is a need for innovative, mesh-free, treatment options for POP.
Upper EXTremity Examination for Neuromuscular Diseases (U-EXTEND): Objectively Assessing Treatment Efficacy and Accelerating Drug Discovery
Silvia Blemker, P.hD (BME) & Rebecca Scharf, MD (Developmental Pediatrics)
New research must be done to measure the effectiveness of interventions (or lack thereof) and motor changeover in neuromuscular disorders, from micro-movements to muscular regeneration, in a group of patients who previously didn’t live long enough to keep measures of progress. The proposed system will produce a novel, multi-modal platform for measuring motor function in patients with neuromuscular diseases that will revolutionize the way clinical trials are performed moving forward, therefore accelerating the pipeline of new treatments for childhood neuromuscular diseases.
Development of a Novel Encapsulation Platform for Islet Transplantation
Liheng Cai, P.hD (BME) & Jose Oberholzer, MD (Surgery Transplantation)
This project concerns a clinical challenge, the development of cell-based therapy for Type I diabetes (T1D), an autoimmune disorder affecting >1.5 million people in the US. Solving this challenge becomes possible with our technological and conceptual innovations. Technically, we have invented a voxelated bioprinting technology that enables the Digital Assembly of Spherical Particles (DASP) to form multiscale porous scaffolds for islet encapsulation.
Design and optimization of particle-based therapeutics for modulating adipocyte signaling in obesity
Mete Civelek, P.hD (BME) & Heather Ferris, MD (Endocrinology and Metabolism)
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) performed in over a million people identified hundreds of new therapeutic targets to reduce obesity. Studies have also shown that drug candidates that target genes identified in GWAS are twice as likely to succeed through phase 3 clinical trials than those that do not have genetic support. Currently, most pharmaceutical companies are using human genetic studies to identify potential therapeutic targets. Previously, we identified the transcription factor KLF14 as a potential anti-obesity drug target through human genetic studies.