Dear Colleagues,

I’m very pleased to announce that the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) has recently finalized award decisions for the inaugural cycle of the Program in Accelerated Therapeutics for Healthcare (PATH).  PATH is a partnership that includes the OVPR, the School of Pharmacy, and the School of Medicine to accelerate the translational pathway for researchers to convert their discoveries to new medical therapeutics. Under PATH, funding is provided to academic research programs designed to quickly develop novel therapeutic approaches focusing on well validated molecular targets for a specific disease area with an unmet treatment need in the current commercial marketplace. Projects focusing on a wide range of therapeutic interventions (small molecule, biologic, antibody, peptide, gene therapy) are eligible for consideration.

Given your leadership role in the University, I want you to be among the first to hear the results of this competition so you can join me in congratulating the awardees.  Seven PATH grants were awarded in two categories after a highly selective competition:

 

PATH Trailblazer Grants – $75,000

Xiuling Lu, Pharmaceutical Science
Cutting Cancer at Its Root: Inhibition of Acute Leukemic Stem Cells Using Doxorubicin-Loaded Nanoparticles

Jessica Rouge, Chemistry
Determining the Pharmacology of a Novel DNAzyme-therapeutic Formulation for the Treatment of Allergic Airway Disease

 

PATH Ascent Grants – $10,000

Brian Aneskievich, Pharmaceutical Science
Establishing Protein Conformational Flexibility to Enhance Next-Step Drug-Screen Targeting

Nicholas Leadbeater, Chemistry
Towards Development of Novel Therapeutics for Treatment of Toxoplasmosis

Rajkumar Verma, Neuroscience, UConn Health
Discovery of Novel Purinergic P2X4 Receptor Antagonist for the Treatment of Ischemic Stroke

Simon White, Molecular and Cell Biology
Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors against Enterovirus D68 2C Helicase

Ming Xu, Genetics and Genome Sciences, UConn Health
Discover Drugs Targeting Cellular Senescence to Improve Healthspan and Lifespan

For more information about PATH, visit the program website.

Thank you for helping to foster the culture of excellence in your schools/colleges, departments, and centers, that allows UConn faculty to engage in research, scholarship, and creative activities at the highest levels.

Cheers,

Radenka

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