Department Receives Close to $4M in Grant Awards

Congratulations to Dr. Lena Sun  and Dr. Charles Emala, who are recent recipients of nearly $4M in grants.

Dr. Sun will receive $1,916,514 over four years from the Food & Drug Administration for her research titled “Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Infants Receiving Opioid-Replacement Pharmacotherapy for Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome.”

Dr. Emala will also receive $1,915,528 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Novel Nutriceuticals Relax Airway Smooth Muscle and Decrease Inflammation in Allergic Lung Disease.”  This is a pre-clinical study that will investigate the cellular mechanisms by which bioactive components of ginger and their metabolites and novel derivatives both acutely relax airway smooth muscle and chronically reduce allergic lung inflammation.  This is complementary to Dr. Emala’s ongoing NIH-funded clinical study investigating the potential therapeutic potential of oral ginger supplementation in the improvement of clinical symptoms in asthmatics.