Dr. Rachita Sumbria, Assistant Professor in the School of Pharmacy, has been working at 蜜桃直播 (蜜桃直播) since 2014. In the span of those two years, she has already received two important grants.
In August 2016, she applied for a grant with the Joseph H. Stahlberg Foundation, which supports medical, psychiatric, and psychological research dealing with dementia, autism, or Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. Two months later, Sumbria was awarded the $25,000 grant for developing new treatment strategies of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
Previously, Sumbria received the 2015 New Investigator Research Grant from the Alzheimer鈥檚 Association. This distinct grant was designed to fund investigators who are less than 10 years past their doctoral degree.
鈥淒r. Sumbria receiving this grant is very exciting news for the department,鈥� said Dr. Samit Shah, Associate Dean and Department Chair of Biopharmaceutical Sciences. 鈥淚t will allow her to continue her research efforts towards development of new treatment strategies, especially biologics with anti-inflammatory and neuroregenerative abilities, for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.鈥�
Sumbria鈥檚 research primarily focuses on the blood-brain barrier and she has been targeting Alzheimer鈥檚 disease since 2011. This particular grant will allow her to gain preliminary data while testing a new hypothesis.
鈥淭hough our lab has been working on exploring other treatment strategies for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease,鈥� Sumbria said, 鈥渢his idea of developing a neuroprotective-neuroregenerative approach for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease was purely based on some recent literature showing protective effects of erythropoietin in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.鈥�
Currently, many therapeutic options being explored for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease include agents that target amyloid plaques and are neuroprotective. Such agents can prevent new brain insult from occurring but cannot reverse brain damage.
Discussing her research, Sumbria said: 鈥淭he idea of developing erythropoietin for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease stemmed from the fact that erythropoietin targets amyloid plaque, offers neuroprotection, but most importantly, also has neuroregenerative ability.鈥� Erythropoietin however does not cross the blood-brain barrier.
The overall goal of the project is to develop a brain-penetrating erythropoietin analogue for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. These funds will help initiate this project.
鈥淭hese grants are a testament to the excellent research in her lab,鈥� Shah said, 鈥渁nd the hard work of all members of the Sumbria lab and her collaborators.鈥�