Though the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and the University of Memphis have different focuses, they also have a lot in common.
Both recently underwent major leadership transitions, with Dr. Peter Buckley taking the reins as UTHSC’s chancellor in early 2022 and Bill Hardgrave, Ph.D., becoming U of M’s president a few months later. Both have made research a priority, with U of M gaining R1 status from the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education in December 2021, and UTHSC scoring a record $132.9 in grant and contract awards in FY 2022.
And both the U of M and UTHSC are remaining busy in 2023, as they look to continue growing in national prominence. Here are some of the things they've been up to lately.
UTHSC team scores DoD grant
The American Cancer Society has estimated that close to 20,000 women will receive a new ovarian cancer diagnosis in 2023, while about 13,000 women will die from the disease.
Researchers at UTHSC, however, are developing a new treatment for ovarian cancer — and they’ve just received a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to aid them in their work.
According to a press release, the research team has scored a $924,000 grant from the DoD. The project is a collaboration between the labs of Wei Li, Ph.D., a professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the director of the Drug Discovery Center in the College of Pharmacy; Junming Yue, Ph.D., an associate professor of Pathology in the College of Medicine; and Duane Miller, Ph.D., professor emeritus of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Li and Miller have spent over 10 years developing new compounds that can target and disrupt microtubules in cancer cells, and this project builds on their work. An investigational new drug called sabizabulin is currently undergoing clinical trials, and now, the team is set to test a newer version of this drug against metastatic and drug-resistant ovarian cancer.
Yue played a key role in securing funding for the project, as he developed a unique model that can emulate the characteristics of ovarian cancer — like the accumulation of bloody fluid in the abdomen and aggressive primary ovarian tumors.
“This model can be used to assess and screen any preclinical drugs for ovarian cancer treatment, including the drugs from Dr. Li's lab,” Yue said, in the release. “Particularly, this model can be utilized to evaluate drug efficacy by determining the survival curve.”
U of M reasserts its cyber defense strength
Like UTHSC, U of M also got good news from the DoD recently.
The Department of Defense and National Security Agency (NSA) have re-designated U of M’s Center for Information Assurance (CFIA) as a National Center of Excellence in Cyber Defense, allowing it to keep the distinction it’s held since 2014.
The center’s latest designation is slated to last through the 2027 academic year and comes as it looks to continue strengthening its presence at the U of M. The CFIA’s director, Dipankar Dasgupta, was presented with the recognition after helping meet the national demand for information assurance and cyber defense education. He leads the center with associate directors Hasan Ali, Ph.D.; Myounggyu Won, Ph.D.; and Dr. Kan Yang, Ph.D.
“The Center for Information Assurance expanded its activities in research, education, and outreach involving several faculty members from different disciplines and are currently working on eight collaborative projects,” Dasgupta said, in a press release.
Getting the designation received by the U of M isn’t easy, and the CFIA’s staff have mentored and advised other universities and colleges as they develop their own programs in the hopes of earning it.
