Postdoc Challenge winners at Purdue awarded $5,000 for chronic pain, pertussis research

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Two Purdue University postdoctoral researchers have been awarded $5,000 Postdoc Challenge grants from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) to fund projects to improve chronic pain treatments and pertussis prevention.

Karin Ejendal, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, won the award for her project, "Adenylyl cyclase type 1: a promising molecular target for the treatment of chronic pain." Yung-Yi Mosley, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology, won the award for her project, "Unraveling the genetic basis of the immune response to pertussis vaccination."

Indiana CTSI awarded eight $5,000 Postdoc Challenge grants for a total of $40,000 in funding to postdoctoral researchers from Purdue, Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame.

The Postdoc Challenge grants are awarded for projects that use Indiana CTSI shared core research facilities with the goal of turning scientific discoveries into patient treatments, said Thomas Sors, chief scientific liaison at Discovery Park's Bindley Bioscience Center, who oversaw the competition.

Ejendal will use Purdue's Biomolecular Screening and Drug Discovery Core Facility to screen for inhibitors of Adenylyl cyclase type 1 to identify and develop better drugs to treat and manage chronic pain.

Ejendal works in the laboratory of Val Watts, associate head and professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology. She received her doctorate in chemistry from Purdue University in 2006.

Mosley will use the Purdue Genomics and Bioinformatics facilities to identify the genetic factors that determine the longevity of anti-pertussis antibodies, which are critical to protection from the illness. The research has the potential to decrease occurrences of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, attributed to short duration of anti-pertussis antibodies induced by vaccination.

Mosley works in the laboratory of Harm HogenEsch, associate dean and professor of comparative pathobiology. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree and master's degree from National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan and her doctorate in virology/vaccinology from Purdue University in 2012.

Ejendal and Mosley were among 26 applicants for the grants. Applications were reviewed and ranked by a committee of faculty and postdoctoral researchers. The final selection and funding recommendations were made by the Indiana CTSI Executive Committee.

The Indiana CTSI is a statewide collaboration of Purdue, Indiana University and Notre Dame to facilitate the translation of scientific discoveries in the lab into new patient treatments in Indiana and beyond. It was established in 2008 with a Clinical and Translational Science Award totaling nearly $60 million from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science at the National Institutes of Health.

In 2013 Indiana CTSI was awarded a $30 million grant from NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, which renewed the grant established by the Indiana CTSI five years ago, guaranteeing the institution will advance innovative health care programs and biomedical research into at least 2018.

Additional 2015-2016 Postdoc Challenge grant awardees include:

* Ivan Rodriguez Nunez of IU School of Medicine for "Metabolic profile of high-fat diet-induced obesity in Nod2-/-mice."

* Nilshad Salim of IU School of Medicine for "Discovery and development of HSP60 chaperonin inhibitors for colon cancer chemotherapy."

* Sarah Deffit of IU Bloomington for "ADR-1 regulation of RNA editing in neuronal cells."

* Won Song of IU Bloomington for "Roles of RNA pseudouridylation in Drosophila nociception."

* Tyvette Hilliard of Notre Dame for "The impact of maternal obesity on the reprogramming of the metastatic niche."

* Jayda Meisel of Notre Dame for "Proteases involved in brain metastasis and therapeutic intervention." 

Writers: Emily Sigg, esigg@purdue.edu

Elizabeth K. Gardner, 765-494-2081, ekgardner@purdue.edu

Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133,  pfiorini@purdue.edu 

Sources: Thomas Sors, tsors@purdue.edu

Karin Ejendal, kejendal@purdue.edu