Grant and Contract Awards

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NEW & TRANSFER AWARDS

(New grants, funding transferred from a PI’s previous institution, and NIH competitive renewal funding)

Andre De Queiroz Constantino (PI); Sterling McPherson – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
WSU Office of Research, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Program
Contingency management to reduce heavy alcohol drinking days in smokers receiving varenicline”
Nicotine and alcohol combined cause more illness, kill more people, have a higher social impact, and cost more in healthcare dollars than any other public health problem worldwide. Smoking and alcohol use are the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., killing over a half a million Americans every year. It is estimated that as much as 80 percent of those seeking treatment for alcohol use disorder smoke cigarettes. This award provides internal funding for a study to evaluate the use of contingency management—a rewards-based behavioral intervention for drug and alcohol abuse—to reduce heavy drinking in a population of heavy drinking smokers who are currently being treated for smoking cessation with the drug varenicline. Varenicline is known to not only improve smoking cessation but also decrease drinking behavior among heavy drinking smokers. This randomized controlled trial will have participants use mobile-phone based breathalyzer technology to submit evidence of reduced drinking in exchange for cash reinforcers. This study design helps overcome limitations that have thus far prevented contingency management from being widely applied to alcohol use disorders, such as the difficulty of detecting abstinence using standard breath alcohol test procedures and the difficulty of asking participants to come in for urine alcohol testing three times a week.

Janessa Graves (PI) – College of Nursing
University of Washington/US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration
“Group concept mapping to identify community needs for youth suicide prevention”
This project will use web-based group concept mapping (GCM) with community members in Stevens County to address rising youth suicide rates and community concerns. The purpose of this project is to identify local training needs for youth suicide prevention interventions.

Doreen Hauser-Lindstrom (PI) – WSU Extension Youth & Families
Spokane Regional Health District/US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services
“SNAP-Ed FY21-23 Region 1 Stevens, Ferry, Pend Oreille Counties”
This award funds Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-Ed) programming in Washington State’s Stevens, Ferry, and Pend Oreille Counties. SNAP-Ed is a federal program funded through the Farm Bill that supports evidence-based nutrition education and obesity prevention in individuals and families eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance. WSU staff deliver SNAP-Ed through local county extension offices. Goals include improving dietary quality, food resource management, and physical activity in low-income individuals, families, and youth.

Katherine Hirchak (PI); Michael McDonell – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Seattle Indian Health Board
“UIHI/WSU staff assignment agreement”
This agreement provides funds for Katherine Hirchak to provide her time and expertise toward a research project undertaken by the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI). Under the mentorship of Michael McDonell, Hirchak will lead the research, which involves a study to examine adherence to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) among urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adults. She will also provide workshops and webinars for UIHI staff, interns, fellows, and other interested individuals and work with UIHI to disseminate the study’s findings.

Weimin Li (PI) – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Elsa U. Pardee Foundation
“The effect of metabolic lactate depletion on breast cancer regression”
Lactate—one of the substances produced by cells as the body turns food into energy—has been suggested as an energy source for cancer cells and associated with cancer spread and poor survival of cancer patients. Inhibiting lactate has been proposed as a potential cancer treatment, but drugs targeting cancer cellular molecules have rarely showed convincing efficiencies due to the heterogeneity of tumor tissue. So far, little is known about the levels of lactate secreted from cancer cells in native tumors and the effect of clearing lactate from tumor tissue on the progression of cancer. This study will build on earlier findings in breast cancer cells to test the hypothesis that lactate secreted by cancer cells is essential for tumor growth and that depleting the lactate will halt cancer progression and clear the abnormal tissue. If successful, this study may ultimately lead to new treatment approaches to cure breast cancer and other types of cancers.

Luis Manriquez (PI); Michael McDonell – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Better Health Together
“Community Health Transformation Collaborative”
This award funds the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine’s role as a partnering provider in transformation planning efforts as part of a Community Health Transformation Collaborative within an Accountable Community of Health (ACH). ACHs promote health equity and address and coordinate around social determinants of health. As part of this agreement, WSU will work with other collaborative member organizations on a behavioral health project, recruit college faculty and staff to complete an equity assessment, and help Better Health Together develop an equity statement and organizational trainings around health equity.

Bhagwat Prasad (PI) – College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
American College of Clinical Pharmacy
“Association of steroidal urinary metabolites in adolescent polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)”
The ultimate goal of this project is to find a biomarker or a panel of biomarkers for diagnosing polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal disorder that causes enlarged ovaries with small cysts on the outer edges. PCOS can lead to infertility and also increases women’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. There is currently no test to definitively diagnose PCOS. As a first step towards the broader goal, the researchers will develop a bioanalytical method to quantify a cocktail of steroids in human urine samples. They will validate their method by testing urine samples from 20 PCOS patients and 20 control subjects. It is expected that steroidal metabolites in PCOS samples will be significantly different from those in control samples.

Patrick Solverson (PI) – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Department of Nutrition & Exercise Physiology
University of Vermont/US Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture
“Supporting local agriculture via clinical research: human studies with elderberries to improve biomarkers of obesity”
The clean water act of Vermont will require farmers in the state to follow agricultural practices that may entail creating buffer strips between conventional farm land and watersheds to reduce agricultural runoff and protect downstream watersheds. The University of Vermont’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture has developed a growing guide for the production of elderberry, a plant that produces an edible fruit that could be marketed to consumers. Elderberries are a rich source of anthocyanins, a type of plant pigment that has been studied extensively for its health promoting effects. Recent findings from animal studies suggest that anthocyanin consumption could augment fat burning and improve insulin sensitivity. This study will investigate the potential for elderberry consumption to increase fat burning and improve insulin sensitivity in humans, using overweight or obese volunteers. Positive findings could stimulate consumer interest in elderberries and help drive more farmers to plant elderberries in their buffer strips, which will enhance runoff prevention and improve water quality.

Mark VanDam (PI) – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences
University of Washington/National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
“Literacy Development in Preschoolers with Hearing Loss”
Only 56 percent of children with hearing loss in elementary school and only 44 percent in high school are reading at grade-level. The literacy gap between children with hearing loss and children with normal hearing can be observed early: preschoolers and kindergarteners with hearing loss score significantly lower on early literacy measures than children with normal hearing. This NIH-funded study seeks to identify the mechanisms that underlie literacy development in the preschool years for children with hearing loss, which will help increase the researchers’ theoretical understanding of the impact of hearing loss on early literacy development and may ultimately lead to new interventions to improve literacy outcomes for children with hearing loss. WSU’s contribution to this University of Washington-led study is to lead data collection at the Hearing Oral Program of Excellence (HOPE School) site based at the WSU Health Sciences Spokane campus. In addition, WSU investigator Mark VanDam will assist with the interpretation and dissemination of the study.

AWARDS FOR ONGOING WORK

(Renewal, continued, and supplemental funding for projects awarded previously)

Greg Belenky (PI); Amanda Lamp – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine/Sleep and Performance Research Center
United Airlines
“Fatigue Risk Management System Route Studies”
This is renewal funding for multiple field studies of sleep and performance in pilots flying ultra-long‐range routes in commercial aviation, including routes from the U.S. to cities in Australia, South Africa, and India. Studies will include inflight measurements of sleep using wrist actigraphs; performance using the psychomotor vigilance task; and fatigue and sleepiness through self-report scales. This work supports the airline’s use of fatigue risk management, a nonprescriptive approach to managing flight and duty times.

Naomi Bender (co-PI); Leila Harrison (co-PI) – WSU Health Sciences Spokane; Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Oregon Health Sciences University/Indian Health Service
“INMED RISE: Reimagine IndianS into MedicinE”
This grant provides continued funding for the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine’s INMED RISE: Reimagine IndianS into MedicinE program, which offers access, mentoring, and exposure to American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students interested in health professions. It funds two major program activities: (1) the RISE Summer Academy at WSU Health Sciences Spokane and the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, which is targeted to college-level AI/AN students interested in attending medical school; (2) the WSU expansion of the Wy’East post-baccalaureate program based at Oregon Health & Science University. The College of Medicine will select up to four students for four of the five funding years to participate in the Wy’East program, offering them conditional acceptance upon successful completion.

Dedra Buchwald (PI); Ka’imi Sinclair; Clemma Muller; Robert Rosenman; Amanda Boyd; Amber Fyfe-Johnson – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine/College of Nursing/Community Health/Murrow College of Communication/School of Economic Sciences
National Institutes of Health; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
“Native-Controlling Hypertension and Risk through Technology (Native-CHART)”
This is continued funding for a five-year grant to establish—in partnership with the University of Colorado Denver—a new collaborative research center aimed at reducing health risks related to high blood pressure in U.S. Native populations. The center draws in expertise and solicits input from community organizations, tribes, and researchers across the country to pursue intervention studies that will use technologies. These technologies include electronic medical records, text messaging, wearable physical activity monitors, and home blood pressure monitors.

Dedra Buchwald (PI); Lonnie Nelson; Michael McDonell; Sterling McPherson; Clemma Muller; Robert Rosenman – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine/College of Nursing/Community Health; School of Economic Sciences
National Institutes of Health; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
“Native Center for Alcohol Research and Education”
This award continues a five-year grant that funds the establishment of the Native Center for Alcohol Research and Education at WSU, in partnership with the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Washington. The center will offer research programs to identify and promote effective preventive interventions tailored to Native infants, youth, and adults in urban, rural, and frontier communities. The goal is to reduce the profound alcohol-related health disparities experienced by this underserved population and improve the quality of life of Native people with alcohol use disorders, their families, and their communities.

Dedra Buchwald (PI); Luciana Hebert – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine/Community Health
University of Colorado at Denver/National Institutes of Health; National Institute on Aging
“Native Elder Research Center”
Native elders are at greater risk for numerous acute as well as chronic illnesses, have less access to needed care, and are slower to seek care, leading to complications. This grant provides renewal funding for WSU’s efforts to collaborate with the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD) to close these gaps and increase the participation of Native people in related research through UCD’s Native Elder Research Center.

Dedra Buchwald (PI); Clemma Muller; Robert Rosenman – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine/Community Health/School of Economic Sciences
University of Colorado – Denver/National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health
“Collaborative Hub to Reduce the Burden of Suicide among Urban AI and AN – Suicide Prevention for Urban Natives”
This award renews a contract that supports the development and implementation of a caring communications intervention and randomized trial to reduce suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicide-related hospitalizations among Native youth living in urban areas. The project will also seek to increase social connectedness, as well as promote retention in Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment programs.

Dedra Buchwald (PI); Ka’Imi Sinclair; Astrid Suchy-Dicey; Clemma Muller – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine/College of Nursing/Community Health
University of Colorado – Denver/National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
“American Indian and Alaska Native Health Disparities Center of Excellence”
This is renewal funding for a project to establish the Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Health Disparities, a partnership between the University of Colorado Denver, WSU, and the Southcentral Foundation. It provides funds for WSU investigators to help manage the center’s overall efforts, engage in community engagement with American Indian and Alaskan Native partners in the region, and disseminate research findings. In addition, it funds WSU’s role in two research projects: One project uses data from the Strong Heart Study and Cerebrovascular Disease and its Consequences in American Indians study to evaluate associations between cognitive function and Alzheimer’s disease risk factors and biomarkers in American Indians. The other project, which is being conducted in partnership with the University of Arizona, is to create culturally tailored materials on Alzheimer’s disease and precision medicine for American Indians and Alaska Natives enrolled in the All of Us Research Program, an NIH-funded program to improve treatment and prevention strategies based on people’s individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and genetics.

Naomi Chaytor (PI) – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
University of North Carolina/National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research
“Prediction of Functional Outcomes from Chronic Critical Illness”
This is continued funding for WSU’s assistance in a multicenter study to measure risk factors for long-term physical and cognitive dysfunction in chronic critical illness. A substantial number of critically ill patients experience persistent organ failure leading to chronic critical illness. The majority of these patients die within a year. Many survivors must cope with severe, long‐term physical and cognitive limitations, which present a significant clinical, emotional, and economic burden. The subcontract provides funding for Chaytor to oversee cognitive and functional outcomes from the study. The project will provide new tools for patients and clinicians to understand chronic critical illness, informing bedside decision making and future medical and resource interventions for this extremely high‐risk patient group.

John Clarke (PI); Mary Paine; John White; Sterling McPherson – College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences; Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
National Institutes of Health; National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
“Risk of xenobiotic-drug interactions in chronic disease”
Milk thistle is a herbal supplement that may interact with many drugs and is widely used by patients with different liver disorders, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This award provides an increase in funds for a research project to determine the risk of milk thistle-drug interactions in healthy study participants and NAFLD patients. The goal of the work is to predict and avoid any drug toxicities that may result from the use of milk thistle in combination with conventional drugs.

Jason Gerstner (PI); William Vanderheyden; Christopher Davis – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences
“Characterizing evolutionarily conserved mechanisms underlying sleep, clocks, and memory”
Scientists have long been working toward understanding the function of sleep. Adaptive processes, such as synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory, are sensitive to sleep loss, which may provide important clues for identifying the physiological function of sleep. Cellular and molecular processes that are critical for sleep function within nervous tissue also may not be restricted to neurons, but may include glial cells, which are known to regulate metabolism, sleep, and cognitive function. Changes in the interactions between neurons and glial cells, particularly around synapses related to activity- and energy-dependent demands during wakefulness, are key sites to investigate the functional aspects of sleep. This award continues funding for a project in which the researchers will conduct studies in evolutionarily diverse species that integrate the 24-hour rhythm of rest-activity cycles with changes in sleep need. The goal is to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie activity-dependent changes in synaptic activity, are sensitive to sleep, are critical for cognitive function, and are conserved across different species.

Janessa Graves (PI) – College of Nursing
University of Washington/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“Injury Health-related Equity across the Lifespan (iHeal)”
This award provides continued funding for WSU faculty to offer expertise and support to an Injury Control Research Center at the University of Washington-affiliated Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center. The center is focused on injury prevention related to prescription opioids, suicide, falls among older adults, and pediatric concussions. The WSU team will support the new center’s research core, and the PI will also serve as co-investigator on a project evaluating state policies and suicide training.

Doreen Hauser-Lindstrom (PI) – WSU Extension Youth & Families
WA State Dept. of Social and Health Services/US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services
“SNAP-Ed WSU Statewide Support FY21-23”
This award provides continued funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-Ed) programming in Washington State. SNAP-Ed is a federal program funded through the Farm Bill that supports evidence-based nutrition education and obesity prevention in individuals and families eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance. WSU staff deliver SNAP-Ed through local county extension offices. Goals include improving dietary quality, food resource management, and physical activity in low-income individuals, families, and youth.

Georgina Lynch (PI); Sterling McPherson – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Dept. of Speech & Hearing Sciences
Washington Research Foundation
“PLR Biometrics & Hand-held Technology for Non-Invasive ASD Screening”
This is supplemental funding for a study that will examine the pupillary light reflex in young children to help health care providers identify autism spectrum disorder (ASD) early during routine healthcare visits. The researchers will develop handheld technology that will use measurements of the pupillary light reflex as a noninvasive way to screen for ASD. The work is based on an earlier finding from a study led by Lynch that found that the pupils of children with ASD take longer to constrict when exposed to light than in neurotypical children. The new tool will help pediatric medical teams effectively screen for ASD and get children with ASD into early intervention treatment, which has the potential to improve outcomes.

Michael McDonell (PI); Oladunni Oluwoye – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Washington State Department of Social and Health Services/National Institutes of Health; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
“First Episode Psychosis Evaluation”
This is renewal funding for a grant that funds activities related to the evaluation of the Washington State Department of Behavioral Health and Recovery’s first episode psychosis New Journeys program in Yakima County. The first episode psychosis New Journeys program was launched to enhance the recognition of early signs and symptoms of psychosis so that effective treatment can be started promptly. WSU led the quantitative evaluation of the program and worked with the University of Washington to conduct the qualitative evaluation. This supplement pays for the development of materials to disseminate the evaluation findings, such as a website, brochures, flyers, and videos.

Michael McDonell (PI) – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
University of California San Francisco/ National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
“Interventions to reduce alcohol use and increase adherence to TB preventive therapy amount HIV/TB co-infected drinkers”
People with HIV worldwide are at a higher risk of being infected with tuberculosis (TB). That risk is three times as high in those with HIV who are heavy drinkers, compared to non-drinkers. Six months of isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) has been shown to reduce TB and mortality by 30 to 50 percent above the positive impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART), however there are issues related to liver toxicity and poor adherence to ART and IPT in those who drink. This award funds a continuing study that investigates whether use of economic incentives to reduce alcohol use can decrease toxicity and increase IPT completion. The study will look at 800 individuals in Uganda with HIV and TB infection and heavy alcohol use. The study will compare changes in alcohol use and IPT adherence after six months across four randomized participant groups: participants in the control group will not receive any incentives. One group will receive economic incentives for decreasing alcohol use only; another will receive economic incentives for IPT adherence only; and a final group will receive economic incentives for both decreasing alcohol use and IPT adherence, independently.

Bhagwat Prasad (PI) – College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Washington/National Institutes of Health, Office of the Director
“Prenatal and Early Childhood Pathways to Health (PATHWAYS)”
Asthma, allergies, and mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD are among the most common chronic health problems affecting American children. Evidence has increasingly shown that pregnant women’s exposure to outdoor air pollution, everyday chemicals such as those used in plastics, and stress can affect fetal development and later child health problems. This award continues funding for the PATHWAYS study, which integrates three major cohort studies of pregnant women and their children to learn how pregnancy exposures affect child neurodevelopment and airway health. As part of this project, Dr. Prasad’s laboratory will provide bioanalytical support to the principal investigators at the University of Washington.

Ka’imi Sinclair (PI) – College of Nursing/Community Health
University of Colorado Denver/National Institutes of Health
“Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Diabetes Translation Research (CDTR) – Research”
This is renewal funding for a project to establish a Pacific Northwest satellite center of the Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Diabetes Translation Research, which is based at the University of Colorado Denver. The goal of the main center is to improve the diabetes-related health of American Indian and Alaska Native people by extending prevention and management research of proven efficacy to both clinical and community settings in American Indian/Alaska Native communities. The Pacific Northwest satellite center will engage local tribes in activities aimed at increasing awareness related to diabetes translational research among American Indians and Alaska Natives; organize and sponsor annual regional conferences about diabetes translational research among American Indian and Alaska Native populations; and develop a regional plan for disseminating the work and research findings of the center.

Hans Van Dongen (PI); John Hinson; Paul Whitney – Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine/College of Arts & Sciences/Sleep & Performance Research Center
University of California Davis/National Institutes of Health
“Longitudinal Measurement of the Changing Sleep Need in Adolescence”
This award continues subcontract funding for an NIH grant awarded to UC Davis for a longitudinal study on the changing sleep need in adolescents. Van Dongen and his colleagues will assist in analyzing and interpreting daytime performance data.

Boyang Wu (PI); Lucia Peixoto; Philip Lazarus – College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences/Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute
“MAOA and AR Reciprocal Crosstalk in Prostate Cancer”
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. The primary driver of prostate cancer growth is androgen receptor, which regulates male hormones such as testosterone. The main treatment for prostate cancer currently consists of androgen deprivation therapy, which reduces testosterone to very low levels. In more than 90 percent of cases, prostate cancer initially responds to this therapy but will eventually relapse and progress into fatal castrate-resistant prostate cancer, which grows despite low testosterone levels. This award provides continued funding for a study that will look at a new molecular target for treating advanced prostate cancer: monoamine oxidase A (MAOA). The researchers have identified a reciprocal relationship between MAOA and androgen receptor in prostate cancer cells. Based on their findings, they will determine the molecular mechanism by which MAOA and androgen receptor interact in prostate cancer cells; characterize the role of MAOA in the development and progression of castrate-resistant prostate cancer; and determine the efficacy of MAOA inhibitor drugs for treating castrate-resistant prostate cancer and reversing cancer cell resistance to the latest generation of antiandrogen drugs. The study may provide a basis for developing new combination therapeutic strategies for advanced prostate cancer.