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Research Grants

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded grants of $1 million or more to members of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School faculty, including:

Moshmi M. Bhattacharya, PhD, associate professor of medicine, a four-year, $2.1 million R01 grant for “Hepatic fat accumulation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: critical regulation by kisspeptin signaling.”

Detlev Boison, PhD, professor and vice chair of research and training, Department of Neurosurgery, a five-year, $3.4 million R01 grant for “Therapies for epilepsy prevention – focus on adenosine.”

Lawrence Kleinman, MD, MPH, professor and vice chair for academic development, Department of Pediatrics, a four-year, $30 million grant for the Collaborative Long-term study of Outcomes of COVID-19 in Kids (CLOCK) consortium. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School will serve as a national hub for pediatric sites as part of the NIH’s $450 million RECOVER initiative to study long-term and delayed impacts of COVID-19 in children and lead a national collaboration to investigate these outcomes.

Sharon Manne, PhD, professor of medicine at the medical school and Rutgers Cancer Institute, with Carolyn Heckman, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the medical school and Rutgers Cancer Institute, a five-year, $3.1 million R01 grant for “A digital intervention to improve skin self-examination among melanoma survivors.”

Zhiping Pang, MD, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience and cell biology at the medical school’s Child Health Institute of New Jersey, a five-year, $2.4 million R01 grant for “Synaptic and circuit mechanisms of central GLP-1 signaling in energy balance.” Dr. Pang also received a five-year, $2.6 million renewal of his R01 grant for “Cellular and genomic mechanisms of the impact of ethanol on human neural model.”

Michael B. Steinberg, MD, MPH, professor and chief, Division of General Internal Medicine; director, Tobacco Dependence Program; and vice chair for research, together with Carolyn Heckman, PhD, associate professor of medicine, and colleagues at University of Minnesota School of Public Health, a four-year, $2.6 million R01 grant for “Evaluating cigarette relighting behavior: Prevalence, correlates, toxicant exposure, and implications for cessation.”

Grants of $1 million or more from other sources include:

Sandra Hill, executive director/CEO, Eric B. Chandler Health Center, a continuation award of more than $3.3 million this year from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration; total award amounts to more than $14.8 million.

Published Research

The following is a representative sample of articles by Robert Wood Johnson Medical School researchers, recently published in leading biomedical journals:

Moshmi Bhattacharya, PhD, associate professor of medicine; Andy V. Babwah, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics; and Fredric E. Wondisford, MD, professor and chair, Department of Medicine, were co-senior authors of “Targeting hepatic kisspeptin receptor ameliorates nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in a mouse model,” published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation 2022 Mar 29;132(10): e145889.

Barrie Cohen, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, was first author of “Skin Testing Is Useful in Assessing Aeroallergen Sensitization in IgE Deficient Patients with Environmental Allergy-Like Symptoms,” published in American Journal of Rhinology & Allergy 2022 Jan 21:194589242110 73850. (Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35060394.)

Members of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Division of Research, authored “Experiences of Black and Latinx health care workers in support roles during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study,” published in PLoS One 2022 Jan 18;17(1):e0262606.

Leonard Y. Lee, MD, professor and chair, Department of Surgery, was corresponding author, in conjunction with colleagues from the Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, of “Outcomes of minimally invasive aortic valve replacement in patients with obese body mass indices,” published in the Journal of Cardiac Surgery 2022 Jan;37(1):117-123.

Vikas Nanda, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, was corresponding author of “Computational design of a sensitive, selective phase-changing sensor protein for the VX nerve agent,” published in Science Advances 2022 Jul 8;8(27):eabh3421. (Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35857443)

Zhiping Pang, MD, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience and cell biology and member, Child Health Institute of New Jersey (CHINJ), co-authored “Type-I-interferon signaling drives microglial dysfunction and senescence in human iPSC models of Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease,” published in Cell Stem Cell 2022 Jul 7;29(7):1135-1153.

Maya Ramagopal, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, was corresponding author, in conjunction with colleagues from the medical school’s Department of Pediatrics and Department of Radiology, of “E-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury (EVALI) in the time of COVID-19: A clinical dilemma,” published in Pediatric Pulmonology 2022 Mar;57(3):623-630.

Derek Sant’Angelo, PhD, professor of pediatrics and associate director of basic science, CHINJ, was corresponding author, in conjunction with CHINJ researchers, of “Zbtb20 identifies and controls a thymus-derived population of regulatory T cells that play a role in intestinal homeostasis,” published in Science Immunology 2022 May 6;7(71):eabf3717.

This selection of grants and publications was compiled with the assistance of the Office of Research.