Going All-In on Answers

The National Institute on Aging awarded a $45 million grant to David T. Felson (SPH’84) and Tuhina Neogi (SPH’08,’09), professors of medicine and epidemiology, to help identify treatments that reduce the need for knee- and hip-replacement surgeries.

Alexander A. Green, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, is leading a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency study, supported by up to $12.5 million, to analyze biomarkers that assess readiness for physically and mentally challenging tasks, with the goal of developing a rapid, portable saliva test that can help predict performance.

A BU team has won a $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship award. Elise Morgan, College of Engineering dean ad interim and Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design & Innovation; Mary Dunlop, associate professor of biomedical engineering; Christopher Chen, William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor and director of the Biological Design Center; and Ahmad (Mo) Khalil, professor of biomedical engineering, will train a diverse, interdisciplinary group of PhD students over the next five years in the area of biological control, which focuses on understanding and replicating the abilities of living systems to self-regulate and adapt to environmental changes.

A team of researchers led by Darrell Kotton, David C. Seldin Professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine, has been awarded a $14.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to develop stem cell–based therapies for currently incurable genetic lung diseases affecting children and adults, including an inherited form of emphysema, cystic fibrosis, and primary ciliary dyskinesia.

Professor of Psychiatry Casey Taft has been approved for a $2.9 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to conduct a trial of a trauma-informed partner violence intervention program that has proven effective for military veteran populations. Taft will examine its effectiveness for civilian populations.