NIH Awards OU College of Medicine $10.7 Million to Advance Sensory Biology Research

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OKLAHOMA CITY – The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine has been awarded a five-year, $10.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the Oklahoma Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Sensory Biology. The center will serve as a hub for research into how cells sense and respond to their environment and the diseases that can occur when that process malfunctions.

The highly competitive grant, from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, is a COBRE (Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence) award. Its primary goal is to strengthen biomedical research programs by expanding research infrastructure and supporting the careers of early-stage investigators in states that have historically received less NIH funding. Twenty-three states are eligible for this mechanism of support.

Leonidas Tsiokas, Ph.D., professor and chair of the college’s Department of Cell Biology, will lead the work of the grant. Researchers will study how cells sense their environment by using laboratory models ranging from roundworms and algae to mice and human tissue. A major focus will be on cilia – tiny, hair-like structures protruding from the cells that act like microscopic antennas, allowing cells to sense and receive important signals. Defects in cilia have been linked to nearly every organ in the body and more than 40 diseases, including polycystic kidney disease, congenital heart disease, obesity, scoliosis, neuronal malformations and some types of cancer.

“A lot of major diseases are associated with the well-being of that little hair-like structure,” Tsiokas said. “This is a relatively unexplored niche of research, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of it.”

The COBRE grant provides funding and mentorship to four junior researchers in the College of Medicine. The researchers and their projects are:

• Lea Bennett, Ph.D., Department of Ophthalmology, who studies mechanisms of retinal degeneration.
• Julie Craft Van De Weghe, Ph.D., Department of Cell Biology, who studies a neurodevelopmental condition called Joubert Syndrome.
• Rosalia Paterno, M.D., Department of Neurosurgery, who studies cilia dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
• Xinxing Zhang, Ph.D., Department of Cell Biology, who studies how cells detect and regulate copper.

The COBRE award will also fund two research equipment cores – shared research facilities that provide specialized technologies too expensive for individual laboratories to maintain on their own. The Super-Resolution Imaging Core will provide researchers with sophisticated imaging techniques to visualize cells that are just a few nanometers apart. The Cell and Genetic Engineering Core will give researchers access to advanced tools to better understand how genes and proteins function in healthy cells and in disease.

Tsiokas estimates that the Department of Cell Biology has the highest concentration of cilia researchers of any institution in the country. Only in the past 20 years has the scientific community realized the importance of cilia in human health and disease.

“Cilia throughout the body have their own ways of sensing and responding to their surroundings,” he said. “Every part of the body depends on these signaling systems to function properly. We plan to build on discoveries that have already been made and ultimately hope to uncover new biological mechanisms that could lead to better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat a wide range of illnesses.”