Medicine

Enterococcus faecalis is a hospital-associated opportunistic pathogen that causes infections with high morbidity and mortality. An increasing occurrence of multidrug-resistant enterococci has driven the need for alternative treatment strategies to combat these pathogens. In this proposal, we describe the isolation and characterization of an unusual gentamicin hypersusceptible E. faecalis strain that was cultured from a patient with infective endocarditis. We performed an in vitro resistance selection with this E. faecalis strain to generate one-step (i.e.

Access to high-quality post-intensive care unit (ICU) recovery services is a major problem for thousands of older Americans living in rural communities who survive critical illness each year. They and their families often experience uncoordinated care, poor health, reduced independence and quality of life, and high ongoing healthcare utilization. Any scalable solution will require the flexibility to address multimorbidity, physical, cognitive, and psychological dysfunction, caregiver stress, and end-of-life transitions, all of which are common.

Potassium [K+]-­deficient diets have to the global epidemic of hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Given the low cost and ease of increasing dietary [K+], more research is needed to understand how [K+] imbalance leads to these diseases. The kidneys handle 90% of [K+], and the distal convoluted DCT) acts as a [K+] sensor via the WNK-­SPAK (With-­No-­Lysine/Ste20/SPS-­1-­related proline-­alanine-­rich protein kinase) pathway.

The development of large observational health databases (OHD) has expanded the data available for analysis by pharmacoepidemiology research. The efficiency of these studies may be improved by simultaneously studying the association of multiple medications with a disease of interest. Unfortunately, prior research has demonstrated that it is difficult to distinguish true-positive from false-positive results when studying multiple exposures simultaneously, thus limiting the conclusions drawn from these types of studies and representing a major gap in the field.

Sepsis is a critical illness syndrome characterized by infection leading to life-threatening organ failure. Affecting over 200,000 individuals in the United States each year, sepsis accounts for nearly half of all hospital deaths and over $20 billion in yearly US hospital costs. Despite the development and dissemination of evidence-based guidelines, most patients with sepsis do not consistently receive recommended care, resulting in preventable morbidity and mortality.

This application requests partial funding for the Second Pittsburgh Rust Belt Microbiome (RBM) Conference 2022. For the Second RBM Conference, we intend to leverage the strength, successes and lessons learned from the first conference held in 2019 with an exciting and forward-thinking program featuring a focus on mechanistic studies of the microbiome through cutting-edge basic and translational research and new developments in the role of the microbiome in infectious disease, clinical science, and personalized medicine.

Our overarching goal is to develop minimally invasive approaches to better predict outcome and novel mechanisms in post-liver transplant (LT) NASH fibrosis. Although LT is an effective therapy for NAFLD cirrhosis, the risk of post-transplant NAFLD is alarmingly high, particularly for recurrent non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with an incidence of up to 70% at 5 years. Effective approaches to predict risk hamper the treatment and prevention of post-LT NASH fibrosis.

Lay Abstract: Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic cancer, killing one U.S. woman every 38 minutes. Early, relentless spread of cancer cells, known as metastasis, is what makes ovarian cancer so deadly. Metastasis is also responsible for the significant symptoms associated with ovarian cancer. Women suffer from nausea, vomiting, malnutrition, pain and bowel obstructions due to cancer cells growing on and within abdominal organs. The ability to stop ovarian cancer metastasis promises to significantly help women with ovarian cancer live better and longer lives.

Ovarian cancer claims the life of one U.S. woman every 38 minutes. Ovarian cancer is a “silent killer,” causing only vague symptoms until the disease has widely spread, making it difficult to cure. When ovarian cancer is caught before it spreads, 90% of women are cured, while only 30% of women survive ovarian cancer once it has spread. Early diagnosis is the key to curing ovarian cancer. To date, there are no effective early diagnostic tests, and the only prevention strategy is surgical removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes leading to loss of fertility and early-onset menopause.

Scientific Objective: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a disease where our immune system—which normally protects us from infection—turns inward and injures our organs. In particular, SSc—also known as scleroderma—causes “fibrosis” or scarring in our organs. When our organs are scarred, they do not function normally. The interest in our laboratory is to understand scarring in the lung or “pulmonary fibrosis” caused by SSc. Scarring develops when cells called fibroblasts synthesize proteins known as collagens.