Recent ACBS Grant Funding Highlights
July 21, 2022
The hard work of ACBS Faculty has been recognized in recent grant funding.
Placental Insufficiency and Beta-Cell Function
Dr. Sean Limesand, a professor in ACBS, has been awarded $2,398,682 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study the “Prevention of Placental Insufficiency Improves Beta-Cells Function”.
The placenta is the highly specialized organ that forms during pregnancy to provide oxygen and nutrients to the growing fetus. Insufficient placental function can cause the insulin-releasing cells in the fetal pancreas to fail due to low oxygen and nutrition conditions.
Limesand, along with co-investigator, Dr. Ravi Goyal, will use this project to test approaches that lead to correcting low oxygen and nutrient conditions in the fetus and, thus, prevent pancreas dysfunction in the fetus.
The Role of Blood Flow in Heat Stress
Principal Investigator, Dr. Benjamin Renquist, has been awarded $650,000 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Dr. Renquist will investigate “The Role of Blood Flow in Heat Stress Hypophagia and Hypogalactia” with fellow UArizona co-investigators, Drs. Sean Limesand (ACBS) and Paulo Pires (Physiology).
Heat stress decreases the profitability and efficiency of the U.S. animal production industry. Heat exposure shifts blood flow toward the skin and away from internal organs decreasing feed efficiency and milk production. Cooling strategies can reduce heat exposure however are highly dependent on water and energy. Global climate change demands that we find water and energy independent strategies to limit production losses caused by heat.
This project is focused on restoring normal blood flow to the digestive tract and mammary gland to increase feed intake and milk production in heat exposed animals.
Live Biotherapeutic Anti-Infective for Clostridioides difficile
Clostridioides difficile can cause life-threatening diarrhea, and C. difficile Infections (CDIs) are dominant in both healthcare and community settings. Currently, antibiotics are the only fully FDA-approved treatment for CDI, but they are associated with persistent gut dysbiosis, and therefore, recurrent C. difficile infections in a significant proportion of patients. There are no licensed vaccines to prevent CDIs.
Principal Investigator, Dr. Gayatri Vedantam, has been awarded $408,653 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for work on “A Bio-controlled, Microbiota-Sparing, Live Biotherapeutic Anti-Infective for Clostridioides difficile”.
In this project, Dr. Vedantam proposes to refine an orally-administered, live biotherapeutic that was previously developed by her lab. The new anti-infective agent will prevent CDI in a multi-pronged manner highlighted by both niche occupancy (colonization resistance) as well as adaptive immunity (oral vaccine) against the pathogen and its toxins. Further, and via a precisely-engineered “kill-switch”, the technology will not engender either extensive dysbiosis or drug resistance attendant with antibiotic use.
Additional Recent ACBS Grants: Jan 1 to March 31, 2022
Sponsor: University of Connecticut
Title: Evaluation of Genomic Selection for Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease Survival and Resistance in White Pacific Shrimp: Genomic Prediction and Genome-Wide Association Study
PI: Arun K. Dhar
Project amount: $223,289
Sponsor: John Ewing Company
Title: JEC Supplement Trial
PI: Elaine Norton
Project amount: $117,856
Sponsor: Center for the Advancement of Science in Space
Title: 4-H Multi-State Space Exploration Consortium (4-H MSSEC)
PI: Gerardo U. Lopez
Project amount: $66,145
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: Natural Plant-Made Antimicrobials for Novel Sanitation & Water Reduction
PI: Bibiana Law
Project amount: $50,000
Sponsor: Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Title: Influenza and Zoonoses Education among Youth in Agriculture
PI: Renee Carstens with Betsy Greene (Co-PI)
Project amount: $50,000
Sponsor: Arizona Department of Agriculture
Title: Arizona Livestock Incident Response Team
PI: Betsy Greene
Project amount: $36,000
Sponsor: National 4-H Council
Title: Designing a Virtual Farming System with XR
PI: Gerardo U. Lopez
Project amount: $16,000
Sponsor: Scripps Research Institute
Title: Pharmacokinetics Study of Test Compounds in Calves Exposed or not Exposed to C. Parvum
PI: Michael W. Riggs
Project amount: $7,456