Principal investigator (PI): Mary Charlton, professor, epidemiology, College of Public Health 

Rural areas have a higher proportion of cancer survivors compared to urban areas, but they also have less access to survivorship care. Charlton’s team seeks to establish the UI as a leader in rural cancer survivorship research to better serve the needs of cancer survivors in Iowa and beyond.   

Funding will bring together a team of investigators at UI and the University of New Mexico to develop ideas for an large federal  proposal focused on multi-level approaches to supporting cancer survivorship care in rural areas. 

The core UI team currently includes:  

• Jessica Gorzelitz, assistant professor, health, sport, and human physiology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS)
• Heather Schacht Reisinger, professor, internal medicine, Carver College of Medicine
• Aaron Seaman, assistant professor, internal medicine, Carver College of Medicine
• Whitney Zahnd, assistant professor, health management and policy, College of Public Health
• Bingbing Zhang, assistant professor, journalism and mass communication, CLAS 

The University of New Mexico team includes: 

• Prajakta Adsul, associate professor, internal medicine, School of Medicine
• Cindy Blair, associate professor, internal medicine, School of Medicine
• Sarah Nash, associate professor, internal medicine, School of Medicine
• Andrew Sussman, professor, family medicine, School of Medicine
• Charles Wiggins, professor, internal medicine, School of Medicine 

PI: Inyong Choi, associate professor, communication sciences and disorders, CLAS  

Choi’s team is developing interventions for age- and disease-related sensorimotor deficits, such as hearing loss or motor control loss due to Parkinson’s disease, stroke, or aging. With the goal of improving rehabilitation outcomes, their work focuses on closed-loop neuromodulation approaches that use real-time EEG to identify optimal brain states and precisely timed therapeutic stimulation or behavioral training. 

The  team also currently includes:  

Carver College of Medicine 

• Aaron Boes, professor of pediatrics, neurology, psychiatry
• Jeremy Greenlee, professor, neurosurgery
• Nicholas Trapp, assistant professor, psychiatry 

CLAS: 

• Sara Hussain, assistant professor, health, sport, and human physiology
• Mili Kuruvilla-Dugdale, associate professor, communication sciences and disorders
• Jan Wessel, Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family chair, psychological and brain science 

PI: Vikas Dudeja, E. A. Crowell, Jr. Professor and Chair, surgery, Carver College of Medicine 

Currently, most patients fail to meaningfully benefit from cancer immunotherapy treatments, in part because researchers do not yet fully understand the biological processes through which these therapies work. Dudeja’s team is investigating how gut microbiome influences cancer immunotherapy to improve the effectiveness of these treatments. Growing evidence suggests that bacteria in the gut regulate the immune system and antitumor immunity.  

Dudeja’s team plans to study microbiome-immune interactions in mice before moving to a clinical trial with humans.  

The Carver College of Medicine team currently includes: 

• Juan Antonio Raygoza Garay, research specialist in bioinformatics
• Srikanth Iyer, assistant professor, surgery
• Ashutosh Mangalam, professor, pathology
• Eric B. Taylor, professor, molecular physiology and biophysics

PI: Korey Kennelty, Patrick E. Keefe Professor in Pharmacy, Carver College of Medicine

Kennelty’s team is working to expand cancer screenings, particularly for people living in rural and underserved communities. The researchers are building community partnerships — including community pharmacists who are among the most accessible health care professionals in the United States — to support large clinical trials. Through this effort, they are developing Iowa BRIDGE, an infrastructure designed to more efficiently study and implement screenings for human papillomavirus (HPV), colorectal cancer, and lung cancer. 

Other core team members from UI include:  

• Jen Van Tiem, research assistant professor of family and community medicine, Carver College of Medicine
• Emily Sadecki, clinical assistant professor of family and community medicine, Carver College of Medicine
• Jill Kolesar, dean, College of Pharmacy
• Brian Smith, professor, biostatistics, College of Public Health

PI: Susan Shen, assistant professor, psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine  

Shen’s team is laying the groundwork for a research center focused on better understanding creativity, which the field has struggled to define. The team is harnessing the university’s unique combination of strengths — including the writing community, the Belin-Blank Center, and the Carver College of Medicine — to study the biological foundations of creativity, if individuals can be temporarily shifted into more creative states, and how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) shapes the creative process.   

The team includes the following faculty from multiple colleges: 

• Deirdre Egan, associate director, rhetoric, College of Liberal Arts and Science
• Megan Foley Nicpon, professor, counseling psychology, College of Education, and director, Belin-Blank Center
• Serena “Banu” Gumusoglu, assistant professor, obstetrics and gynecology, Carver College of Medicine
• Jiefeng Jiang, associate professor, psychological and brain sciences, CLAS
• Kishlay Jha, assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering, College of Engineering
• Vince Magnotta, professor, radiology, Carver College of Medicine
• Jacob Michaelson, professor, psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine
• Chooza Moon, Marcia and Ralph Congdon associate professor, College of Nursing
• Mark Niciu, assistant professor, psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine
• Peggy Nopoulos, chair and DEO, psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine
• Isaac Petersen, associate professor, psychological and brain sciences, CLAS
• Daniel Tranel, F. Wendell Miller Professor, psychological and brain sciences, CLAS
• Melissa Tully, professor and CLAS collegiate scholar, and DEO, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, CLAS
• John Wemmie, professor, psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine
• Shaoping Xiao, professor, mechanical engineering, College of Engineering 

PI: Maria Spies, professor, biochemistry, Carver College of Medicine  

This team is investigating a new strategy to prevent ovarian cancer development in people who carry mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 tumor suppressor genes. Ovarian cancer has a high mortality rate and requires harsh, invasive prevention treatments. 

First, the team plans to study the safety of long-term inhibition of a DNA repair protein, RAD52, and how effective its suppression is in preventing the loss of working copies of BRCA alleles in model systems. Then, they will study RAD52 inhibition in ovarian tumors before moving to first-in-human studies to evaluate the safety, dosing, and success of the approach. 

The core team also includes M. Ashley Spies, professor, pharmaceutical sciences and experimental therapeutics, College of Pharmacy, and Kristina Thiel, assistant professor, obstetrics and gynecology, Carver College of Medicine

PI: Kristina Thiel, assistant professor, obstetrics and gynecology, Carver College of Medicine  

Thiel’s team seeks to understand how and what environmental exposures contribute to endometrial cancer, the deadliest gynecologic cancer. The researchers plan to first identify the environmental and dietary patterns associated with endometrial cancer, then develop a biological map of how these factors affect the disease, and finally create models using real human tissue to understand who is most vulnerable and why.   

The additional team members from the University of Iowa currently includes: 

• Jong Sung Kim, associate professor, toxicology and environmental health, College of Public Health
• Susan Shen, assistant professor, psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine  

PI: Ted Abel, Roy J. Carver Director, Iowa Neuroscience Institute; and DEO, neuroscience and pharmacology, Carver College of Medicine  

Abel’s team seeks to determine whether electrical brain stimulation (eSTIM) can have lasting beneficial effects for neurological and psychiatric disorders, which usually only last up to a few hours, and what role non-nerve cells play in mediating these effects. Using this information, they can begin to develop scalable therapies using eSTIM and ultrasound stimulation that stimulate nerves and normalize neural activity over the long term.  

The team is targeting two large federal grants. 

The core UI team also includes:  

• Snehajyoti Chatterjee, assistant professor, neuroscience and pharmacology, Carver College of Medicine
• Jacob Michaelson, Roy J. Carver Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Carver College of Medicine
• Isabel Muzzio, Ronnie Ketchel Professor, psychological and brain sciences, CLAS
• Chris Petkov, professor and vice chair for research, neurosurgery, Carver College of Medicine

PI: Christopher Ahern, professor, molecular physiology and biophysics, Carver College of Medicine 

This collaborative research team from the Carver College of Medicine is poised to advance human understanding of how the proteins that facilitate electrical signaling in the heart affect irregular heart rates, which can be deadly, and potentially develop therapies that save lives. 

The team developed a method to better study the proteins that signal the heart to beat. This method revealed unexpected complexity in the structure of proteins called sodium channels, the “gates” that let electricity flow into heart cells. The team identified a version of these channels that were thought to exist only in the brain. Preliminary data suggest that the activity of these channels in the heart can trigger an irregular heartbeat, giving the team a target for future therapies.  

They will use the grant funds to apply for a large federal grant of $1.75 million per year for up to five years. 

The core University of Iowa team from the Carver College of Medicine also includes: 

• Barry London, professor, internal medicine
• Detlef Obal, associate professor, anesthesia

PI: Aaron Boes, professor of pediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine 

Boes’ team is investigating if a new pattern of brain stimulation delivery, called 100 Hz theta burst stimulation, is better at inducing neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to “rewire” itself so people can learn new things or recover from brain disorders. A similar pattern of brain stimulation is used at a lower frequency as a treatment for depression, but the higher frequency could be more effective.  

The team plans to study this pattern of brain stimulation using different types of brain stimulation, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), focused ultrasound, and electrical brain stimulation. They are poised to be the first group to study this promising treatment in people.   

They plan to submit a proposal for a large grant from the National Institutes of Health focused on first-in-human and early-stage clinical trials.   

The core UI team also includes:  

• Jing Jiang, assistant professor, psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine
• Sara Hussain, assistant professor, health, sport, and human physiology, CLAS
• Chris Petkov, professor of neurosurgery and vice chair for research, neurosurgery, Carver College of Medicine
• Nicholas Trapp, assistant professor of psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine

PI: Tori Forbes, professor, chemistry, CLAS 

Forbes’ group is developing a radiochemistry discovery platform, FACET, that uses AI to better translate research and learning on radioactive substitutes, similar non- or low radioactive elements, to the study of actual radioactive substances. Their goal is to improve student productivity and speed up scientific discoveries, turning UI into a powerhouse for AI and radiochemical research. 

The team will use the awarded funds to apply to a Department of Energy, Energy Frontier Research Center award. 

UI members of the team include:  

• Joe Gomes, assistant professor, chemical engineering, College of Engineering
• Pere Miro, associate professor, chemistry, CLAS
• Bess Vlaisavljevich, associate professor, chemistry, CLAS
• Weiran Wang, assistant professor, computer sciences, CLAS 

Researchers from other organizations include: 

• James Blakemore, associate professor, chemistry, University of Kansas
• Karah Knope, professor, chemistry, Georgetown University
• Sara Mason, group leader, theory and computation, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
• Richard Wilson, actinide, geosciences, and separation science team lead, Argonne National Laboratory
• Ping Yang, Staff Scientist in the Physics and Chemistry of Materials Group of the Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory

PI: Fatima Toor, professor and Lowell G. Battershell Endowed Chair in laser engineering, College of Engineering