NIDDK Grant Awarded to KU Professor

LAWRENCE – A University of Kansas Professor recently received a 3-year National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) R01 grant totaling more than $ 1.1 million to study the “Roles for Adenomatous polyposis coli in colon injury prevention and wound healing”. The R01 is the original grant mechanism used by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to support health-related research and development in the awardee’s scientific area of expertise that fall within the mission of a particular NIH institute.

Kristi Neufeld Ph.D. is the Frank B. Tyler Professor of Cancer Research in the department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Kansas. Her research is focused on determining the roles of APC, or Adenomatous Polyposis Coli, in colon cancer suppression. More recently, Neufeld’s research team uncovered new functions for APC that relate to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic condition characterized by destruction and replacement of the cells lining the intestine.

Through this grant, Dr. Neufeld aims to identify mechanisms by which nuclear APC protein promotes mucosal healing through wound repair, and restoration of the protective mucus layer. Insight from this work can serve as the basis for future design of novel therapeutic strategies for inflammatory bowel diseases.

“An estimated 1.6 million Americans currently have IBD, which significantly affects their quality of life and increases their risk for colon cancer. I am elated that the NIH recognizes the value in pursuing our IBD-related project! Though I have been studying the APC protein for over two decades, inflammation and wound-repair are newer areas of investigation. I appreciate pilot funding from the KU Cancer Center, HBC, the KU Center for Genomics and K-INBRE which supported our collection of preliminary data. The NIDDK grant will enable me and the students in my lab to expand our research approach as we focus our efforts on an intriguing and relevant research subject.” 

Neufeld is joined by Yoshi Azuma, a professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at KU and collaborator on this NIDDK grant.