Wisconsin Partnership Program awards $4.8 million in Collaborative Health Sciences Grants

The new collaborations cover a range of academic disciplines and health issues from developing cancer diagnoses and treatments to treating pulmonary fibrosis, improving burn wound care and treating critically ill newborns.

Through this grant program, the Wisconsin Partnership Program supports novel ideas and new approaches to interdisciplinary research or education advancing health, health care and health equity in Wisconsin and beyond.

Each award provides up to $600,000 over three years. Leveraging a rigorous multi-stage process, WPP’s Partnership Education and Research Committee selected these projects for funding:

Investigating the efficacy of protoporphyrin-based photodynamic therapy in burn wound healing in porcine models

Current burn treatment and care impose significant financial burdens. In Wisconsin this is the third highest health care cost, after premature newborns and organ transplant patients. Slow wound healing, pain and scarring remain the major complications of burn survivors. To address health equity in burn wound care, this research aims to explore whether photodynamic therapy, a low-cost medical technology that can be performed by a non-specialist, can speed up burn healing. The project is also expected to yield important insights into burn wound healing that can be translated to the treatment of other wound types.

Principal Investigator: Angela Gibson, MD, PhD, associate professor, Department of Surgery

Co-Principal Investigator: Brian Pogue, PhD, professor and chair, Department of Medical Physics

Collaborators: Aiping Liu, PhD, research scientist, Department of Surgery

Pan-cancer AI-driven cell-free DNA sequencing platform for reducing disparities in early diagnosis, molecular characterization and surveillance of multiple cancer types

This project aims to address disparities in cancer outcomes by investigating the biology of cancers and the factors that contribute to aggressive cancers or lead to the development of treatment resistance. Researchers will introduce a minimally invasive liquid biopsy testing approach, which is essentially a blood draw, and utilize a new type of testing called fragmentomics to gather more information about a patient’s tumor and patterns of potential treatment resistance or cancer recurrence.

Principal Investigator: Joshua Lang, MD, professor, Department of Medicine

Co-Principal Investigator: Earlise Ward, PhD, professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health; Shuang (George) Zhao, MD, assistant professor, Department of Human Oncology

Collaborators: Amy Taylor, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine

Piloting Badger-Seq: a revolutionary paradigm for the genomic diagnosis of critically ill newborns

Infants born with a rare genetic disorder or birth defect experience high acuity, prolonged hospital stays and a lifetime of health challenges. Molecular diagnosis is key to caring for these infants, and speed is critical. This multidisciplinary team of researchers will use an approach to screening using artificial intelligence and a revolutionary genome sequencing platform to bring state-of-the-art ultra-rapid genome sequencing to infants in hospitals across Wisconsin.

Principal Investigator: Stephen Meyn, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Pediatrics, director of the Center for Human Genomics and Precision Medicine

Co-Principal Investigator: Ryan McAdams, MD, professor, Department of Pediatrics; Donald Basel, MD, professor and section chief, Department of Pediatrics (Genetics), Medical College of Wisconsin

Collaborators: April Hall, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, UW–Madison; Vanessa Horner, PhD, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, UW–Madison; Kim Keppler-Noreuil, MD,  professor, Department of Pediatrics, UW–Madison; Irene Ong, PhD, associate professor; Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, UW–Madison; Xiangqiang Shao, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, UW–Madison; Bryn Webb, MD, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, UW–Madison; Krishna Acharya, MBBS, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin; Ulrich Broeckel, MD, professor, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin; Jessica Scott-Schwoerer, MD, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin; Mark Yandell, PhD, professor, Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah

Preclinical evaluation of a novel theranostic MET-directed variable new antigen receptor (VNAR) single-domain antibody in MET-altered lung cancer

This project aims to develop a novel treatment for non-small cell lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and Wisconsin, by using a unique shark-derived antibody. The goal is to improve treatment outcomes for patients who have an abnormal MET protein and a generally worse prognosis. Researchers will focus on creating a highly targeted therapy that combines radiation with this specialized antibody to attack cancer cells more effectively.

Principal Investigator: Andrew Baschnagel, MD, associate professor, Department of Human Oncology

Co-Principal Investigator: Aaron LeBeau, PhD, associate professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Reinier Hernandez, PhD, assistant professor, Departments of Medical Physics and Radiology

Collaborators: Randall Kimple, MD, PhD, associate professor, Department of Human Oncology; Nina Zitzer, DVM, PhD, DACVP, assistant professor, Department of Pathobiological Sciences, UW School of Veterinary Medicine

Proteomic exploration of lung matrisome in pulmonary fibrosis: role of MRC2

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal lung condition where tissue becomes scarred and hardened, and its prevalence in the United States is increasing. Using cutting edge proteomics and bioinformatics technologies and methodologies, researchers aim to better understand how fibrosis happens in order to find ways to reverse it. The project will lay the groundwork for the development of precise therapeutics tailored to combat fibrotic lung alterations.

Principal Investigator: Lynn Schnapp, MD, professor and chair, Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Co-Principal Investigator: Ying Ge, PhD, professor, Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology

Collaborators: Carole Wilson, PhD, research associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; Irene Ong, PhD, associate professor, Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Biostatistics and Medical Informatics

Synergizing OXPHOS-inhibitors and innate T cell-DC cellular immunotherapy to treat ovarian cancer

This project focuses on developing and testing a new strategy to treat ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is a daunting diagnosis because it is a rapidly progressive and metastatic type of cancer, and most people are diagnosed at a late stage of disease. Researchers will test an approach of using dendritic cells to stimulate patient T cells and induce an anti-tumor immune response in patients with ovarian cancer. This project lays the foundation for potential future clinical trials to test this novel approach to train patients’ own immune cells to find and eradicate their ovarian cancer.

Principal Investigator: Jenny Gumperz, PhD, professor, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology

Co-Principal Investigator: Lisa Barroilhet, MD, associate professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Collaborators: Manish Patankar, PhD, professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Sheena Kerr, PhD, research assistant professor, Carbone Cancer Center

Radiopharmaceutical therapy for leptomeningeal metastatic disease

Patients with leptomeningeal metastatic disease (LMD), the spread of cancer into the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, can exhibit loss of vision, hearing, speech, and facial movement and sensation. If not treated, LMD will typically cause death within weeks. Current standard treatment for patients with LMD involves radiotherapy that treats LMD and normal tissues of the head and spine. This project will investigate a new therapeutic approach that can more effectively and more safely treat patients with LMD to achieve disease control and improve patient survival while limiting dose to normal tissues of the brain and bone.

Principal Investigator: Zachary Morris, MD, PhD, associate professor and chair, Department of Human Oncology

Co-Principal Investigator: Mahua Dey, MD, associate professor, Department of Neurological Surgery

Collaborators: Reinier Hernandez, PhD, assistant professor, Departments of Medical Physics and Radiology; Irene Ong, PhD, associate professor, Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Biostatistics and Medical Informatics; Bryan Bednarz, PhD, professor, Department of Medical Physics

Assessing brain and cardiovascular health during gender-affirming hormone therapy

This research will study brain and cardiovascular health in transgender patients receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy at two timepoints: before hormone therapy begins, and after four to six months of therapy. The goal of the study is to assess links between gender affirming hormone therapy, cardiovascular health and brain structure and function. MRI will be used to analyze brain structure and brain blood flow. Body fat will be assessed by Dual X-ray Absorptiometry and aerobic fitness will be assessed using a treadmill test. This analysis is also relevant to other conditions involving hormone disruptions such as puberty, menopause, pregnancy, aging, postpartum, diabetes and obesity.

Principal Investigator: Vivek Prabhakaran, MD, PhD, professor, Departments of Radiology and Medical Physics

Co-Principal Investigator: William Schrage, PhD, Professor, Department of Kinesiology; Jana Jones, PhD, associate professor, Department of Neurology

Collaborators: Veena Nair, PhD, scientist, Department of Radiology; Oliver Wieben, PhD, professor, Departments of Medical Physics and Radiology; Kevin Johnson, PhD, associate professor, Departments of Medical Physics and Radiology; Jen Rehm, MD, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics; Dawn Davis, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Medicine

The Wisconsin Partnership Program is a grantmaking program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health committed to improving health and advancing health equity through investments in community partnerships, education and research. Since it began making grants in 2004, the Wisconsin Partnership Program has awarded more than $300 million for 636 projects.