Four Pharmacology and Toxicology Professors Awarded Tetrad Research Funding

Published March 1, 2024

Four professors in the MSU Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology have been awarded funding from the inaugural Tetrad Interdisciplinary fund program through the Office of Research and Innovation.

Launched last fall, the Tetrad Initiative was designed to foster new cross-unit and cross-college collaborations among faculty who have not previously worked together. The program's goal is to create new research programs that can apply for and obtain extramural funding.

Each Tetrad is awarded funding of $30,000, with support coming from each primary investigator's home department and college, with a match from the Office of Research and Innovation. In all, 40 teams were selected from over 80 applications. The teams will have 18 months to complete their projects and will present their results at a symposium.

PhmTox awardees and subjects are:

• Novel links between early changes in blood clotting factors and acetaminophen overdose-induced liver damage: James Luyendyk, PhmTox; Bradley Riley, Emergency Medicine; Shawn Jobe, Pediatrics and Human Development.

• Sauna Therapy for Black Americans with High Blood Pressure: Gregory Fink, PhmTox; Katharine Currie, Kinesiology; Nigel Paneth, Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

• Manufacturing and Characterization of Degradable Radiopaque Polymers for Medical Imaging: Adam Lauver, PhmTox; Kendell Pawelec, Radiology; Robert Ferrier, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

• Mitigating the debilitating effects of chemotherapy with a prune-rich diet: Anne Dorrance, PhmTox; Kathleen Gallo, Physiology; George Abela, Medicine.