UVA has awarded $19 million in research funding as part of its Prominence-to-Preeminence Fund, and that money will support several exciting collaborations involving the School of Medicine.
The "big idea" projects include:
Immunotherapy for Cardiovascular Disease
Led by Coleen McNamara, MD, director of our Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research, this project will advance UVA as a world leader in immunotherapy for cardiovascular diseases. The collaborative team includes faculty from the schools of Medicine, Data Science, Engineering and Nursing.
BIG Steps Forward Against Alzheimer's
Tajie Harris, PhD, director of our Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG), will bring together faculty from UVA's School of Medicine, School of Engineering and the College of Arts & Sciences to advance our understanding of neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease. The team aims to accelerate research into how the immune system affects the development and progression of Alzheimer’s.
Pandemic Prep
This project, called PREPARE (Pandemic Research in Emergence, Planning, and Response), aims to reduce the global burden of infectious disease through technology and engineering. It will also seek to develop new general theories for understanding large-scale networked complex systems. These concepts could then be translated to disciplines such as cybersecurity, ecology and the social sciences. The work will be led by Chris Barrett, executive director of UVA's Biocomplexity Institute, and include UVA Health, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the schools of Data Science, Engineering and Medicine.
“UVA faculty undertake groundbreaking and inspiring research every day,” UVA Provost Liz Magill said. “These proposals were no exception. All of them align with our mission and have the potential to advance solutions in the areas of greatest need."