USA Lands College Of Medicine, Lab Grants

The University of South Alabama (USA) College of Medicine has been awarded $1.07 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Defense for research to better understand replication of mitochondrial DNA. Dr. Mikhail Alexeyev, professor of physiology and cell biology at the college, is the principal investigator of the two studies, which are funded via separate grants. Natalya Kozhukhar, a research technologist, and Viktoriya Pastukh, a research assistant, are working with Alexeyev on the projects. With an end goal of treating mitochondrial diseases, a group of inherited genetic disorders that can cause a wide range of health concerns, they hope to advance science’s “rudimentary” understanding of mitochondrial DNA, Alexeyev said. He added, “Our goal is to reconstitute human mitochondrial function in mice. Such ‘humanized’ mice would become an invaluable resource for the development of drugs to treat mitochondrial disease and to study mitochondrial disease in mice. Currently, such mice are not available, which makes mitochondrial diseases extremely difficult to study.”
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) has awarded USA a $644,045 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Recovery Assistance grant to renovate its Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing, create a cyber-research hub and support workforce development. “This award will enable the public and private sectors to work together to strengthen and grow the regional economy as we recover from the many hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic,” U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl explained. “It was made possible by regional planning efforts led by the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission (SARPC), EDA said, adding that it “funds SARPC to bring together the public and private sectors to create an economic development roadmap to strengthen the regional economy, support private capital investment and create jobs.” The grant is to be matched with $161,011 in local investment.