Womens Health Supplement 2024-2025

Project Leads: Dr. Anja Nohe, University of Delaware, Biological Sciences

Project Title: Aberrant BMP2 signaling during aging and its impact on Women Health

Project Summary: The BMP2 signaling pathway intersects with other crucial signaling pathways, such as Wnt, Hedgehog, Notch, Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF), and Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) (1-5), making it a key regulator for bone formation and maintenance. BMP2 function is crucial for osteogenesis and fracture repair and aberrant BMP2 signaling is reported in patients diagnosed with Osteoporosis.

Team Science Supplement 2024-2025

Project Leads: Dr. Austin Keeler, University of Delaware, Biological Sciences
Dr. Joohyun Lim, University of Delaware, Biological Sciences

Project Summary: Temporomandibular (jaw) joint osteoarthritis can cause severe chronic neuropathic pain that can negatively impact quality of life. We are using a multi-omic approach using single-cell RNAseq and state-of-the-art spatial proteomics to map the immune and neural underpinnings of changes driven by osteoarthritis in the jaw joint. This application uses a cross-disciplinary strategy to tackle a substantial public health concern – jaw joint damage and pain associated with aging – that aligns well with the musculoskeletal focus of the parent COBRE grant and provides a foundation to develop a strong collaborative program to develop strategies for chronic pain treatment.

Team Science Supplement 2023-2024

Project Leads: Dr. Liyun Wang, University of Delaware, Mechanical Engineering and Biological Sciences
Dr. Ho-Ming Chow, University of Delaware, Communication Sciences & Disorders
Dr. Yong Hwan Kim, Delaware State University Biological Sci/Neuroscience

Project Summary: Although there is an urgent need to manage aging-related brain and bone degeneration that causes enormous human suffering and socio-economic burden in modern societies, current treatment strategies are often fragmented and researched in silos with limited translational success so far. In this team science development project, three project leads with distinct and complementary expertise will test a novel combination therapy to alleviate the progression of Parkinson’s disease and bone loss using a large array of assessments of the brain and bone organs at the cellular, tissue, system, and behavioral levels. This application uses a cross disciplinary approach to tackle a significant health threat (declined mobility and brain function with aging), which aligns well with the overall musculoskeletal focus of the parent COBRE grant and could lead to a more in depth multi-PI grant on treatment strategies for aging.

Womens Health Supplement 2023-24

Project Leads: Dr. Liyun Wang, University of Delaware, Mechanical Engineering and Biological Sciences
Dr. Emily Day, University of Delaware, Biomedical Engineering

Project title: Novel Dual-Modality Treatment of Breast Cancer-Induced Osteolysis

Project summary: Bone is one of the top sites for breast cancer metastasis, and cancer-induced bone loss puts patients at high risk of painful or even fatal fractures. Building upon rigorous literature and preliminary data, we will test a novel combination therapy that mitigates cancer-induced osteolysis by stimulating bone growth via activation of Piezo1 mechanosensitive channels in bone cells and suppresses tumor growth via targeted delivery of chemotherapy to metastatic lesions with nanoparticle carriers. This application addresses a significant health threat (breast cancer induced fractures) for women with metastatic breast cancer, which aligns with the overall musculoskeletal focus of the parent COBRE grant and will lead to submission of a follow-on proposal for in-depth studies of the novel multimodal treatment of breast cancer bone metastasis.