Five projects receive CTSI and IRIS Cantor - UCLA women’s health center awards

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By UCLA CTSI
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UCLA CTSI and the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center have selected five projects to receive the CTSI and Iris Cantor Women's Health Center Awards to support research intended to understand human sex differences in health and disease and medical issues and diseases unique to women, as well as to develop and test clinical interventions for women.

CTSI and Iris Cantor Women's Health Center Pilot and Augmentation Awards provide researchers with a one-year award worth up to $30,000. Fellows are awarded a one-year fellowship for $20,000. Awards were open to researchers and candidates at Westwood/Santa Monica Campus, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, LA BioMed at Harbor-UCLA and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, who perform women’s health research, and/or research where exploration of sex and gender-based differences is relevant.  

Below are the 2019-2020 awardees and their projects.

  • Lenore Ackerman MD, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Urology/Surgery, Cedars Sinai Medical Center
    "The role of vaginal microbiota in urinary urge incontinence" (Pilot Award)
  •  Utpal Banerjee, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology and Biological Chemistry, UCLA
    "Interaction between molecular and metabolic pathways that influence adverse development of pre-implantation embryos in diabetes" (Pilot Award)
  •  Stephanie Correa, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Integrative Biology and Physiology, UCLA
    "Tamoxifen and thermoregulation: investigating the role of ER alpha expressing neuronal populations in the hypothalamus" (Pilot Award)
  •  Christine Cunningham, B.S., Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA and Mansoureh Eghbali, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Medicine and Anesthesiology, UCLA
    "Investigating Y chromosome protection against pulmonary hypertension as a novel therapeutic strategy for women" (Fellowship/Young Investigator Award)
  •  Richard Pietras, M.D., Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Oncology), UCLA, Michael Jung Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, and Diana Marquez Garban M.D., Associate Researcher, UCLA
    "Antiestrogens in breast cancer immunotherapy" (Augmentation Award)

For more information on these opportunities, visit the CTSI and Iris Cantor Funding Opportunity Awards.

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Image caption: UCLA Health