2024 Research Roundup

USC Mann faculty maintained their leadership in grants for pioneering research in 2024.

Gauri Rao, PharmD, MS, received a $3.85 million, five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for the project “In vivo assessment and optimization of phage PK/PD for the treatment of pulmonary Mycobacterium abscessus infection,” as well as a $300,000 grant from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for “Preclinical pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic assessment of bacteriophage and antibiotic therapy for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.”

Clay Wang, PhD, garnered a $2 million California Sea Grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the project “Detection and Conversion of Marine Debris to Make High Value Products as a Tool to Protect Coastal Communities.” His research team includes Joe Arvai, PhD (Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies / USC Dornsife) and Travis Williams, PhD (Chemistry / USC Dornsife).

An interdisciplinary team of USC researchers including Dana Goldman, PhD, and Geoffrey Joyce, PhD, earned a $8.2 million, five-year National Institute of Aging grant to study the economic impacts of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

David Dadiomov, PharmD, BCPP, won a 2024 Safety Net Innovation Award from the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Southern California Healthcare Delivery Science Center with $125,000 in grant funding for the project “Transformative Chronic Pain Management for Sickle Cell Anemia Patients: A Multidimensional Approach.”

Dima M. Qato, PharmD, MPH, PhD, received provisional approval of a two-year $365,502 grant from Arnold Ventures to study the impact of the Massachusetts statewide standing order allowing pharmacies to dispense prescription-only contraceptives. The grant is based on preliminary data from a July 2 JAMA paper. She also earned a $50,000 Collaborative Research Planning Award grant from the USC Office of Research and Innovation for the project “Collaborative on Innovative, Data-Driven Approaches in Drug Safety Monitoring of Adverse Drug Events and Drug-Drug Interactions in Diverse Populations in the U.S.”

A proposal by Zhen Zhao, PhD (Keck School of Medicine), Syed Kaleem Ahmed, PhD, and Yong Zhang, PhD, “Optimizing STING Inhibitors for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease” has been selected for funding from the FY25 Epstein Breakthrough Alzheimer’s Research Fund. The one-year grant is for $212,500. 

Ian Haworth, PhD, received an NIH sub-award grant with the Lancaster-based biopharmaceutical company Simulations Plus. The project, “Improving Shape Matching in Drug Discovery,” aims to advance the field of ligand-based virtual screening to improve drug design and optimization activities.

Syed Kaleem Ahmed, PhD, was awarded a R21 (Co-I) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the project “Targeting the UL37 deamidase to impede HSV-1 infection.” The award is $223,988 for two years.

Houda Alachkar, PharmD, PhD, earned the Zumberge Preliminary Studies Large Program Award, a $100,000 grant from the USC Office of Research and Innovation, for the project “APOC2- CD36 deregulation presents a metabolic vulnerability in Acute Myeloid Leukemia.”

Paul Seidler, PhD, received the Zumberge Preliminary Studies Research – STEM Award, a $50,000 grant for the USC Office of Research and Innovation, for the project “Structure-based investigation of neurotransmitters as modifiers of tau aggregation.”