Funding and Grants

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R24 OD 011120 (Walter)                   
NIH-ORIP                                                                                                         
Enhanced Development of the Xiphophorus Model System
R.B. Walter, P.I. 

Specific Aims are:  (1) To maintain and enhance the Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center and provide the research community with animals, resources, and databases from genetically managed lines. (2) To sequence and annotate the genomes of X. hellerii, X. couchianus, and X. montezumae. (3) To establish a sperm repository for XGSC stocks and to extend protocols developed in our past project period with other Xiphophorus species.

 

R25 GM 102783 (Oyajobi)                       
NIH NIGMS                                                                                                
South Texas Doctoral Bridge Program
B. Oyajobi, N. Blake [University of Texas Health Science Center], R. Walter and R. Booth [Texas State University] multiple Co-PI’s. 

The Specific aims include: (1) To increase the number of URM students completing thesis-based MS degrees at TxState and ready to matriculate into strong doctoral programs. (2) To enhance the capability of the TxState Bridge Scholars to be competitive for, and gain admission into strong doctoral programs, such as the IMGP at UTHSCSA. The STDBP is poised to take advantage of the rich pool of talented URM students in the South Texas corridor and increase the yield of URM holding doctoral degrees and progressing to successful research careers in those disciplines.

 

R25 GM 107759 (Walter)                       
NIH NIGMS                                                                                             
Bridges to Biomedicine
R.B. Walter, P.I. 

The major program goals of this project are: (1) To improve curricular recommendations and advising at SAC and NVC that will systematically affect all community college biomedical students, and especially Bridges students, so they stay on-track for efficient transfer into a biomedical BS program. (2) To increase completion rates of biomedical BS degrees among URM transfer students, and especially the Bridges students.

 

R24 OD 018555                                                  
NIH ORIP/NIGMS                                                                                         
Development of Aquatic Model Resources for Therapeutic Screens
John Postlethwait (Univ. Oregon – PI),  Wes Warren (Washington Univ. - Co-PI), Manfred Schartl (Univ. Wurzberg, DEU – Co-PI), Ronald Walter (Texas Sate Univ. – Co-PI).

We hypothesize that disease states are characterized by constellations of gene activities that are involved in the cause of the disease, in the manifestation of disease symptoms, and in the animal’s protective or compensatory response to disease. We propose first, to identify transcriptional disease signatures (TDSs), suites of genes that change expression in the diseased state; second, to develop methods and resources for the identification of TDSs, and third, to screen for compounds that return the TDS to that of healthy fish. We predict that TDS changes will reveal test drug effects earlier than morphological or physical tests of chronic disease phenotypes, thus decreasing screening times for chronic disease therapeutics. Our approach is novel; as far as we know, this strategy has never before been utilized in a drug screen.