MSU receives $6.7M grant to build large animal and human imaging facility to treat diseases
Michigan State University has been awarded a National Institutes of Health $6.7 million grant to build a new facility to develop new imaging agents and treatments for diseases, including cancer, that afflict both humans and large animals.
"The new Large Animal Facility for Imaging and Image-guided Therapies will be one of the few such medical diagnostic facilities in the world," said project leader Anna Moore, assistant dean for the MSU College of Human Medicine and director of the Precision Health Program, adding: “This bridges our existing outstanding basic science and small animal imaging infrastructure, and our human imaging capabilities.”
Stress-testing physics at FRIB
It’s strange to think that there are nuclear reactions that physicists classify as gentle. After all, the particle accelerators that let scientists study these reactions are nicknamed “atom smashers,” not “atom coddlers.”
But gentle nuclear reactions represent more than a strange-sounding curiosity. These reactions let researchers stress-test certain scientific models that account for how the universe’s fundamental rules work, said Kaitlin Cook of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, at Michigan State University.
Spartans are engineering a healthier future
At Michigan State University, researchers are unlocking the power of genuine collaboration to drive discovery and create healthier tomorrows for all.
Spartan engineers are partnering with biological and health scientists to develop innovative solutions to fight diseases and improve treatments.
“Engineers and biological scientists look at problems differently,” says Christina Chan, University Distinguished Professor, George W. Bissell Professor and interim chairperson of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. “The advantage of having different perspectives is that then people come with different backgrounds, and that tends to engender a more creative approach to solving some of these research problems and questions that are raised.”
MSU researchers study compounds that could improve melanoma treatments
Through a grant funded by MSU Gran Fondo donations, researchers will study two compounds that could improve treatment for melanoma. The team believes a compound they developed and a second one already approved by the FDA could increase the number of melanoma patients who respond well to a therapeutic called immune checkpoint inhibitors and prevent them from developing resistance to the treatment.