Ruppel receives NIH Research Grant to study new approaches to cancer treatment
October 17, 2016
Dr. Joshua V. Ruppel, associate professor of chemistry and coordinator of pre-health programs at the University of South Carolina Upstate, was recently awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) Program (R15) in collaboration with Dr. Nicole Snyder of Davidson College. The AREA Program supports meritorious research, exposes students to research, and strengthens the research environment of the institution.
Their project that Ruppel and Snyder submitted is entitled, “Precision Glycopolymer Bacteriochlorin Conjugates for Probing HA-CD44 Interactions,” and it focuses on cancer treatment. The three-year grant, totaling $406,485, will be used to create and study the interaction a class of new compounds with a protein associated with certain types of cancer.
Dr. Ruppel plans to involve two to three undergraduate student researchers per year over the duration of the project who will be trained at USC Upstate in the advanced laboratory techniques and on the instrumentation used in this study. These students will also have the opportunity to cross-train at Davidson College.
“We hope to find a reliable, specific, and predictable protein interaction which could, in the future, lead to better diagnostics and more targeted approaches to cancer treatment,” said Ruppel.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives. NIH-funded medical research is enabling Americans today to live longer and healthier. In recent years, nationwide rates of new diagnoses and deaths from all cancers combined have fallen significantly.
Details of the award can be found by referencing NIH project number 1R15GM119067-01. For more information, contact Dr. Joshua Ruppel, associate professor of chemistry and coordinator of pre-health programs at USC Upstate, at (864)503-5720 or [email protected]
About USC Upstate
USC Upstate offers more than 40 bachelor’s degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences, business administration, nursing, and teacher education, and master’s degrees in education, informatics, and nursing. Among the fastest-growing universities in South Carolina, USC Upstate is a diverse and dynamic community of 6,000 students from across the Upstate, 36 states, and 15 countries. As a leading metropolitan universities in the Southeast, USC Upstate has its main campus in Spartanburg, two locations in Greenville, and a growing number of programs online. The USC Upstate Spartans, which fields 17 varsity sports, compete on the NCAA Division I level as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Nearly 26,000 alumni have earned degrees from USC Upstate and approximately 85 percent choose to remain in the Upstate region to build their lives and careers, making a significant impact of the region’s economy and quality of life. Learn more at www.uscupstate.edu.
