grants

$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers

Taylor Thomas — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:11:07 +0000

$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers Taylor Thomas Wed, 10/15/2025 - 09:11

More than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), supported by 12 million unpaid family caregivers whose contributions are valued at $413 billion annually. As the U.S. population continues to age, the number of people with dementia and their caregivers will nearly triple by 2050. Innovative solutions to support family caregivers are urgently needed.

Y. Alicia Hong. Photo provided.

Now, with a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), �� digital health intervention researcher Y. Alicia Hong is poised to change that. Hong led an interdisciplinary team to develop the Wellness Enhancement for Caregivers (WECARE) as a culturally tailored, digital health intervention to enhance caregiving skills and improve the well-being of dementia caregivers. The new grant will allow her team to further refine WECARE using artificial intelligence (AI) and evaluate it with a randomized controlled trial.

“WECARE is one of the first personalized digital interventions for dementia caregivers,” said Hong, a professor in the College of Public Health's Department of Health Administration and Policy. "Though it is designed for Chinese American dementia caregivers, it can be adapted for other groups and serve the growing demand for digital support for dementia caregivers in an aging society

The seven-week program will provide participants with informational ADRD multimedia content, quiz games, social networking with other caregivers, personalized feedback, and additional individualized resources. WECARE’s success will be evaluated by measuring the depressive symptoms reported by participants. The project also intends to identify barriers to and facilitators of WECARE’s adoption and long-term use.

This resource comes at a critical time as the aging population grows, and more people with ADRD require caregivers. Additionally, most family caregivers have chronic conditions due to prolonged and intensive dementia caregiving, causing an increased need for resources that sustain the health of family caregivers.

Hong’s grant titled “WECARE: A Personalized Intervention for Underserved Chinese American Dementia Caregivers” will take place from September 2025 to August 2030, for a total of $3,088,427. WECARE is directly responsive to NIA’s priority of effective interventions for ADRD-affected populations.

Hong studies the intersection of health services delivery and consumer informatics. Her work explores chronic care and self-care solutions through innovative digital technologies to improve patient-centered outcomes and enhance health care accessibility. Hong’s research focuses on implementation and dissemination science and leveraging digital technologies to enhance health services delivery.

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Y. Alicia Hong, PhD

Grand Challenge Initiative

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Interprofessional George Mason researchers awarded more than $1 million to improve outcomes for patients with depression

Jennifer Pocock — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 18:25:35 +0000

Interprofessional George Mason researchers awarded more than $1 million to improve outcomes for patients with depression Jennifer Pocock Tue, 12/10/2024 - 13:25

Researchers Farrokh Alemi and Kevin Lybarger receive ��’s first Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award to develop innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, including large language models, for improving antidepressant recommendations.

Farrokh Alemi and Kevin Lybarger

AI will soon receive a dose of empathy with the goal of helping to match people with depression to their best-fit medication. A team led by Farrokh Alemi, a professor in the College of Public Health (CPH), and Kevin Lybarger, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received $1,049,998 in research funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to continue their work on developing an AI system that helps patients find the right depression medications.

With this funding support, Co-PIs Alemi and Lybarger will hone large language models (LLMs) to address known challenges in AI, including mitigating biases, reducing the potential for inaccurate information, and incorporating an empathetic tone, according to Alemi.

The new study will introduce an innovative way for AI to help patients make medication decisions. The AI system will engage patients in natural-language conversations to collect information about their medical history. The system will draw upon more than 10 million patient experiences with 15 different oral antidepressants and a National Institutes of Health All of Us database, which includes records from more than 80,000 participants with major depressive disorders, to help create a plan that is statistically likely to succeed. Alemi and Lybarger believe this will help alleviate the trial and error that can lead to negative patient outcomes.

The researchers will also introduce a first-of-its-kind patient simulator capable of mimicking various medical, linguistic, and behavioral characteristics. This simulator will be used to test and refine the AI system by simulating diverse patient scenarios, including infrequent but critical events such as suicidal ideation, to ensure the system’s recommendations are safe, culturally sensitive, and empathetic.

“This study was selected for its potential to address a high-priority methodological gap in patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook. “We look forward to following the study’s progress and working with George Mason to share the results.”

This is the first PCORI-funded study that George Mason has received. “Depression is a major public health problem and we are excited to see the development of new AI-based decision tools, leveraging the multidisciplinary talents of our college to help tackle it,” said CPH Associate Dean of Research Alison Cuellar.

"This innovative study promises to generate methodologies for using AI for medical decision-support and for empowering patients to make critical health decisions beyond mental health,” says Özlem Uzuner, chair of CEC’s Department of Information Sciences and Technology.

This study is one of the latest funded by PCORI to examine which medical treatments work best, where and when treatment falls flat, and how to address the gaps. These studies deliver results that guide researchers in planning future studies and provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health and health care decisions.

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Farrokh Alemi, PhD

Kevin Lybarger

Alison Evans Cuellar, PhD, MBA

Özlem Uzuner

Research at George Mason

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George Mason College of Public Health Professor Rebecca Sutter awarded $3 million Services to Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat Program grant

Taylor Thomas — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 14:41:04 +0000

George Mason College of Public Health Professor Rebecca Sutter awarded $3 million Services to Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat Program grant Taylor Thomas Fri, 09/13/2024 - 10:41

Afghan victims of combat arrive in the United States as refugees with unique health care needs. Rebecca Sutter, professor in the School of Nursing at ��, has been awarded a $3 million Services to Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat (SASIC) grant to develop health service delivery infrastructure for Afghan survivors, refugees, and immigrants impacted by combat trauma and violence. The program, titled Healing and Educating Afghans for Resiliency-Virginia (HEAR-VA), will serve Afghan refugees residing in Northern and Central Virginia, where an estimated 95% of Afghans resettled in 2022.

HEAR-VA seeks to screen 500 individuals for eligibility and enroll 305 participants in care services.

Photo provided

“We are implementing a care coordination model where individuals, regardless of which HEAR-VA partner they interact with first, will receive screenings, and be connected with services that address their individualized care needs,” Sutter said. "What’s especially important is this program will be built not just for, but in partnership with actual Afghan survivors of combat and other refugees who are impacted by trauma and violence."

The SASIC grant was awarded from the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The mission of ORR is to provide newly arrived refugees from Afghanistan with resources to begin healing combat-related trauma and facilitate sustainable physical, emotional, social, and economic well-being.

This interdisciplinary HEAR-VA initiative will be managed by the Mason and Partners Clinic in partnership with Virginia Department of Social Services Office of New Americans (DSS-ONA), the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Office of Behavioral Health Wellness (DBHDS-OBHW), Health Brigade, Northern Virginia Family Services, and additional community partners. The program went into effect July 2024 and will extend through February 2026.

“This collection of partners is dedicated to creating an innovative program that will be community-based, community-driven, and community-led. We are building local capacity to serve vulnerable populations, not just for the duration of the grant, but long after we as the implementers have departed,” Sutter said.

In addition to her role as a professor in the School of Nursing, Sutter is the director of the Mason and Partners (MAP) Clinics. She is a credentialed Family Nurse Practitioner with expertise in community health care access and navigation to improve care and promote collaboration between public health, public safety, and health to ensure that evidence-based treatment is available for at-risk and marginalized individuals, families, communities, and populations.

Discover the nursing program at George Mason

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Rebecca Sutter, DNP, APRN, BC-FNP

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Associate Professor Erin D. Maughan receives VDOE Grant to invigorate the future of school nursing

Taylor Thomas — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:53:38 +0000

Associate Professor Erin D. Maughan receives VDOE Grant to invigorate the future of school nursing Taylor Thomas Fri, 02/09/2024 - 12:53

Both regionally and across the country, there is a severe lack of programs dedicated to school nursing administrators (i.e. nurses who lead school nursing and school health programs at the district level). Erin Maughan, an associate professor in College of Public Health’s School of Nursing at ��, intends to remedy this with a $364,503 grant from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). With the funding, Maughan will establish the School Nursing Leadership Academy.

Erin D. Maughan

"There are over 130,000 school nurses across the nation, who are central to the foundation of the health and well-being of children,” Maughan said. "The goal of the academy is to develop leaders in school nursing who have the knowledge and skills needed to successfully oversee school health programs at the district level, as well as state and regional school nursing associations."

The academy, which is expected to be fully developed by June 2024, will be designed to train future leaders in school nursing using TeamSTEPPS, an evidence-based curriculum that prioritizes incorporating effective communication and teamwork into the health care system. The program will take place over one-and-a-half years and will incorporate experiential learning, equestrian activity, and expert-led discussions.

In addition, Mason's Center for Health Workforce is guiding the development of sustainable asynchronous modules for the professional development program, which along with virtual webinars, will provide additional information and mentoring opportunities.

The program kicks off with three days of in–person instruction, during which participants will use virtual reality (VR) modules to practice interprofessional skills and conflict management. Mason's College of Public Health is a leader in integrating VR into the curriculum and training of future health care leaders.

“Participating in the VR will allow gaining experience in a safe, nonthreatening environment where we can talk about how they reacted so they will have confidence and experience when they encounter situations in the real world,” said Maughan.

Maughan was originally approached by the VDOE’s state school nurse consultant Tracy White, who wanted to foster more leadership training and was aware of Maughan’s passion to do so as well. Together, they set into motion plans to create the academy.

Maughan is a leading expert on school nursing and the health of school-age children. Her research expertise is in looking at the role of infrastructure and policy on school nurse staffing and services. In addition, she has expertise in leadership, strategic planning, innovation, and mentoring. Her career is dedicated to children’s health, especially vulnerable populations. She is excited to contribute her skills and knowledge for the success of the academy.

“Having been a school nurse leader and researcher for many years, it has been a dream of mine to create such a program,” said Maughan. "I hope this program will build excitement and create a network of confident school nurse leaders who can transform school nursing in their districts, so that frontline school nurses have the guidance and support they need to work to their full scope of practice.

Maughan emphasizes how this program is not only for school nurses but also for the students they will be serving.

At its core, the School Nursing Leadership Academy is about building capacity to help school nurse leaders build their confidence and skills needed to do well in the position,” said Maughan. “We are confident this initiative will position school nurses and their program leaders to work effectively with school administrators, local health departments, health care providers and families to positively impact student health, and thus improve child health in the commonwealth and the rest of the nation.”

In This Story

Erin D. Maughan, PhD

More news from the College of Public Health

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Powerful community partnerships help combat public health challenges
October 10, 2025
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September 30, 2025
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September 11, 2025
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September 3, 2025

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Workforce Development

Research

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Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

TTIP

Quantum conundrums: Navigating noise and enhancing expertise

Nathan Kahl — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 14:12:07 +0000

Quantum conundrums: Navigating noise and enhancing expertise Nathan Kahl Wed, 08/23/2023 - 10:12

There’s a joke, playing on the quantum world’s unique properties, that goes, “There are three types of people in this world: Those who understand quantum computing, those who don’t understand quantum computing, and those who simultaneously do and do not understand quantum computing.” All kidding aside, Weiwen Jiang sees a world in which quantum computing is in widespread use; with new funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he is taking steps toward that goal.

Weiwen Jiang. Photo provided

Jiang, an assistant professor in ��’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is leading two recently awarded NSF projects—worth a total $900,000—for work on the development of these complex devices and on building the quantum workforce of tomorrow.

Quantum computers differ from classical computers in that they use elements of quantum mechanics to perform calculations, allowing them to operate much faster and crunch more data. While there are several operational quantum computers in use—IBM and Google are among the top manufacturers—they currently are far from their promised potential and simply cannot yet make the large-scale calculations predicted of them.

Jiang said one key problem is, “They are not ‘stable.’ We can use them for computations, but you might get one answer today and then get an entirely different answer tomorrow.”

Quantum devices are notoriously susceptible to “noise”—specifically, things like cosmic rays, changes in the Earth's magnetic field, radiation, and even mobile Wi-Fi signals. The noise contributes to the devices’ instability.

The $600,000 collaborative grant will fund the work of Jiang and his collaborators from Kent State University in developing an adaptor that will adjust to fluctuating noise, improving the performance of applications on quantum devices. Jiang is well versed on the topic, having recently won the Best Poster Award for “System-level optimizations in improving the robustness of quantum applications on unstable quantum devices” at an event at Oak Ridge National Lab.

According to Jiang’s preliminary works, the deployment of the quantum applications faces several challenges, including sustainability—on one quantum processor, most quantum applications are sensitive to the temporal changes of quantum noise; portability—different quantum processors (even from the same vendor) with specific properties will lead to variation of model uncertainty; and transparency—a lack of visualization tools can block users from tailoring their quantum applications to quantum computers for higher reliability. The NSF project will systematically provide solutions in response to these challenges.

Jiang is optimistic about the future of quantum computing: “Every year, we see a lot of breakthroughs. Just a couple of months ago IBM published a paper on noise reduction. And every year, we see that the number of qubits in quantum computers increases from five in the year 2000 to over 400 on a new computer from IBM.” (A qubit is the basic unit of information used in quantum computing, much like a 1 and 0 for traditional computing.)

Another grant, which Jiang shares with collaborators Mingzhen Tian and Jessica Rosenberg in the College of Science, provides $300,000 from NSF to bolster the quantum workforce pipeline. The grant is for “an end-to-end quantum system integration training program.” The faculty members are developing a new course at Mason, organizing workshops at the IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing in September (where Jiang is the quantum system track co-chair), and conducting tutorials at international conferences. Recently the team, led by Rosenberg, coordinated a summer immersion program at Mason for high school students. In addition, in the coming months, Jiang will be conducting seminars at a variety of minority-serving institutions in the DC region.

Jiang said the opportunities for quantum-trained engineers are robust and growing. “I have collaborations locally with Leidos and MITRE, for example, and they have needs in this field. Further, we know that quantum will make a difference in everything from finance to drug discovery to machine learning and beyond.”

He is encouraged about the quantum future—both in the world and here at Mason. He stressed that as student demand grows for this technology, “we need to provide the appropriate materials for our students because we’re seeing a lot of strong interest in this field.”

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Weiwen Jiang

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Boom crash: Mason researcher receives half million NSF grant that could steer AI safely

Rena Malai — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 20:12:21 +0000

Boom crash: Mason researcher receives half million NSF grant that could steer AI safely Rena Malai Fri, 02/24/2023 - 15:12

In This Story

ThanhVu (Vu) Nguyen

AI is everywhere. It emphatically wends its way and creeps into daily life, from parking cars to vending machines. In some cases, the use of AI needs to be closely monitored to ensure all safety and precautionary measures are taken into consideration.

Thanhvu H. Nguyen, one of the newest professors in the Department of Computer Science, arrived at �� in 2021 and knew of Mason’s diversity and proximity to one of the largest tech hubs in the nation.

Nguyen recently won the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award "NeuralSAT: A Constraint-Solving Framework for Verifying Deep Neural Networks.” Nguyen will work with his student Hai Duong, and a select team of students to develop technology that ensures AI machine learning is robust, safe, and unbiased.

“In certain scenarios, where AI is used for things like controlling airplanes or autonomous vehicles, any mistake could prove fatal,” says Nguyen. “This grant work will look at the deep neural networks (DNN) embedded in AI/machine learning technology and develop technology to prevent errors and ensure safety.”

According to the project’s abstract, the use of DNNs - a layered network that processes complex data - have emerged as an effective approach to tackling real-world problems. However, just like traditional software, DNNs can have ‘bugs’ and be attacked. 

This can be especially concerning, when it comes to the use of AI in driving cars, for example. Although it could eliminate some human error, Nguyen says any faulty DNNs could throw an AI program – and the car – off the road when it comes to something unexpected, like bad weather and icy roads.

“We all depend on AI, whether we realize it or not,” says Nguyen. “It’s a part of our lives. Whatever I can do to make it safer, is a benefit to my family and the society.”

Since coming to Mason, he has helped to bring in around $1.73M in external funding. Nguyen is excited to work with his students and the group of computer science faculty, noting how everyone brings a fresh perspective to the table.

The project runs for five years with a total of $510,509 in anticipated funding. Nguyen sees the project as helping society as a whole by improving the reliability of systems embedding DNNs. The research conducted throughout the project will allow AI and machine learning researchers and users to improve their DNNs and deploy them with confidence. 

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Mason interdisciplinary team receives $1.5 million grant from Department of Defense to research underwater explosions

Shayla Brown — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 18:00:15 +0000

Mason interdisciplinary team receives $1.5 million grant from Department of Defense to research underwater explosions Shayla Brown Mon, 12/12/2022 - 13:00

A �� interdisciplinary team is studying underwater explosions and their effects on civil engineering infrastructure with the support of a $1.5 million grant from Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

The interdisciplinary research team, from left to right, Girum Urgessa, Rainald Löhner, Lingquan Li, and Facundo Airaudo. Photo by Cristian Torres.

Lingquan Li, a postdoctoral research fellow, is working alongside Girum Urgessa of the College of Engineering and Computing, Rainald Löhner of the College of Science, and PhD student Facundo Airaudo.

“The sophisticated phenomenon in underwater explosions is important for government agencies interested in protective design,” said Li, who specializes in computational fluid dynamics and mathematics.

The team has run more than 100 test cases to study the structural response and the damage due explosions, Li explained. The resulting pressures and flow fields for different explosive yields and stand-off distances are provided to the Department of Defense.

Urgessa and Löhner are the co-principal investigators (PIs) on the project.

“[Girum] took more the structural part on it, and Lingquan and I did more the fluid part,” said Löhner, who is director of Mason’s Center for Computational Fluid Dynamics, where these experiments have been conducted. “So, we did the explosion in the water, and he did what happens when the shock wave hits the structure and how the structure [reacts].”

“We not only develop new numerical methods and new algorithms in order to compute these explosions, but we also delivered more than 120 results for different geometries, different loads, and different standoff distances,” said Löhner. “It has been extremely successful.”

There is a demand for experts capable of conducting blast-structure interactions and structural integrity assessments. “At Mason, we continue to mentor exceptional post-doctoral research scholars and graduate students needed to address these complex physics and engineering problems,” said Urgessa.

Lingquan Li presents her team's work on underwater explosions. Photo by Cristian Torres.

Airaudo, who is an Institute for Digital Innovation Predoctoral Fellow, is simultaneously working on another project, Optimal HVAC Outlay to Minimize Pathogen Transmission. He and Li spend most weekdays in the center working on these projects.

“It's a good way to collaborate,” said Airaudo, “because she can show me what she's working on and I can just learn from what she's doing and help her a little bit. I can also show her what I'm working on, and she can give me tips as well.”

Airaudo is grateful he gets to learn from Dr. Li, he said, as she is part of a largely underrepresented group in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“For me personally, [this project] means a lot because research is what I'm interested in; it is the thing I'm best at,” said Li. “I don't see a lot of female researchers in my field of study. I don't know why that is, but it is very important to be inclusive because we need people from different backgrounds [and] all kinds of perspectives to [solve these research problems].”

Mason’s College of Science is above the national average in the number of women enrolled in STEM degree programs. Of the students enrolled at COS, 62 percent of undergraduates and 50 percent of the graduate students are women, according to Dean Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, who presented the numbers at a Board of Visitors meeting in December. “Quoting President [Gregory] Washington, the College of Science already looks like the rest of the country will look in 30-40 years.”

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$1.1 Million HRSA grant to create interprofessional health care learning lab in the College of Public Health

Mary Cunningham — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 14:59:48 +0000

$1.1 Million HRSA grant to create interprofessional health care learning lab in the College of Public Health Mary Cunningham Tue, 11/08/2022 - 09:59

In This Story

Rebecca Sutter, DNP, APRN, BC-FNP

Alison Evans Cuellar, PhD, MBA

Maria Uriyo, PhD, PMP, MHSA

Kenneth W. Griffin, PhD, MPH

Michelle S. Williams, PhD, MSPH

Patrice Winter, PT, DPT, MHA, FAAOMPT

Lisa M. Gring-Pemble

Anne Magro

Professor of Nursing Rebecca Sutter, along with faculty and students across colleges, will lead the creation of an interprofessional Learning Laboratory for Community Health.

Nothing has exposed the unmet health and social needs of communities more clearly than the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for the people and communities that historically have been marginalized. The pandemic impacts have elevated the need to improve how we train our future health care workforce, and the multidisciplinary teams in which they function. Faculty in Mason’s College of Public Health know that new, alternative approaches to delivering and accessing health care to individuals, families, and communities is essential, and they are playing a leading role in training the next generation.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Professor of Nursing Rebecca Sutter with a $1,150,000 grant to create an interprofessional Learning Laboratory for Community Health that trains students to serve and improve health care for underserved communities. The award was made possible by the efforts Congressman Gerry Connolly of Virginia's 11th District, who shepherded the proposal through Congress.

The Learning Laboratory will focus on building students' capacity to consider health care in the community in a broader context and will allow students to design and implement evidence-based solutions, while fueling their understanding of population health improvement for communities.

“We must train the next generation of health and social service students to better understand the role of community partnering, the use of data, and the deployment of novel technologies and approaches across the health and social care continuum,” said Sutter, director of the Mason and Partner Clinics

In partnership with community stakeholders, participants in the Lab will identify, design, and disseminate data-driven and evidence-based models of social health care improvement, and offer recommendations to community partners on opportunities to improve social health and community impact. 

Students participating in the Lab will help faculty develop a list of priority health and health care topics for Northern Virginia and develop case studies around these topics. Case studies will explore interventions and approaches with broad impact and potential to reduce disparities, with an emphasis on community-based health promotion, health care access, and disease prevention programs, services, and policies.

“By creating evidence-based projects with an interprofessional team, students will build their capacity to consider health care from many angles, which will fuel their understanding of population health improvements and help them become public health leaders who ensure access to care for marginalized communities in Northern Virginia,” said Sutter.

The interprofessional team includes faculty lead Alison Cuellar and Mario Uriyo from the Department of Health Administration and Policy; Kenneth Griffin, Michelle Williams, and Patrice Winter from the Department of Global and Community Health; and Lisa Gring-Pemble and Anne Magro from Mason Business for a Better World). Ashley Wiest is serving as the Program Coordinator. Megan Harvey is serving as the Partner Liaison. They are accompanied by a team of graduate-level research assistants: Lameck Chiwaka, Naga Tejaswi Veluri, Judy Gutierrez, Patricia Tran, Marissa Bolouri-rad, Jordan Turner, William McKinley, Ruhma Hand, Sarah Moore, Jaya Yannam, and Tumen Sosorburam.

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Workforce Development

Research

NIH HEAL initiative helps chronic pain sufferers

Rena Malai — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 19:53:49 +0000

NIH HEAL initiative helps chronic pain sufferers Rena Malai Thu, 10/20/2022 - 15:53

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Siddhartha Sikdar

Living with pain is debilitating and frustrating. If the cause of chronic pain is unknown, it can be a lifelong struggle to find appropriate treatment and relief.

George Mason Bioengineering professor Siddhartha Sikdar saw his mother-in-law struggle with chronic pain, as well as several students, friends, and colleagues.

“When patients are not able to get an appropriate diagnosis and effective treatment for pain, the reliance on using opioids may be greater,” says Sikdar. “The Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) initiative is seeking ways to address pain without opioid intervention.”

Sikdar and several colleagues from CASBBI received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) HEAL initiative to study chronic myofascial pain. This type of pain originates from muscles and/or associated soft tissues, and is an important yet poorly understood area. In a two-part study, the team will first develop biomarkers to study the association between muscle tissue abnormality and pain, and then conduct clinical trials to test two different interventions.

“Chronic pain has a profound impact on life,” says Sikdar who is director of the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions (CASBBI). “It can affect mood, sleep, concentration and is often associated with anxiety and depression.”

Identifying the cause of chronic pain is often difficult and complex. According to Sikdar, it can involve many factors including stress, psychosocial factors, and long-term changes in the nervous system.

Currently, the mechanisms of pain related to injury, the skeletal system, or the nervous system are well understood, but the role of muscle tissue in pain remains enigmatic. According to Sikdar, one theory is that inflammation builds up over time in muscles and associated connective tissue and manifests as pain which doesn’t get better or go away on its own.

The first part of the initiative will involve the use of cutting-edge ultrasound imaging techniques as one of the primary methods to try to find out what happens in the muscles of chronic pain sufferers.

One of the treatments Sikdar and his team will evaluate during the clinical trial phase is dry needling, where a very thin needle is inserted into the skin to treat muscle tissue. Another treatment will inject an enzyme into muscle tissue to improve the gliding between layers of connective tissue. The goal is to identify what kinds of treatments work best for each individual suffering from chronic myofascial pain.

Twenty-five million Americans live with daily chronic pain and lack effective and safe non-opioid options for pain management. The NIH launched the HEAL Initiative® to provide scientific solutions to the opioid crisis and offer new hope for individuals, families, and communities affected by this devastating crisis. 

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A biofilm epic in the making

Rena Malai — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 14:09:34 +0000

A biofilm epic in the making Rena Malai Wed, 10/12/2022 - 10:09

There are a lot of ways to cut film, as many cinemas and directors can attest. But biofilms—which settle on numerous surfaces, including skin—can contain harmful bacteria and get in the way of healing wounds.

Mason researchers Jeffrey Moran, Rémi Veneziano, and Monique van Hoek, Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

Assistant Professors Jeffrey Moran in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Rémi Veneziano in the Department of Bioengineering at George Mason have a shared interest in using nanotechnology for medical applications, as well as a shared history. Both worked as postdocs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but it wasn’t until they started working at Mason that their paths crossed. Partnering up with Professor Monique van Hoek, a microbiologist in the School of Systems Biology at George Mason, they applied for and recently won the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) R21 Trailblazer award.

Through the award funds, the team will use their backgrounds and spend about three years developing a brand-new technology that dissolves harmful biofilms, without harsh removal methods.

“You can think of a biofilm as a ‘city for microbes.’ Biofilms are functional communities of microorganisms, such as bacteria, encased in a slime-like matrix,” says Moran. “Bacterial biofilms often grow on catheters, IVs, open wounds, burn injuries, and more, and they play a major role in many hospital infections. We’re going to develop a safe and effective method to remove topical biofilms that doesn’t get in the way of the body’s natural healing process.”

Some biofilms are relatively benign, and many folks have them on the surfaces of their teeth. But harmful biofilms can develop throughout the body for many reasons, like on the skin surface as a result of trauma, and cause potentially fatal infections.

Moran’s primary research focus is on “nanoswimmers"—tiny particles that propel themselves in liquids or biological media. Many researchers are developing them to use in the body, to deliver therapeutic payloads (like antibiotics) to hard-to-reach locations.

“One major challenge with bacterial biofilms is how to make them disassemble," says van Hoek. “There are three major parts to a biofilm—DNA, protein, and complex sugars. Destroying any one of these three things often leads to biofilm collapse. My idea was to use a sugar cleaving enzyme to attack the sugars in the biofilm, and to attach this enzyme to the front of the nanoswimmers so that they can drill deep into the biofilm.”

“What we’re trying to do is develop self-propelled particles that penetrate deep into the thick matrix of the biofilm, dissolving it and also serving as a carrier to deliver antibiotics at the same time,” says Veneziano.

To manufacture the self-propelled particles, the team is relying on Veneziano’s specialty: DNA origami, which is a method that involves precisely assembling DNA molecules into tiny two- and three-dimensional shapes.

“With DNA origami, you have the ability to produce tailor-made particles with phenomenal control over the size, shape, and the cargo they carry," says Veneziano. "DNA origami’s versatility will enable the particles to be decorated with various cargoes, such as antibiotics or enzymes that dissolve the biofilm matrix, leaving the bacteria vulnerable to conventional antibiotic treatments.”

Although using enzymes to dissolve the biofilms isn’t new, attaching them onto DNA origami nanoparticles is, which is the trailblazing path Veneziano, van Hoek and Moran will follow.

“It all started with a ‘what if we tried this?’ type of conversation. We bounced ideas off each other, talking about ways we might make DNA nanoparticles swim, and how that capability might be useful in certain medical situations. That back-and-forth eventually led to this award,” says Moran. “We’re excited to get started.”

The R21 Trailblazer Award is an opportunity for new and early-stage investigators to pursue research programs of high interest to the NIBIB at the interface of the life sciences with engineering and the physical sciences. A Trailblazer project may be exploratory, developmental, proof of concept, or high risk/high impact, and may be technology design-directed, discovery-driven, or hypothesis-driven.