Finding the Answers through Research

Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research at the University of Miami was created in December 2004. Two years later, the Coulter Center has selected the five projects that will be conducted in its newly opened labs.

Vadim Deyev, M.D., Ph.D. assistant scientist of microbiology and immunology, along with Eckhard R. Podack, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of microbiology and immunology, have worked to develop and utilize an antibody that effectively halts inflammation in mouse models of asthma. “We have achieved this goal and now hope to develop a similar clinical treatment for asthma worldwide,” Deyev says.

Deyev’s project, one of the first research projects chosen from a number of applicants, will be joined by four additional studies: a project involving cell therapies for diabetes (Camillo Ricordi, M.D., scientific director and chief academic officer of the Diabetes Research Institute)), a drug discovery program for spinal cord injury (John Bixby, Ph.D and Vance Lemmon, Ph.D., scientists at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis)), a pathogen detection project for eye infections (Eduardo Alfonso, M.D., professor at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and Jack Fell, Ph.D. professor at Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science), and a novel culture system for embryonic stem cells (Juan Dominguez-Bendala, Ph.D., research assistant professor at the Diabetes Research Institute).

Established by a $13 million grant from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation (WHCF), the foundation’s board recently visited Norma Kenyon, Ph.D., director of the center, Luis Glaser, Ph.D., special assistant to the president, Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., senior vice president for medical affairs and Dean of the Miller School of Medicine and Thomas J. LeBlanc, Ph.D., executive vice president and provost to discuss the progress and future direction of the center.

We are delighted to have our first research project underway in the lab,” says Kenyon. “The tremendous support we have received from the WHCF will strengthen our ability to translate promising research findings into novel clinical therapies.