NEW YORK, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Neuropathy Association has announced two awardees for its annual Scientific Research Grants Program.
Every year, The Neuropathy Association--the leading national non-profit organization dedicated to finding cures for peripheral neuropathies--awards two scientific research grants, each for $80,000 over a two-year period.
This year's grant recipients--Dennis Paul, Ph.D. and co-principal investigator, Harry J. Gould, M.D., Ph.D. of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans and Glaucia C. Furtado, Ph.D. of Mount Sinai School of Medicine--were chosen from thirteen applicants involved in neuropathy research at medical institutions across North America.
Drs. Dennis Paul and Harry Gould--co-investigators on the proposal, Sodium Channels, Sodium Pumps, Inflammation, and Diabetic Neuropathy--are investigating the concomitant role of diabetes and inflammation in the development of diabetic neuropathy. They are hopeful that by studying the biological and physical manifestations of diabetic neuropathy--and specifically, the role of nerve cell death by lysis (or bursting)--they will better understand the pathogenesis of one of the most common, and debilitating, complications of diabetes.
Dr. Paul notes, "Understanding the mechanism of nerve cell survival after inflammatory or neuropathic insult will lead to new treatments and preventive strategies for diabetic neuropathy."
Dr. Glaucia Furtado's proposal, Role of CCR7 in Peripheral Neuropathy, is based on the hypothesis that the lack of CCR7--protein receptors normally found on white blood cells (or WBCs) of the immune system--induces an autoimmune demyelinating neuropathy. CCR7 receptors are responsible for guiding migration of WBCs to and within lymph tissues, where they initiate an immune response.
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