URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Fall_2024_Mel

When Kerry LaPlante looks out her office window, she can see exactly where URI’s proposed new life science building will be. As dean of the College of Pharmacy, she knows as much as anyone how sorely it’s needed. “We have the talent, we have the expertise, we have the people, we just need the space,” LaPlante says. Since moving into its current building more than a decade ago URI’s College of Pharmacy has grown to the top 10 percent of colleges of pharmacy in research funding, with more than $21 million in annual grants. The college is unique in that nearly all its research is focused on finding practical treatments for diseases and other ailments. LaPlante says, “Everything we do is focused not only on advancing training and knowledge for the next generation of students, but also towards advancing health and transforming communities through research. It goes bench to bedside—the patient comes first, and we put them at the center of everything we do.” Research at the college falls in one of three areas. The first is neuroscience and healthy aging, which focuses on the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ALS, and age-related illnesses, mental health, and substance abuse issues. Rhode Island is in the top third of all states in the percentage of residents 65 and older, making healthy aging of particular importance in the state, LaPlante notes. The second area of research is immunology, infectious diseases, drug delivery, vaccine development, and natural products, focusing on treatment of diseases, including cancer,

BONGSUP CHO Program Director, RI-INBRE Professor, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and infectious diseases, as well as nutrition and food as medicine. “We look at the whole patient, and whole health,” LaPlante says, noting that Rhode Island’s reputation as a “foodie” state with fresh seafood makes it a particularly ripe place to study healthy eating. Lastly, the college focuses on issues of health care accessibility, by involving pharmacists in state public health efforts, advocating for fairness in medicine and access to vulnerable populations. There is a broad array of scientists across the research areas investigating a wide range of diseases and potential treatments. The George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience (GARIN), which has been based at the college since 2013, conducts cutting edge neuroscientific research on campus. The College also houses the Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE), a statewide effort sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to build the state’s capacity for biomedical research since 2001.

Bongsup Cho, RI-INBRE program director and a professor in the College of Pharmacy who studies the molecular basis of DNA damage and cancer, explains, “It’s one of the longest-running NIH supported programs, bringing in more than $100 million from 2001 to 2029. This funding significantly

Deoxynucleic acid (DNA) carries genetic instructions for cell growth, and alongside proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. It is an essential component in forming life. Featured here is a customized double helical DNA sequence model.

Gaspar has focused on how plastics exposure in the brain may impact diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The RI-INBRE Centralized Research Core Facility (CRCF) provides the RI biomedical community with various research instruments. One of these is a 3D printer, which produces visual models for researchers such as proteins, nanomaterials, and viruses.

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