CURE Grantees and Reviewer Receive Funding Through PRMRP

Dr. Jaideep Kapur and Drs. Audrey and Amy Yee have received research awards through the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program, in the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, Department of Defense. Dr. Kapur has served as a CURE reviewer, and Drs. Yee and Yee are 2009 CURE research award recipients.

Jaideep Kapur, MD, PhD
University of Virginia Health Science Cente
"M Current-Based Therapies for Nerve Agent Seizures"
3-year award of $1,136,250

These studies are designed to help war fighters and victims of terrorist attacks exposed to nerve gas or nerve agents such as sarin, soman, VX etc. These agents are known to cause seizures.

We propose to test new types of drugs to treat nerve agent induced seizures and brain effects. In an animal model of nerve agent exposure, we will test whether three drugs can terminate seizures and protect against brain damage. These three drugs are already being tried in people for the treatment of pain, epilepsy and stroke. These drugs have been safe when used in humans and side effects reported are sleepiness, dizziness etc. If these drugs prove useful in experimental animals, these could be tested in patients with prolonged seizures. These drugs could then be available to treat soldiers and civilians exposed to nerve agents.

Audrey Yee, MD
University of Colorado
Amy Yee, PhD
Tufts University
"Epilepsy and the Wnt Signaling Pathway"
3-year award of $750,000

Drs. Yee and Yee’s CURE award initiates the investigation of Wnt signaling and epilepsy; the awarded 3-year DOD grant will build on the progress from the CURE grant and maximize their original findings. For the DOD grant awarded, they will utilize multiple status- epilepticus models, examine onset to spontaneous seizures using chronic neurophysiological EEG recordings, and establish the mouse models for epileptogenesis to provide a more incisive investigation of the Wnt signaling mechanisms and possible therapies. By using mouse models, Drs. Yee and Yee can take full advantage of the vast spectrum of transgenic and knockout mice for the Wnt signaling field (developed for cancer studies) and then build on these studies to address epileptogenesis. Their collaborative and complementary approaches of both the CURE and DOD awards increases the chances for discovering new therapies for epilepsy by applying information from the cancer field.