Two Duke faculty recently were awarded R01 research grants by the National Institutes of Health.
Liping Feng, MD, has been awarded a $3.1 million R01 grant spanning four years by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The scope of the research is to examine the hypothesis that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure is detrimental to placental function and fetal development via disruption of mitochondrial activities and metabolism.
"Our specific aims are to investigate mitochondrial perturbations associated with perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) exposures in human placental trophoblast cells; to determine which specific mitochondria-relevant syncytiotrophoblast functions are altered by PFBS exposure; and to assess alterations in placental hemodynamics, oxygenation and mitochondria-relevant metabolism by PFBS and PFAS mixtures in mice," she stated.
Director of Family Planning Jonas Swartz, MD, MPH, has been awarded a $4 million R01 grant spanning five years by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
“The goal of this research is to help understand how institutions follow the law when faced with restrictions to evidence-based reproductive health care, and to improve those processes,” said Dr. Swartz.