COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS

Archive for June, 2020

Dr. Garcia-Mata receives NIH R01 funding!

A belated congrats to UToledo’s Dr. Rafael Garcia-Mata and research lab team on receiving funding for their study proposal, “Regulation of epithelial junctions and lumen morphogenesis by the Scribble/SGEF/Dlg1 complex”. The Garcia-Mata Lab, BioSci, was awarded R01 grant funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the National Institute of Health for project funding of $465,198 per year for four years … totaling $1,350,000!

As a frame of reference, epithelial tissues provide the body’s first line of protection from physical, chemical and biological wear and tear. Epithelial cancers comprise 85% of all human cancers.

“This proposal will uncover the fundamental mechanisms controlling the function of a novel protein complex that coordinates junctional assembly, barrier function and lumen formation in epithelial cells. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of these fundamental processes, which are essential for tissue morphogenesis and organ development, is a major obstacle in our quest to develop therapies to treat or prevent epithelial cancers or to engineer organs in culture.”