Since opening in 2009, The Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling has grown and gained success and recognition for its research, making it an important factor in UH’s Tier-One achievement.
The center is working on 26 projects and has received more than $18 million in funding so far in 2012.
“Excellence in research is an important criterion for a university to reach and maintain Tier-One status,” said Jan-Åke Gustafsson, director of the CNRCS.
“Tier One status is determined by a number of factors, including research awards and expenditures. A productive research environment is one of the key foundations in building a nationally competitive research university,” said Shaun Zhang, UH professor and CNRCS researcher, in an email.
“The Center is designed to contribute to the Tier One mission not only in research productivity, but graduate student enrollment and graduation as well as other areas.”
The CNRCS’ funding has increased since its first year at UH, when grants awarded totaled $2.1 million.
While part of the success of the CNRCS can be attributed to the significance and usefulness of its research, another part of what makes this center so successful might lie in the way it pursues funding.
“We have grants from several sources, (such as) NIH, CPRIT and private funds,” Gustafsson said.
“We are very active in writing grant applications, and we expect to see an increasing number of grants coming to our center over the next few years.”
Another factor in its success may be that the center has recruited a variety of people who have helped to build a successful department.
“There is a strong team feeling in the center and everybody is interested in collaborating with one another,” Gustafsson said.
The center’s research is focused on the parts of molecules that allow for communication between and inside of cells.
“Most of our projects concern nuclear receptors, (such as) proteins, in the cell nucleus, which are activated by certain hormones like male and female sex hormones. (These) bind to genes, thereby regulating the rate by which these genes are transcribed into messenger RNA, which in its turn is translated into protein,” Gustafsson said.
“In this way, nuclear receptors are extremely important regulatory molecules which are essential in health and disease.”
The key to understanding and treating many diseases lies in the function of nuclear receptors and how different parts of cells and tissues communicate.
“As much as 20 percent of prescribed drugs target nuclear receptors, and further targeting of nuclear receptors constitutes high priority programs in the pharmaceutical industry,” Gustafsson said.
Zhang is working on a way to combat cancer by manipulating the function of a virus.
“My group is focused on cancer virotherapy and specifically devoted to repurposing the herpes simplex virus two to combat cancer cells,” Zhang said in an email.
“That project and others will hopefully see clinical trials in the future, with the ultimate goal of providing better treatment options for patients.”
The CNRCS currently has ongoing team projects within the UH Center and various UH departments along with other universities and institutes, including The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas at El Paso.
“There are many projects both at the Center and throughout UH with intramural and extramural collaborators,” Zhang said in an email.
“Moreover, many of the projects involve collaborators from outside institutions, either in the nearby medical center, or across the entire nation.”
