$2.5M NIH Grant Funds Cell-to-Cell Communication Research

A University of Maryland scientist using advanced microscopy to reveal the secrets of cell-to-cell communication in developing organisms received a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his research.

Sougata Roy, associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics (CBMG), is focusing on cytonemes, hairlike projections that protrude from cells and serve as conduits to allow signals to pass between them. In particular, he’s studying how this unique mode of contact-dependent communication is controlled at the molecular and cellular levels and how this process might help to create and maintain complex tissue structures in animals’ bodies.

Roy previously helped discover an intricate long-distance communication mechanism in fruit flies vital to the formation and maintenance of complex tissue patterns in animals, so any aberrations in those processes can affect an organism’s overall health. In humans, disruptions in cell communication have been linked to almost all major diseases, including cancer, autoimmune disease and neurodegenerative diseases.

Roy’s grant application through the NIH’s competitive Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) earned a perfect 10—a feat so rare that it is sometimes called a “unicorn score.”

The NIH has awarded 18 MIRA grants to UMD researchers, including 15 to faculty members in the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. Roy was among the first researchers at UMD to receive this award in 2017, and he has now secured funding for another five years.

CBMG Chair Kevin McIver said that Roy’s rare achievements are a testament to the importance and value of his research.

“To have a second NIH MIRA award funded is outstanding in and of itself,” McIver said, “but for Sougata to receive a perfect 10 score just really emphasizes the deep respect of his scientific peers for the excellent research that he has been doing.”

This article was originally published by a today.umd.edu . Read the Original article here. .