PHILADELPHIA (February 7, 2019) — Siddharth Balachandran, PhD, co-leader of the Blood Cell Development and Function Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center, was recently awarded a grant from the National Institute on Aging to conduct research on the process of cell death as a response to external trauma or disease. The grant will provide $258,949 in funding over one year.
Balachandran will collaborate with researchers at Tufts University on work related to the RIPK3 enzyme. He will serve as co-investigator on the research, with responsibility for coordinating the evaluation of pro-inflammatory biomarkers in patient samples, and interpreting study results. The principal investigator is Alexei Degterev, PhD, associate professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Gregory Cuny, PhD, associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Houston, is the third co-investigator on the project.
The researchers will conduct both in vitro and in vivo studies to examine the ways in which mechanisms of programmed cell death influence the course of influenza, atherosclerosis, and lung disease during aging.