2018-2023

National Institute of General Medical Sciences / NIH
Personalized Medicine in Nevada COBRE
PI: Schiller
$11.1 million

Society is progressing beyond “trial-and-error medicine” into a new data-driven era wherein one's genetic makeup is used to improve accuracy in medical diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment [1,2]. In President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address on January 20, 2015, he mentioned the promise of, and future investment in, personalized medicine. Many experts, including National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, MD, believe that what is now called personalized, precision, or individualized medicine will transform the future of healthcare. As emerging genetic technologies gradually become the standard of care in some clinical settings, they will continue to improve, driven largely by academic medical centers. Modern genomic and associated bioinformatic analyses have become a staple of modern biomedical research. However, there is no COBRE in personalized medicine, despite its growing influence. The NIH COBRE program aims to strengthen the biomedical research infrastructure and improve competitive research in Institutional Development Award (IDeA)–eligible states. Modern genomic and bioinformatic analyses have become a staple of modern biomedical research. However, no COBRE exists in personalized medicine, despite its growing influence. UNLV is uniquely positioned to deliver on this urgent unmet need. The scientific premise of our COBRE is to advance the use of genomics and genetics in personalized medicine through cutting-edge research discovery and use of genetic markers, building a center of excellence that fosters new investigator independence, and collaborating with the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV and other partners in basic and translational research. Consistent with the goal of the NIH COBRE program to strengthen biomedical research infrastructure and competitive research in IDeA eligible states, we propose three aims: (1) to build a sustained center in personalized medicine; (2) to nurture new investigator growth and independence; and (3) to grow personalized medicine research.

2019-2020

National Institute of General Medical Sciences / NIH
COBRE Supplement: TREM2 Atlas of Mutations and TREM2 Positive Exosomes as Alzheimer's Markers
PI: Schiller
$373,737

Dr. Schiller's lab has developed a high-throughput single cell reporter GigaAssay technology that can assay hundreds of pathways and cell processes in a single experiment. We propose to develop and validate this assay on several UDN candidate variants from patients as a general platform to systematically assess the etiology of disease and identify candidate therapeutics for current and future UDN patients.

2014-2017

State of Nevada/Knowledge Fund
Institute for Quantitative Health Sciences
PI: Schiller: Co-Is: Inouye, Reiber, Gerstenberger, Porter, Yucha, Lombardo
$2.5 million

Personalized medicine offers the promise of diagnosis and treatment programs for the specific DNA signature of each person. UNLV, with funding from the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development through its Knowledge Fund Grant, has established the Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine (NIPM) to conduct research and clinical trials integrating genomics, computational biology, health informatics, and community health and outcomes research to drive personalized medicine. The momentum of this initiative has the potential to create an entire new industry in Nevada and to become a foundational theme for the new Southern Nevada medical schools. Nevada will be positioned to play a central role in the national network of scientists and universities that are beginning to make personalized medicine the standard of modern medicine.

(11 grants; $2,634,428) as of 8/16

2015-2017

National Institutes of Health
“A novel high-throughput function screen based upon chimeric minimotif decoys”
PI: Schiller
$402,000

2014-2017

National Institutes of Health
"HIVToolbox, an interactive visual, and customizable HIV protein ontology"
PI: Schiller
$331,875

2013-2016

National Institutes of Health
"The functional C-terminome"
R15GM107983
PI: Schiller
$442,667

2011-2015

National Institutes of Health
"Efficient algorithms for motif search"
PI: Rajasekaran, subaward PI: Schiller
$230,846

2015-2017

National Institutes of Health
“Understanding the genetic architecture of schizophrenia in Chinese population”
PI: Chen X.
$486,096

2015-2017

National Institutes of Health
“Genes and molecular pathways in nicotine dependence and withdrawal”
PI: Chen X.
$118,400

2015-2017

National Institutes of Health
“Transposable element silencing in human somatic cells”
PI: Han
$353,244

2015-2017

National Science Foundation
“DataBridge”
PI: Zhan
$100,000

2016-2017

University of Nevada Las Vegas
“Genetic relationship between schizophrenia and autoimmune disorders”
PI: Jingchun Chen
$30,000

2016-2017

University of Nevada Las Vegas
“To develop a cellular model of microglia for schizophrenia research”
PI: Jingchun Chen
$69,300

2016-2017

University of Nevada Las Vegas
“A Pilot Study to Develop Personalized Reference Values of Bone Mineral Density”
PI: Qing Wu
$70,000