NEWS RELEASE

Department of Defense
Defense Health Agency Research and Development-Medical Research and Development Command
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs

Released: February 27, 2025

FORT DETRICK, Md.- On January 14, 2025, nearly 400 early-career scientists received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, PECASE. This award represents the highest honor from the federal government to scientists and engineersin the beginning of their independent research careers.

"The CDMRP expresses our sincerest congratulations to this year's awardees," Col. Mark Hartell, director of CDMRP, said. "The CDMRP is proud to support innovative research that positively impact communities affected by these diseases and conditions."

The following is a description of the CDMRP-funded research for respective awardees:

With a fiscal 2018 award from the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program, Abidemi Bolu Ajiboye, Ph.D., and his team at Case Western Reserve University, are working to restore movement and sensation to people with quadriplegia by integrating electrical stimulation of muscles and nerves with a brain-computer interface. This prosthesis could restore grasping and reaching movements, and a sense of touch, for those with chronic quadriplegia.

With a fiscal 2016 award from the Peer Review Medical Research Program, Ambika Bajpayee, Ph.D., and their team at Northeastern University, worked to develop cartilage penetrating therapeutics to treat osteoarthritis. This research could contribute to the development of a direct injection that facilitates cartilage rehabilitation and decreases the need for joint replacement. This study resulted in ten published articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

In fiscal 2023, and as part of a collaborative team award, the Melanoma Research Program awarded Alexander Gusev, Ph.D., at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, funding to identify biomarkers of disease progression and treatment resistance in stage III melanoma. If successful, these biomarkers could contribute to a decision-making framework that integrates clinical and molecular features to create personalized treatment plans.

The Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program awarded Paul King, Ph.D., and his team at Monash University, fiscal 2021 funding to test their hypothesis that there are two widely available drugs ideal for repurposing as a new anti-inflammatory treatment strategy for severe influenza infection.

Through the Prostate Cancer Research Program, Ekta Khurana, Ph.D., and their team at Joan and Sanford I Weill Medical College of Cornell University, are using a fiscal 2022 award to investigate a novel hormone-resistant subtype of prostate cancer. The study aims to develop computational methods to non-invasively identify patients with this prostate cancer subtype, identify the genetics that drive tumor growth, and test the impact of small-molecule protein inhibitors.

As part of a fiscal 2023 collaborative award, the Parkinson's Research Program funded Miranda Lim, M.D., Ph.D., at the Portland VA Research Foundation, Inc., to investigate whether impairment of the glymphatic system, a waste removal system within the central nervous system, occurs in the early stages of Parkinson's disease. Sleep disruption, traumatic brain injury, and posttraumatic stress disorder exacerbate the glymphatic dysfunction and are an underlying cause of later Parkinson's disease.

The Toxic Exposures Research program awarded Bryan McCranor, Ph.D., and his team and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, a collaborative award to develop an inhalation-based therapeutic to alleviate lung damage from chronic toxic inhalation injury.

The Prostate Cancer Research Program awarded Antonina Mitrofanova, Ph.D., and her team at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, fiscal 2023 funding to develop computational algorithms to identify biomarkers signaling metastatic growth of prostate cancer and risk of treatment failure in castration-resistant prostate cancer. The biomarkers identified using these computational models could impact decisions for disease management and treatment strategies for cancer patients.

The Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program funded a collaborative award in fiscal 2022 that included Marc Wein, M.D., Ph.D. and his team at Massachusetts General Hospital, to investigate the mechanisms that cause skeletal fragility and fractures in those living with fibrous dysplasia.

For more information about the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, our research programs, and research highlights, please visit the website at https://cdmrp.health.mil/.

Point of Contact:
CDMRP Public Affairs
usarmy.detrick.medcom-cdmrp.mbx.cdmrp-public-affairs@health.mil

Top of Page