Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics Dr. Devika Manickam was recently awarded $5,000 from the Hunkele Dreaded Disease Review Committee at Duquesne. Her project, Gene Delivery to the Blood-Brain Barrier for Stroke Therapy, will focus on protecting the brain from suffering damage during a stroke.
In addition, Manickam will investigate the development of an efficient way to deliver DNA molecules to the blood-brain barrier (BBB)—the protective lining surrounding the brain—to treat a stroke. Her goal is to program the BBB to secrete neuroprotective factors to protect the brain from injury.
The Hunkele Dreaded Disease Award is administered as a competitive grants program and is available to full-time, tenure-track or tenured faculty. The grant provides money for researchers conducting biomedical research on major, life-threatening diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes that could ultimately lead to a direct cure.
The grant competition is open to Duquesne faculty members working in any academic discipline.
For more information visit the Office of Research website.