Unmc College Of Pharmacy

UNMC scientist gets big grant from Russian government

OMAHA -- A University of Nebraska Medical Center chemist soon will be operating labs on two continents, thanks to a two-year, $4.5 million grant from the Russian government.

Alexander "Sasha" Kabanov, the Parke-Davis Professor in Pharmaceutics and director of the Center for Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine at UNMC, is one of 40 Russian, foreign or expatriate Russian scientists to receive grants to bring their expertise to Russian universities. Kabanov is a U.S. citizen.

The only chemist in the group, Kabanov will lead one of six projects at Moscow State University, his alma mater. He will study chemical formulations of enzymes and proteins for bionanomaterials.

"I am looking for a different approach to therapy for drug-resistant bacteria," Kabanov said in a UNMC news release.

"This grant is a reflection of Dr. Kabanov's international prominence in the field and brings international attention to his program at UNMC as well," said Jennifer Larsen, M.D., associate vice chancellor for clinical research and soon to be vice chancellor for research.

Don Leuenberger, vice chancellor of business and finance, said the grant from Russia recognizes the quality of Kabanov's research. "It's another indication that world-class research is under way at UNMC."

The grants to Kabanov and the other scientists are part of Russia's attempt to strengthen research at its universities and modernize the country's science and economy at large.

Kabanov's laboratory will be in the MSU Department of Chemistry, where he also was a leading research fellow before the fall of the Soviet Union.

"It's a great honor to be awarded one of these grants," Kabanov said. "International collaboration is important, and UNMC is getting recognition in the global arena. We have a chance to make a big difference here."

Kabanov joined UNMC in 1994 and established the first academic center in nanomedicine in the United States 10 years later. The Nebraska Center for Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine (CDDN) develops innovative tools for improving drug delivery systems through nanoscale technologies.

Using particles 100,000 times smaller than the head of a pin, nanomedicine is a rapidly growing field of research that may spark a new generation of therapies and diagnostic tools to combat human diseases.

The CDDN includes 33 faculty members who hold more than $34 million in federal research grants and last year generated about 50 percent of all UNMC patent applications.

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