Top News

Record-breaking NIH funding The IU School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and Wells Center was ranked 7th in the country in NIH funding last year according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. The department secured the highest amount of NIH funding ever in 2022, receiving more than $38,000,000 and resulting in an 8.3% funding increase. View report	Spreading Holiday Cheer Several Wells Center members personally donated funds and delivered festive boxes of donuts and handwritten “thank you” notes to the nurses and staff facing demanding conditions at Riley Hospital. More than 500 donuts were distributed before the holidays. Read more
Contributing to the first FDA-approved drug to delay onset of T1D The Wells Center's assistant director, Emily Sims, MD, was a key investigator in clinical studies that led to the FDA's approval of teplizumab to delay the onset of type 1 diabetes in at-risk individuals.  Revisit the news	30th-anniversary celebration On August 25, 2022, the Wells Center celebrated a belated 30th anniversary with a retreat and special gathering at the NCAA Hall of Champions.  Look back on the celebration

Team Wells Updates

As pandemic precautions eased in 2022, Teams Wells was pleased to welcome the return of in-person events and had several reasons to celebrate including:

• A record number of new investigators and internal promotions. 
• Welcoming more than 30 new members to the Wells Center. 
• The Wells Center's impressive growth expanding into R3. 
• The Center's 30th-anniversary celebration and retreat. 
• The return of the Summer Internship Program on campus. 
• The third annual pumpkin contest and Halloween gathering. 
• A beautiful holiday event at the Indiana Historical Society.
• Donating hundreds of items to IUPUI's food pantry.  
• The second annual Wells Center Jeopardy event. 

Discovery in Action

Congratulations to Grant and Award Recipients
Wells Center members have received a vast number of grants and awards in recent months. A select few are highlighted below.

• Simon Conway, PhD & Jeff Brault, PhD | "Tafazzin-mediated changes in ATP/energetics in neonatal and adult skeletal muscles" (Wells Center Seed Award)
• Emily Sims, MD & Amelia Linnemann, PhD | "Autophagy and Proinsulin Release in Diabetes Development" (Wells Center Seed Award)
• Andrea Conroy, PhD & Nathan Schmidt, PhD | "Effect of malaria and malnutrition on intestinal damage, endothelial activation, and kidney injury" (Wells Center Seed Award)
• Mark Kelley, PhD & Troy Markel, MD | "The Use of a Novel APE1/Ref-1 Inhibitor to Treat Necrotizing Enterocolitis" (Wells Center Seed Award)
• Andrew Schwaderer, MD | "Harnessing the acid-base cellular machinery of intercalated cells in the bacterial defense of the kidney" (Bridge Award)
• David Markusic, PhD, MSC | "Mechanisms of AAV antigen-specific immune tolerance in the liver" (Bridge Award)
• Nathan Schmidt, PhD | "Role of the gut microbiota in shaping severity of malaria" (Bridge Award)
• Michael Davis, PhD | "A novel nasal treatment for COVID-10" (Emerging Therapies Award)
• Emily Sims, MD | "TArgeting Type 1 Diabetes Using POLyamines or TADPOL" (Emerging Therapies Award)
• Alka Khaitan, MD | "Pancreatic, Neurologic and Cardiac Biomarkers and Immune Correlates in Children with Perinatal HIV" (Translational Award)
• Joan Cook-Mills, PhD | "Regulation of the Development of Neonate Allergy by Maternal and Microbiome Metabolism of Sphingolipids" (Bridge Award)
• Jamie Felton, MD | "Type I Interferons and B Cell Metabolism as Drivers of Type 1 Diabetes" (NIH K12 Career Development Award)
• Melissa Fishel, PhD | "Reprogramming to PDAC by Targeting Coagulation in the Tumor Microenvironment" (U01: NIH-NIC)
• Reuben Kapur, PhD | "Inflammatory contributions of clonal hematopoiesis to cardiovascular disease" (F30: NIH-NHLCI)
• Carmella Evans-Molina, PhD, MS, MD & Staci Weaver | "Role of endoplasmic reticulum calcium in beta cell mitochondrial dysfunction, senescence, and onset of type 1 diabetes" (F31: NIH-NIDDK)
• Amelia Linnemann, PhD & Alissa Novak | "Mechanisms and Targeted Control of Pancreatic β-Cell Antioxidant Response" (F31: NIH-NIDDK)
• Reuben Kapur, PhD & Karen Pollock, PhD | "Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell regulation for enhanced clinical efficacy" (U54: NIH-NIDDK)
• Anthony Firulli, PhD | "Morphogenesis and growth of the ventricular wall in development and disease" (P01: NIH-NHLBI)
• Sarah Burns | "Inflammatory contributions of clonal hematopoiesis to cardiovascular disease" (F30: NIH)
• Ngoc Tung Tran, PhD | "Homology-Independent Targeted Integration mediated gene therapy for Fanconi Anemia group C" (Showalter Trust Award)
• Elizabeth Sierra Potchanant, PhD | "Targeting PLK1 as a novel synthetic lethality strategy for acute myeloid leukemias with Fanconi anemia pathway mutations" (Showalter Trust Award)

Recent Publications

• "Drug Inhibition of Redox Factor-1 Restores Hypoxia-Driven Changes in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex 2 Deficient Cells." published in Cancers. Contributing IU authors: Melissa Fishel, Mark Kelley
• "Molecular Targets to Alleviate Enteric Neuropathy and Gastrointestinal Dysfunction." Published in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1383. Contributing IU authors: Mark Kelley
• "Identification of Novel Pathways Regulated by APE1/Ref-1 in Human Retinal Endothelial Cells." Published in International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Contributing IU authors: Sheng Liu, Kamakshi Sishtla, Gabriella Hartman, Jun Wan, Timothy Corson, Mark Kelley
• "Barriers to Screening: An Analysis of Factors Impacting Screening for Type 1 Diabetes Prevention Trials." Published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society. Contributing IU authors: Emily Sims, Linda DiMeglio
• "In Vivo Dissection of Chamber-Selective Enhancers Reveals Estrogen-Related Receptor as a Regulator of Ventricular Cardiomyocyte Identity." Published in Circulation. Contributing IU authors: Nathan VanDusen
• "Integrative Multi-OMICs Identifies Therapeutic Response Biomarkers and Confirms Fidelity of Clinically Annotated, Serially Passaged Patient-Derived Xenografts Established from Primary and Metastatic Pediatric and AYA Solid Tumors." Published in Cancers. Contributing IU authors: Pankita Pandya, Asha Jacob Jannu, Khadijeh Bijangi-Vishehsaraei, Erika Dobrota, Barbara Bailey, Farinaz Barghi, Harlan E Shannon, Niknam Riyahi, Nur P Damayanti, Courtney Young, Rada Malko, Ryli Justice, Eric Albright, George Sandusky, L Daniel Wurtz, Christopher Collier, Mark Marshall, Julia Wulfkuhle, Emanuel Petricoin, Kathy Coy, Melissa Trowbridge, Anthony Sinn, Jamie Renbarger, Michael Ferguson, Kun Huang, Jie Zhang, Reza Saadatzadeh, Karen Pollok
• "Periostin activates distinct modules of inflammation and itching downstream of the type 2 inflammation pathway." Published in Cell Report. Contributing IU authors: Simon Conway
• "Effect of Vitamin C Supplementation for Pregnant Smokers on Offspring Airway Function and Wheeze at Age 5 Years." Published in Jama Pediatrics. Contributing IU authors: Michelle Cunningham, Christina Tiller, Robert Tepper
• "Differential integrated stress response and asparagine production drive symbiosis and therapy resistance of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells." Published in Nature Cancer. Contributing IU authors: Ji Zhang, Sandeep Batra
• "Inhibition of BTK and PI3Kδ impairs the development of human JMML stem and progenitor cells." Published in Molecular Therapy. Contributing IU authors: Baskar Ramdas, Lisa Deng Yuen, Lakshmi Reddy Palam, Roshini Patel, Santhosh Kumar Pasupuleti, Victoria Jideonwo, Ji Zhang, Callista Maguire, Rahul Kanumuri, George Sandusky, Chi Zhang, Laura Haneline, Reuben Kapur
• "Targeting SHP2 phosphatase in hematological malignancies." Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Topics. Contributing IU authors: Rahul Kanumuri, Santhosh Kumar Pasupuleti, Sarah S Burns, Baskar Ramdas, Reuben Kapur
• "Physioxia-induced downregulation of Tet2 in hematopoietic stem cells contributes to enhanced self-renewal." Published in Blood. Contributing IU authors: Arafat Aljoufi, Chi Zhang, James Ropa, Wennan Chang, Lakshmi Reddy Palam, Scott Cooper, Baskar Ramdas, Maegan Capitano, Hal Broxmeyer, Reuben Kapur
• "Transient regulation of RNA methylation in human hematopoietic stem cells promotes their homing and engraftment." Published in Leukemia. Contributing IU authors: Xuepeng Wang, Scott Cooper, Hal Broxmeyer, Reuben Kapur

Kudos and Recognition

• Members from the Gene and Cell Therapy Research group received a $12 million grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to fund studies that explore safer hemophilia treatments and have shared their efforts via a new webpage.
• Carmella Evans-Molina MD, PhD, MS, was recently featured in IUSM's Women in Leadership blog series.
• Karen Pollok, PhD, and her team have been awarded two new grants to support osteosarcoma research, building on research established from Tyler Trent's tumor cells.
• Stephanie Ware, MD, PhD, was publicly announced as interim chair for the IU School of Medicine Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics.
• Mark Kelley, PhD, was granted a new patent in Europe, "Benzoquinone Derivative E3330 in Combination with Chemotherapeutic Agents for the Treatment of Cancer and Angiogenesis"
• Sarah Burns, from the Kapur Lab, is the second recipient of the Walter A. and Laura W. Deutsch Research Scholarship of the Riley Children's Foundation and Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.
• Renzhi Han, PhD, joined the Gene and Cell Therapy group as its newest investigator in January.
• Mark Kelley, PhD, developed an oral drug to prevent diabetic retinopathy, called APX3330, and it recently completed a phase 2b trial with the FDA.
• Ben Landis, MD, and his colleagues have received the Department of Defense Discovery Award to study the coarctation of the aorta.
• Danielle Soranno, MD, was recently featured in a Riley Children's Foundation blog about her passion for nephrology and decision to join Riley and IU School of Medicine.

Learn more about the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research

Follow @IUWellsCenter on TwitterScroll/swipe this table left and right to see more information.