Professor Mingfu Wu, Ph.D., and recent graduate Anika Nusrat, Ph.D., have identified a new cause of — and repair for — left ventricular non-compaction, also known as spongy heart disease. The new therapeutic approach, performed in utero, may prevent babies from being born with this life-threatening disease, which often causes the dire need for a heart transplant.

UHCOP faculty researcher Anirban Roy, Ph.D., has received a $300,000 grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association to support his work focusing on Transforming Growth Factor-β–Activated Kinase 1 (TAK1), a signaling protein known to regulate inflammation, muscle growth and cell survival, in the development and progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Gao and team developed Nano-273, a dual-function nanodrug packaged in a tiny albumin-based particle, which both activates STING and blocks PI3Kγ—a pathway that drives Breg expansion, while albumin nanoparticles help deliver the drug directly to immune cells, reducing unwanted side effects.