The gift will facilitate an FDA-approved multi-site clinical trial under the co-direction of Lundquist Investigators, Dr. Charles S. Grob and Dr. Anthony P. Bossis

Investigator(s): Charles Grob, MD

The Joe & Sandy Samberg Foundation has made a gift of $300,000 to The Lundquist Institute (TLI) to study the use of psilocybin in alleviating demoralization and the psychological distress associated with life-threatening illness in palliative care. The gift will support the work of Charles Grob, MD, an investigator at TLI and professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Anthony P. Bossis, PhD, an investigator at TLI. The gift will facilitate an FDA-approved multi-site clinical trial. 

The NIH Award will Support Dr. Rehan’s and Advent’s Research to Develop and Position Its Novel Aerosolized Vitamin A Formulation for Commercialization to Prevent BPD

Investigator(s): Virender Rehan, MD

The Lundquist Institute and Advent Therapeutics have announced a landmark collaboration that has resulted in a significant $3 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase IIB grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The funding will directly support the groundbreaking work of Dr. Rehan Virender, which focuses on developing a first-of-its-kind aerosolized vitamin A formulation. This innovative treatment aims to counteract Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD), a life-threatening condition affecting premature infants, with an eye towards commercialization by 2025.

DNA Discovery Sheds Light on How Humans Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar Levels After Meals and How the Process Goes Wrong in Type 2 Diabetes


The Lundquist Institute (TLI) announced that its Institute for Translational Genomics and Populations Sciences contributed to a new study published     in Nature Genetics on June 8, 2023 of the DNA of more than 55,000 people worldwide. The study sheds light on how humans maintain healthy blood sugar levels after we have eaten, with implications for our understanding of how the process goes wrong in type 2 diabetes. The findings could help inform future treatments of type 2 diabetes, which affects over 460 million people worldwide and nearly 38 million people in the U.S.

DNA Discovery Sheds Light on How Humans Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar Levels After Meals and How the Process Goes Wrong in Type 2 Diabetes

The Lundquist Institute (TLI) announced that its Institute for Translational Genomics and Populations Sciences contributed to a new study published     in Nature Genetics on June 8, 2023 of the DNA of more than 55,000 people worldwide. The study sheds light on how humans maintain healthy blood sugar levels after we have eaten, with implications for our understanding of how the process goes wrong in type 2 diabetes. The findings could help inform future treatments of type 2 diabetes, which affects over 460 million people worldwide and nearly 38 million people in the U.S.

Award is for the VX-01 monoclonal antibody (mAb) program targeting the debilitating indication of mucormycosis

The Lundquist Institute (TLI) start-up company, Vitalex Biosciences, has been awarded an SBIR Phase 2 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health. The grant is for Vitalex’s VX-01, a monoclonal antibody (mAB) program targeting the debilitating indication of the fungal disease, mucormycosis. This serious fungal infection often occurs in people who are immunocompromised and is spreading throughout the world. Mucormycosis is only curable when diagnosed in its early stages.

The study showed that antibody combination provides strong protection against severe COVID-19 in large international trial. The trial enrolled non-hospitalized patients with early, mild to moderate COVID-19 who were considered at high risk of progression to severe COVID-19. The participating medical centers were in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, and the United States.

The study showed that antibody combination provides strong protection against severe COVID-19 in large international trial. A treatment combining two antibodies against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 strongly protected high-risk people with early COVID-19 symptoms from hospitalization and death in an international Phase 2/3 clinical trial. The trial enrolled more than 800 non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19 at high-risk of progression of the disease in the United States and five other countries.

CDC says Candida auris is spreading at an alarming rate throughout health care facilities in the U.S. and is resistant to several antifungal drugs

The Lundquist Institute (TLI) now has a vaccine candidate to combat the drug-resistant cause of healthcare acquired infections, the fungus Candida auris. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called this fungus the cause of severe health infections and a serious global threat. This fungal pathogen results in the deaths of 30-70% of those infected.

Dr. Filler feted for his research on fungal infections and vaccines while Dr. Harrington celebrated for his work in internal medicine and treating venous thromboembolism (VTE)

The 19th Annual Lundquist Legends tradition continued in 2022 with the recognition of two of its most outstanding investigators: Dr. Scott Filler and Dr. Darrell Harrington. Both Legends have enjoyed a long affiliation with UCLA as they both graduated from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and then came to and stayed for their whole careers at Harbor-UCLA and the Lundquist Institute. This year’s event took place at the Institute’s Medical Research Laboratory on the Institute campus and was also livestreamed online on December 7th.

The Gift Will be Used to Study the Effects of the Anti-Inflammatory Colchicine in People with Coronary Artery Disease

The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center has received a $1 million gift from the Stanley W. Ekstrom Foundation to investigate the progression rates of low attenuation plaque under the influence of Colchicine as compared to placebo. This gift will directly support the work of Dr. Matt Budoff, a Lundquist Investigator whose research is devoted to advancing procedures that can help doctors identify patients early that are at high-risk for cardiac events and progression of atherosclerosis.

Findings Published in The Lancet Ebiomedicine Demonstratethe Positive Effect of State-of-the-Art Ingestible Sensor for HIV Therapeutics

Dr. Eric Daar, Investigator at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, is the co-principal investigator for the $4 million National Institute of Mental Health grant that supported research which found that HIV patients whose drug regimen was monitored by an innovative ingestible sensor system were more adherent to antiretrovirals (ARVs) and, in turn, experienced lower viral loads.