LA BioMed Researchers Receive $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Drs. Arnold Bayer, Yan Qiong Xiong and Soo-Jin Yang, Faculty principal investigators in LA BioMed’s Division of Infectious Diseases, have recently been awarded three extramural grants for their collaborating programs in the study of Staphylococcus aureus infections, most specifically Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Dr. Bayer’s $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) represents continued funding for years 15-19 of this RO1-funded project, while Dr. Xiong’s $389,571 grant is a new two-year R21 award from NIAID. Dr. Yang received a new two-year Grant-in-Aid totaling $154,000 from the American Heart Association.

The goals of the projects are to identify genetic pathways within MRSA that may serve as novel and effective targets for unique therapeutic approaches. A key aspect of two of thesenew grants is that they include important collaborations with another LA Biomed principal investigator in the Division of Infectious Diseases,Dr. Michael Yeaman. The technical efforts of Drs. Nagendra Mishra and Wessam Abdel-Hardy were also instrumental in securing these new grants.