WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 26, 2012)—Lindsay Garvin, a doctoral candidate pursuing a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology as part of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, a joint program with the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences and the GW Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a two-year research fellowship by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America (PhRMA) Foundation.
“Lindsay Garvin is a talented, hard-working, interactive scientist,” said Mary Rose, Ph.D., research professor of Integrative Systems Biology, Pediatrics and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and research professor of Pediatrics at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, who will be overseeing Garvin’s research. “Long term she is interested in pharmaceuticals and their impact on gene regulation and diseases and thus elected to work on a project on mucin gene regulation in my lab.”
Garvin’s research examines the mechanism of a new steroidal compound, VBP15, in the repression of the mucin producing gene, MUC5AC. VBP15 has the potential to dissociate the beneficial anti-inflammatory effects of traditional glucocorticoids from the harmful side-effects often seen in patients on long-term glucocorticoid therapies.
“We feel this work is important as the overproduction of mucin is implicated in the morbidity and mortality rates of individuals suffering from chronic lung diseases such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” said Garvin. “It can lead to an improvement in the way patients suffering from these conditions are treated and provide a more comfortable existence for them.”
Garvin will be conducting her research at Children’s National Medical Center in the Research Center for Genetic Medicine and the Department of Integrative Systems Biology.
