Women’s Global Health Institute awards four women’s health research grants

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue Women’s Global Health Institute (WGHI) has awarded four 2024 research grants through its Women’s Health Research Pilot Grant Program. The Purdue projects address health issues that are critical to women throughout the world.

The projects each receiving $15,000 are:

• “Evaluation of the contribution of genital ureaplasmas in the etiopathogenesis of miscarriage in Brazilian women.” In this project, Andrea Pires dos Santos, associate professor of comparative pathobiology, is working to determine whether specific bacteria are contributing to miscarriages among Brazilian women. Pires dos Santos is a co-principal investigator with two faculty researchers at Federal University of Bahia, Brazil: Guilherme Barreto Campos and Lucas Miranda Marques.

• “Differences in risk for Alzheimer’s disease: daily measures of mood, cognition and social engagement.” Women account for about two-thirds of all Alzheimer’s cases. Research has suggested that a lack of social activity and feelings of loneliness are associated with cognitive decline and dementia. Susan South, professor of psychological sciences and principal investigator for this project, will study the associations between adverse interpersonal experiences and fluctuations in daily cognitive ability.

• “Sex differences in the timing and severity of cognitive deficits and pathology using the 3xTg mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Wendy Koss, assistant research professor and director of Purdue Animal Behavior Core, is principal investigator on this project, and Ranjie Xu, assistant professor of basic medical sciences, and Jean-Christophe Rochet, professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology, are co-principal investigators. They will use the triple-transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease to correlate the timing and severity of cognitive deficits with biochemical changes in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex regions of the brain. With the data they gather, they plan to build a foundation for research to explore the underlying mechanisms causing sex differences in Alzheimer’s.

• “Rough journey to menopause: how does perimenopausal menorrhagia affect women’s quality of life and cognitive function?”

The principal investigator of this study is Laura Murray-Kolb, professor and head of nutrition science, who will conduct a randomized controlled trial to understand the effects of iron status and supplementation on perimenopausal women’s cognitive performance, family relationships and overall quality of life.

Every year, the WGHI provides awards to support research proposals of outstanding scientific merit that address translational and basic research in women’s health. The awards this year are made possible primarily through a collaborative effort between WGHI and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, complemented by partnerships with the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, the College of Health and Human Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Comparative Pathobiology.

Find details of the 2024 awards and past awards at the WGHI Women’s Health Research Pilot Grant Program website. The next call for proposals for women’s health grants will be in September.

About the Women’s Global Health Institute

The Women’s Global Health Institute, a partner of the Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease and the College of Health and Human Sciences, serves as a nexus of interdisciplinary research to create partnerships, promote research and develop training opportunities to improve the health and quality of life for women through the prevention and early detection of disease.

Writer/Media contact: Amy Raley, araley@purdue.edu

Source: Luanne Bermel, lmi@purdue.edu