Chicago ITM Event: Behind the Breakthroughs

Chicago ITM Event: Behind the Breakthroughs

Public & Researchers Connect at Special ITM Event Showcasing Cool Science Breakthroughs

Chicagoland community members and Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) researchers came together to build connections and share stories about groundbreaking research supported by the ITM’s Pilot Awards program on ways to tackle common causes of blindness, avoid getting dementia, use AI to help diagnose a pediatric kidney condition, and identify women who might benefit from an HIV preventative medication.

Four researchers presented their ITM-funded projects from their time at the University of Chicago and RUSH in an approachable, public-friendly way at a special ITM Grand Rounds event Jan. 24 at MATTER at the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago. The researchers all received $60,000 in funding to kick-start their work, as part of the Pilot Awards program, which supports early-stage creative ideas that have the potential to change the world.

“These connections and sparks don’t just stop here tonight,” said event MC Sara Serritella, ITM’s Director of Communications who teaches science communication courses at the University of Chicago. “Breakthroughs can’t be made without people like all of us teaming up with health researchers like the ones you’ll meet tonight to join studies with the goal of living a healthy, happy, long life with our loved ones.”

Audience members had an opportunity to network with the researchers and enjoy a red-carpet reception with food and ITM cupcakes following the presentations.

Rupa Sanku came all the way from Naperville, IL, to attend the event. She said enjoyed learning about the brain health research.

Attendee Estephanie Pérez-Mercado, a student in the University of Chicago Master’s in Biomedical Sciences Program, said her favorite part was the human connection and “getting to meet the researchers and learning about what they were passionate about and why they wanted to do what they do.”

Highlights from the presentation

Kind words from happy attendees

Battling Blindness with a Diabetes Pill

ITM-UChicago researcher Dimitra Skondra, MD, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, kicked things off with a talk on battling blindness with a diabetes pill.

“Vision is something we take for granted, all of us,” said Skondra, who is exploring a potential way to help people avoid blindness.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in anyone over the age of 50 in the United States. There is no prevention and no treatment for 90% of patients, Skondra said, except for a monthly shot directly into the eye. This cringey option costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars.

But a different option may be just a clinical trial away.

While treating patients in clinic, Skondra noticed a trend with elderly patients who happen to have diabetes and take a diabetes medication called metformin. These 90-year-olds “have retinas of 20-year-olds,” Skondra said.

She received pilot funding to learn more about the relationship and her findings support her idea that the medication can help. Metformin promoted healthy aging through a healthy and happy microbiome, or the collection of bacteria and microorganisms inside us. Her study in mice found that just two weeks of metformin stopped AMD. The next step is a clinical trial in humans.

Want to learn more? Connect with Dimitra at Dimitra.Skondra@uchicagomedicine.org

Could Activity in Your Day Keep Dementia Away?

Up next, the audience heard from Shannon Halloway, PhD, RN, on keeping dementia away with activity. Halloway is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science at the University of Illinois Chicago. She received the ITM Pilot Award as an Assistant Professor at RUSH. Her research is a part of the national U.S. Pointer Study to support brain health as we age.

“What if I told you that there are simple things that we can do in our everyday life to hopefully prevent the onset of or delay the onset of brain changes and dementia and Alzheimer’s disease as we age,” Halloway asked the audience.

Halloway’s research found that just 30 minutes of daily activity that gets the heart rate up is enough to improve blood flow to the brain and help form that protective bubble that helps preserve memory and thinking – and hopefully prevent or delay the onset of dementia. However, she warned that too much sitting can offset the positive health benefits we get from exercise.

Next steps for Halloway include a nation-wide project that studies the extent to which small changes in behavior can improve brain health.

Want to learn more? Connect with Shannon at sthallow@uic.edu.

Can the Same Tech That Facebook Uses Lead to Healthier Newborns?

ITM-UChicago researcher Mohan S. Gundeti, MD, Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics and Gynecology, followed by presenting his work on using artificial intelligence to help diagnose a kidney condition called hydronephrosis that affects about 1 in 100 newborns.

“Children are the future, and I spend all (my) life taking care of children,” Gundeti said. “That’s my life’s purpose.”

There are different grades, or stages, of hydronephrosis – the mildest will resolve on its own and the most severe will require the infant to have surgery. The problem lies with human differences when diagnosing the stage of the condition. One ultrasound is commonly given two separate grades by two different specialists, leaving parents with tremendous uncertainty. But AI might be able to help.

Thanks to a partnership with fellow ITM-UChicago researcher Maryellen Giger, PhD, the A.N. Pritzker Distinguished Service Professor of Radiology at UChicago, Gundeti is studying the use of the same AI technology that Facebook uses to recognize faces to have more objective grading of hydronephrosis. If his team can develop this algorithm and standardize diagnoses, the impacts could include everything from providing clear treatment plans to parents and even saving babies from kidney failure.

Want to learn more? Connect with Mohan at mgundeti@bsd.uchicago.edu

Preventing HIV in Women of Color

Last to present was ITM-UChicago researcher Jessica Ridgway, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, on her work in preventing HIV in women of color with the medication PrEP. Ridgway shared the story of a pregnant patient who was newly diagnosed with HIV. The patient didn’t even know there was a medication she could take to prevent HIV.

“She had no symptoms of HIV,” Ridgway said. “She’d been tested for HIV before and it had been negative. She’d been to see doctors no one had ever before told her that there was something she could do, or a medication she could take to prevent HIV. She was upset and angry and worried. That really stuck with me.”

While there is no cure for HIV, PrEP is a medication that people can take to prevent it. There are a lot of people who could benefit from using it, she said, but mostly men get offered the medication. Ridgway said that women account for 19% of new HIV cases, but they only make up 8% of PrEP users.

In her ITM-funded pilot project, Ridgway’s goal was to create an AI algorithm to identify women who would benefit from PrEP and to understand women’s perspectives about this process. The overall opinions of the over 100 women her team spoke with were positive, though some had reservations around privacy and potential discrimination. Ridgway is now doing ongoing work to make the algorithm better.

Want to learn more? Connect with Jessica at Jessica.Ridgway@uchicagomedicine.org.

Looking for seed funding for your workk? Submit a one-page letter of intent through Feb. 28, 2025!

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About the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM)

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) helps you live your best life by making research breakthroughs happen and getting those discoveries into the real world to improve your health as soon as possible.

The ITM is a partnership between the University of Chicago and Rush in collaboration with Advocate Aurora Health Care, Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), Loyola University Chicago, and Endeavor Health that’s fueled by about $51 million in grants from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program.

The ITM is part of a network of more than 50 CTSA Program-supported hubs across the country working to slash the time it takes to develop and share new treatments and health approaches. We work with you and for you to make participating in health research easy, so that together we improve health care for all.

Join the movement and learn more about how we help researchers, physicians, community members, industry, government organizations, and others. Visit us at chicagoitm.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn @ChicagoITM.

ITM Contact: Sara Serritella, Director of ITM Communications, serritella@uchicago.edu

This project is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that supports the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) through Grant Number UL1TR002389.

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