13
COM Outlook . Winter 2014
NSU-COM Researchers Receive $4.1 Million
Grant to Investigate Gulf War Illness
SU-COM’s Institute for
Neuro-Immune Medicine
recently received a $4.1 mil-
lion grant from the U.S. Department
of Defense (DoD) to fund its research
project titled “Understanding Gulf
War Illness (GWI): An Integrative
Modeling Approach.” The project,
which was selected as one of two
DoD Gulf War Illness Research
Program Consortium awardees, will
be led by grant recipients Mariana
Morris, Ph.D., professor of clini-
cal immunology and director of the
Gulf War Illness Project, and Nancy
Klimas, M.D., professor of internal
medicine and director of the Institute
for Neuro-Immune Medicine.
The consortium combines scientific
researchers with expertise in basic and
clinical research along with those with
expertise in stress response and heart
function models, genomics, and com-
putational models that isolate thera-
peutic targets and guide drug devel-
opment, formulation, and testing.
“This consortium provides an
opportunity to advance our under-
standing of Gulf War Illness through
discovery of biomarkers to more
accurately diagnose and treat this
syndrome,” said Wanda Salzer,
M.D., director of Congressionally
Directed Medical Research Programs.
“Working as an integrated team, the
scientists, clinicians, and veterans at
these accomplished organizations
will be able to establish synergy and
collectively develop research strate-
gies, which may unlock the pathways
leading to the regulatory dysfunction
in Gulf War Illness.”
Gulf War Illness is a medi-
cal condition that affects veterans
and civilians who were exposed
to a number of dangers, including
chemical weapons, during the 1991
N
Gulf War. Symptoms can include
chronic headaches, widespread pain,
cognitive difficulties, debilitating
fatigue, gastrointestinal problems,
respiratory symptoms, and other
abnormalities that are not explained
by established medical diagnoses or
standard laboratory tests. At least a
quarter of the nearly 700,000 soldiers
who fought in the Gulf War suffer
from GWI, according to the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs’ Re-
search Advisory Committee on Gulf
War Veterans’ Illnesses.
“Our goal is to develop a better
understanding of GWI and under-
stand specific causes so we can find
treatments to address these causes,
rather than focus on the symptoms,”
said Dr. Klimas. “This consortium
will integrate our clinical under-
standing of the disease process with
basic research efforts using a novel
mathematical model.”
It has been established that GWI
is caused by a disruption in normal
cell signaling that results in disabling
symptoms including fainting, low
blood pressure, fatigue, and pain.
This is primarily due to disruptions
in normal immune, cardiovascular,
and hormone signaling.
The consortium’s goal is to
pinpoint the causes of GWI using a
multidisciplinary approach. The proj-
ect will involve integrating basic and
clinical research using a computa-
tional systems biology method to cor-
relate data between the physiological
compartments and levels of biology
from basic models to human patients.
This will allow them to tailor treat-
ment more effectively using drugs
already approved for other illnesses.
At the end of the four-year study,
the consortium plans to complete
early studies in human patients and
be able to pursue larger-scale clini-
cal trials for further drug testing.
“By increasing the understanding
of the reasons for GWI, our consor-
tium will advance the diagnosis and
treatment of the disease,” said Dr.
Morris. “Specifically, our more de-
tailed understanding of the dysfunc-
tion involved in GWI would greatly
increase the speed to identify targets
for improved diagnosis as well as
selection and testing of more specific
treatments over the longer term that
will address the causes of disease.”
The consortium consists of the co-
principal investigators, Drs. Klimas
and Morris; Gordon Broderick, Ph.D.,
NSU Center for Psychological Stud-
ies; Travis Craddock, Ph.D., assistant
professor, NSU Center for Psycholog-
ical Studies; NSU-COM’s Institute for
Neuro-Immune Medicine genomics
core; and Mary Ann Fletcher, Ph.D.,
NSU-COM’s Schemel professor for
neuro-immune medicine. The team
is affiliated with the research service
of the Bruce W. Carter Department of
Veterans Affairs Medical Center and
Miami VA Healthcare System.
LEADING THE WAY IN GWI RESEARCH:
Drs. Nancy Klimas and Mariana Morris
