UNC professors get tobacco grants

Two professors were awarded a total of about $40 million to create projects for tobacco research at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The National Institutes of Health chose scholars across the nation to lead the new Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science. Money for the projects will be provided for the next five years.

The projects are meant to research ways that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can better regulate tobacco.

Of the 14 proposals awarded NIH grants, UNC was the only university that received two.

“It’s a real testament to the caliber of research being done at this University,” said grant recipient Kurt Ribisl, a professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Ribisl and Robert Tarran, a professor in UNC’s department of cell biology and physiology, will each receive about $4 million for 2013-14, with more money to come later.

“The TCORS sites will increase knowledge across the full spectrum of basic and applied research on tobacco and addiction,” stated an FDA press release.

Tarran’s project, titled “The Impact of Tobacco Exposure on the Lungs’ Innate Defense System,” has been given about $20 million for the next five years.

He said a third of the money will pay for project resources, and the rest will go toward salaries for the research team and other necessities, such as chemicals for experiments.

The project will employ about 50 people.

Tarran’s research team will focus on the effect of tobacco smoke on the lungs. He said cigarette smoking can cause dangerous diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“COPD is the third leading killer in the U.S., (and) there’s only a poor understanding of why it does what it does,” he said.

Ribisl’s project, “Effective Communication on Tobacco Product Risk and FDA Authority,” features a program to hire and train project team members, which will likely include graduate and postdoctoral students. It will also include a $150,000 pilot program to go toward salaries and other project needs.

“We want to help optimize the best way to communicate information so it has the best effect on tobacco users,” he said.

Because the grant was just awarded, the two have only recently begun recruiting team members.

Tarran said there are also economic benefits to the grant such as possibly bringing scientists and researchers from all over the world to UNC.

“It will inject money into North Carolina,” Tarran said.

There is already some interdepartmental collaboration, along with coordination with other schools such as Wake Forest University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Cincinnati on Ribisl’s project.

Ribisl said he is looking forward to partnering with Tarran on both projects.

“We hope that there are opportunities for working together,” Ribisl said.

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