Progress on Theme 3: Specialized Research Training in Animal Models and Related Resources

Programs and Activities Highlights

• Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) for Health Professional Schools and Graduate Schools
  ORIP participates in the REAP for Health Professional Schools and Graduate Schools initiative to support small-scale research grants at institutions that do not receive substantial funding from the NIH. The program provides biomedical research experiences primarily for health professional, undergraduate and graduate students and enhances the research environment at applicant institutions. ORIP emphasis is given to colleges of veterinary medicine applications proposing comparative studies of a wide range of biological models to improve their value in translational research.

• Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research
  ORIP participates in the NIH-wide Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research initiative. ORIP/Division of Comparative Medicine Diversity Supplements seek to make significant contributions to the research career development of individuals with disabilities, certain individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, and individuals from racial and ethnic groups that have been shown by the National Science Foundation to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis. Since 2021, ORIP has supported four awardees—one baccalaureate degree holder, two doctoral students, and one post-doctoral researcher. These ORIP-supported awardees will contribute to diversifying the biomedical research workforce.

• ORIP Individual Career Development and Institutional Training Awards
  In 2021–2022, ORIP is supporting 32 Individual Training Grants to veterinary students and veterinarians seeking a Ph.D., as well as to graduate veterinarians, to provide them with research experience to become independent biomedical investigators. Additionally, ORIP is supporting 13 Institutional Research Training Grants to train veterinarians for research careers in comparative medicine and 20 Short-Term Institutional Research Training Grants to provide short-term research training experiences for veterinary students. 
• ORIP Supports Individual Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research
  ORIP accepts applications from highly qualified veterinary students or holders of degrees in veterinary medicine to enhance the diversity of the health-related research workforce (PA-21-052).
• ORIP Provides Support for Early-Stage Investigators Using Nonhuman Primate Research Models
  This funding opportunity announcement (PAR-20-258) provides early-stage investigators with support and “protected time” (up to 5 years) for intensive, research-focused career development program activities under the guidance of an experienced mentorship team with expertise in both the preclinical application of nonhuman primate models and in translation of the results from such studies to clinical application. Participating NIH Institutes/Centers/Offices (ICOs) include the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (lead ICO), National Institute on Aging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and ORIP.

Read more in the archive.

ORIP-Supported Research Highlights

• Losartan Blocks Osteosarcoma-Elicited Monocyte Recruitment and, Combined with the Kinase Inhibitor Toceranib, Exerts Significant Clinical Benefit in Canine Metastatic Osteosarcoma
  Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant tumor of bone. Overall survival rates for osteosarcoma patients have remained unchanged since improvements associated with the introduction of multidrug chemotherapy protocols in the 1980s. An investigator—under a career development award and training grant, both provided by ORIP—found that a novel therapeutic approach combining losartan and tocerabib was effective in dogs with spontaneous osteosarcoma. This outcome supports further study of this drug combination as a novel therapeutic approach for high-risk patients with metastatic osteosarcoma.

• Antibody-Based CCR5 Blockade Protects Macaques from Mucosal SHIV Transmission. Researchers found that competitive inhibition of HIV Env-CCR5 binding via the CCR5-specific antibody Leronlimab protects male and female rhesus macaques against infection following repeated intrarectal challenges with a CCR5-tropic simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV), suggesting that CCR5 blockade with Leronlimab is a promising approach to HIV prophylaxis.
• Effects of Persistent Modulation of Intestinal Microbiota on SIV/HIV Vaccination in Rhesus Macaques. Researchers evaluated whether probiotics could improve the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)/HIV DNA vaccine plus HIV protein vaccine combination in male rhesus macaques and found that a combination of probiotics and vaccination did not affect rectal SIV/HIV target populations or reduce the rate of heterologous SHIV acquisition during intrarectal challenge.
• Psychosocial Stress Alters the Immune Response and Results in Higher Viral Load During Acute SIV Infection in a Pigtailed Macaque Model of HIV. Researchers compared commonly measured parameters of HIV progression between singly and socially housed SIV-infected male pigtailed macaques and found that singly housed animals had a higher viral load in the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid and showed greater CD4⁺ T cell declines than socially housed macaques. These findings suggest that psychosocial stress could augment the progression of HIV infection.

Read more in the archive.