USA Researcher Receives $1.54-Million Grant

Dr. Steve Lim, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of South Alabama (USA) College of Medicine, was recently awarded a four-year, $1.54-million grant to evaluate a potential new treatment for those with atherosclerosis. Current lipid-lowering drug therapies, such as statins, have proven beneficial for some patients but not all suffering from atherosclerosis. The project is aimed at reducing plaque-building macrophages by inhibiting focal adhesion kinase activity. A postdoctoral fellow in Lim’s lab, Dr. James Murphy, has been a key player in the research group leading this project. The work will be performed with Lim’s other collaborators, Dr. Richard Honkanen, professor at and chair of the USA Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Dr. Erin Ahn, associate professor at the Department of Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Awarded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, this is Lim’s second research project grant since joining USA. In 2017, he was awarded a $1.52-million four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study cell signaling that contributes to atherosclerosis.