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Research 2022 Annual Report

A Message From Leadership

2022 found the research enterprise at Michigan Medicine going strong, as productive and innovative as ever. We continue to grow, with $746 million in award dollars for FY2022, compared to $720 million last year. $154 million of those 2022 dollars came from our collaborations with industry. Plus, our publication output remains a benchmark for our peers, with our researchers producing over 8,000 publications last year.

Our productivity, represented by the numbers above and the other metrics found in this report, is supported by our research strategic plan. After a pause during the height of the pandemic, we relaunched “Great Minds, Greater Discoveries” in 2022, a multi-year initiative that offers innovation and funding for our major research strategies. This year we introduced the Research Scouts funding program, supporting the “Bold Science” strategy by providing money to specific faculty to invest in other faculty’s bold scientific ideas. As we continue the transformation of our clinical trials enterprise, we announced a partnership with the School of Public Health, which will enable our investigators with large, multi-site clinical trials to tap into the statistical expertise of SABER. Renovations across the medical campus have gained momentum this year, underscoring our commitment to investing in cutting-edge facilities and infrastructure.

Our ultimate goal is to work together to create transformative knowledge that advances science and improves health and wellbeing. Many of the scientific breakthroughs and supporting initiatives highlighted in this report illustrate how the discoveries being made every day by our people, the most important pillar in our research strategy, are ultimately impacting patients. For every scientific project described here, there are hundreds more happening, supported by the researchers, staff, and students at Michigan Medicine, who are committed to great discoveries and making the world a healthier place to live.

Michigan Medicine continues to be committed to supporting discovery to translational and clinical research – all focused on driving new knowledge and innovations in medicine. We are also focusing resources and funding sources to drive high-risk, high-reward research initiatives that can advance more rapid progress in treatment and therapeutics.

FY2022 Metrics

Sleep Problems Pervasive and Persistent Among Children with Epilepsy

For children with epilepsy, seizures and related health concerns can disrupt every part of childhood, including sleep. A study by Michigan Medicine researchers has found that not only are reported sleep concerns highly prevalent in children with epilepsy – for both those with and without nighttime seizures – but these issues persist and may potentially even get worse with age.

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“Poor sleep not only has health and quality-of-life consequences for the child, but likely affects the whole family. Our greatest goal is to optimize epilepsy management and outcomes in kids with relatively low-risk, noninvasive interventions that benefit both them and their families.”

MORE STORIES ABOUT MICHIGAN MEDICINE NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH

Heart-Assisting Implants Save Lives, but Black and Female Patients Don’t Get Them as Often

A study has found that Black people and women with severe heart failure who might be good candidates for surgery to implant a heart-assisting device have a lower chance of actually getting that operation than white patients, or male patients. The differences for Black patients cropped up mainly in patients whose chances of benefiting from a left-ventricular assist device were less clear-cut, usually because they had less severe heart failure. The patterns of LVAD use in women, meanwhile, suggests lower access no matter how severe their heart failure.

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“While we need to study the role of patient preference in LVAD decision-making for Black and female patients, heart failure providers need to be cognizant of their potential for bias and how it might influence the recommendations we make to patients.”

MORE STORIES ABOUT MICHIGAN MEDICINE HEALTH EQUITY RESEARCH

When Fundamental Biology Meets AI

While computational modeling and AI are powerful tools, their utilization alone does not always directly impact human health. By combining AI models with fundamental biology, Michigan Medicine researchers have developed a drug discovery pipeline that couples with the natural defense system of human cells to fight deadly viruses. By training AI models using information from large small molecule libraries, they can generate new molecules with anti-viral potential. Examining these molecules both by crowdsourced analysis and laboratory testing will demonstrate their anti-viral effectiveness. This unification of AI and fundamental biology advantages predictive and faster development of novel, effective drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2 and unknown viruses with pandemic potential.

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“We are living in an age where biology and computation are more frequently intermingling. Most of the problems we are solving are human problems and finding ways of augmenting our AI models with expert human insights and synergizing with scientific principles will allow us to have more transformative impacts on human health.”

MORE STORIES ABOUT MICHIGAN MEDICINE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND e-HEALTH RESEARCH

New Guideline Urges Ditching Opioids for Painful Diabetic Neuropathy

The most common prescription taken for painful nerve damage in diabetes is likely dangerous, experts say. Despite this risk, and a lack of evidence that opioids stop pain associated with diabetic neuropathy over the long term, data from a nationally representative study from Michigan Medicine shows they are the most-prescribed treatment for this painful condition. This research has resulted in a new painful diabetic polyneuropathy practice guideline from the American Academy of Neurology.

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“An important part of the new guideline addresses this conversation that providers must have with their patients. It’s important to ask people with diabetes about the presence of painful neuropathy, since we do have options to improve quality of life for these patients.”

MORE STORIES ABOUT MICHIGAN MEDICINE OPIOIDS AND PAIN RESEARCH

Connecting Obesity, Diabetes, and the Immune System Using Bioinformatics

The link between obesity and illness, particularly type 2 diabetes, is well known, and researchers are actively researching what it is about fat tissue that leads to metabolic disease. Studies in mice have shown that an increase in immune cells called macrophages in fat tissue causes insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes. Michigan Medicine researchers are using bioinformatics to study whether fat from humans follows the same pattern.

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“Our overarching question is how immune cell types in fat are changing. A better understanding of how fat tissue characteristics can lead to insulin resistance may ultimately result in better treatments for metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes.”

MORE STORIES ABOUT MICHIGAN MEDICINE DIABETES RESEARCH

Treating Heart Attacks with a Medium Chain Fatty Acid

Heart attacks are still a leading cause of death worldwide, and often result in devastating complications. Better options are needed to reduce injury to the heart after a heart attack, and even improve heart function. A team including Michigan Medicine researchers is looking at the interplay between energy metabolism and epigenetics mediated by the medium chain fatty acid 8C. They were able to protect against heart attack injury in rat models with octanoic acid, an eight carbon (8C) medium chain fatty acid, as well as a few other metabolites. Those fatty acids produced acetyl-CoA, a building block for energy metabolism, which a stressed heart desperately needs.

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“The fatty acid found in energy drinks could possibly help recovery after a heart attack. The idea is that a physician would administer the therapy to a person once they arrive at the hospital, to reduce further injury and improve heart function during recovery.”

MORE STORIES ABOUT MICHIGAN MEDICINE CARDIOVASCULAR RESEARCH

For Glioblastoma, a New Clinical Trial Fosters Innovation and Hope

A clinical trial is using innovative basic science research methods to offer hope and a new treatment to glioblastoma patients. A collaborative team from Michigan Medicine hopes that grounding their trial in rigorous and innovative biology from the very beginning will help this approach succeed where so many other potential glioblastoma treatments have failed.

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“This trial has a rigorous basic science backbone to support the addition of an inexpensive drug that is widely available. If we can prove there is an added benefit in treatment efficacy, then this treatment regimen is likely readily incorporated into clinical care without challenges in cost or accessibility for patients.”

MORE STORIES ABOUT MICHIGAN MEDICINE CANCER RESEARCH

The Unique Origin of a Neutrophil’s Chemical Messaging System

Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that kill and digest bacteria and viruses, helping prevent and fight infection. The fastest immune cells in the human body, their rapid response is made possible through a chemical messaging system called chemotaxis. Research from a team including Michigan Medicine scientists explains the precise and surprising way these chemicals are generated. Instead of originating from the cell’s outer membrane, as with most other cells in the body, a neutrophil’s exosomes come from the surface of its unusually shaped nucleus.

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“Though typically a good thing in the context of infection, overexuberant neutrophils can also cause chronic inflammation, leading to such conditions as arthritis and psoriasis. Understanding the precise mechanism behind how neutrophils are called on opens avenues to potential drug targets.”

MORE STORIES ABOUT MICHIGAN MEDICINE BASIC SCIENCE RESEARCH

Researchers in Training

The Why of the Silent X

In most mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have one X and one Y chromosome in each of their cells. To avoid a double dose of X-linked genes in females, one of the Xs is silenced early in the developmental process. This silencing is critical, yet how it happens has been relatively mysterious. Two U-M studies reveal more about the silencing process providing insights that could improve stem cell research and its application in regenerative medicine.

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“Students like Marissa, as well as postdoctoral researchers, are not only making a difference in our basic science labs, they’re making a significant contribution in translational research and across our research enterprise. They too are among the 'great minds' working toward tomorrow’s great discoveries and advancing human health.”

Major Giving & Sponsored Awards

Department of Communication story credits: Noah Fromson, Kara Gavin, Kelly Malcom, Anna Megdell, Beata Mostafavi, Haley Otman

From the BioArtography Collection bioartography.com, Copyright University of Michigan:

"Storing Honey," Ormond MacDougald, Ph.D., John A. Faulkner Collegiate Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School

"The Invaders," Michele Swanson, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School

"Pass It On," Gyorgyi Csankovszki, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, University of Michigan