Simmons awarded 2019 USA COM Intramural Grant Award

By Lindsay Mott
lmott@health.southalabama.edu

Jon Simmons, M.D., associate professor of surgery and pharmacology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, was one of five faculty members recently awarded the 2019 USA College of Medicine Faculty Intramural Grants Research Award.

Simmons’ research, titled “The transfusion of inflammatory cellular debris from stored plasma results in proinflammatory signals leading to organ failure,” could be transformative, potentially persuading the blood banking industry to filter out leukocytes from plasma products prior to use.

The research in this intramural project is essential for establishment of an experimental model of traumatic shock, which is expected to attract further federal and industrial research for the trauma center.

“This project will play a central role in our goal to establish a trauma and critical care research center at USA,” said Simmons, trauma medical director and chief of trauma and acute care surgery at USA Health.

The research in this project also incorporates the expertise of several collaborators within the USA Center for Lung Biology, including Larry Lee, M.D., assistant professor in the department of surgery, Michele Schuler, Ph.D., associate professor in department of microbiology and immunology, and Ray Langley, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of pharmacology.

The USA College of Medicine provides seed funding for basic science or translational research through an annual competitive Intramural Grants Program. It is designed to allow faculty to develop new research ideas and develop new critical preliminary data for revised extramural proposal submissions, or to provide bridge funding to enable sustained research progress between extramural grant funding periods.