Zha awarded 2019 USA COM Intramural Grant Award

Xiangming Zha, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and cell biology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, works in the lab with Guokun Zhou, a research scholar in physiology and cell biology.

Xiangming Zha, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and cell biology 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. The award, which provides funds through an annual competition, targets five full-time basic science faculty members.

Zha’s research, titled “Functional importance of GPR4 in brain microvascular endothelial cells,” is still in the early phase, but has potential for impacting clinical care.

“The main goal of this project is to determine whether GPR4 mediates acid signaling in microvascular endothelial cells in the brain,” Zha said.

Zha said this award allows his team to generate critical preliminary data on the underlying molecular mechanism, which will strengthen a full extramural R01-type application.

The USA College of Medicine provides seed funding for basic science or translational research through an annual competitive Intramural Grants Program for 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.

Learn more about the Intramural Grants Program.