2025–26 CVM Intramural Grant recipients announced
With a total of $300,000 awarded, the grants mark a strategic investment in research excellence
- Issue:Tags:Published:
The College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) Research Office is pleased to share the recipients of the 2025–26 Intramural Research Grants. These competitive awards provide up to $50,000 in one-time support for biomedical-focused research projects and are designed to help our investigators pursue high-impact research with strong potential for future extramural funding.
This year’s competition served as a bridge opportunity, launched in response to changes in federal funding processes that affected faculty eligibility in the 2024 cycle. A total of five proposals were selected for funding based on scientific merit, feasibility, and funding availability. Projects will begin July 1, 2025, and conclude June 30, 2026.
“Supporting high-potential research is one of the most effective ways we can drive progress,” says Alonso Guedes, associate dean for research. “These intramural grants help our College build momentum toward transformative discoveries and future external funding. I’m continually inspired by the research happening across CVM.”
Please join us in congratulating the 2025–26 intramural grant awardees:
Development and application of veterinary companion animal antimicrobial use measures, standardized metrics, and a data dashboard to facilitate targeted assessment and improvement of antimicrobial use in the Veterinary Medical Center
Tracking and reporting of antimicrobial use data is a cornerstone of antimicrobial stewardship programs, though standardized metrics for such data tracking have not been established in companion animal medicine. This project aims to use UMN Veterinary Medical Center (VMC) data to explore standardized metrics for monitoring antimicrobial use over time, which could be applied across companion animal practice settings. A data dashboard will be updated using these metrics to aid the VMC antimicrobial stewardship committee in identifying targets for prescriber education and evaluating for resultant changes in prescribing.
Role of brain-sympathetic-gut microbiome axis in hypertension
High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects nearly 700 million people worldwide and increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, two of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and Europe. Despite years of research, the root cause of most cases is still unclear, and many people either go untreated or don’t respond well to current therapies. Some early studies suggest that the gut microbiome (the trillions of bacteria living in our digestive system) might play a role in certain types of high blood pressure. This project aims to find out exactly how changes in gut bacteria may lead to or worsen hypertension, including how the brain might be involved in this gut-blood pressure connection, specific bacterial processes that could be driving high blood pressure, and how these discoveries might help prevent or treat the condition in the future.
Activity of the anti-parasitic compound, tartrolon E, against chronic toxoplasmosis
Roughly one-third of the world’s population is chronically infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a microscopic parasite that can cause serious health problems, especially in people with weakened immune systems. The infection often hides in the body in a long-lasting form called a "bradyzoite cyst"—especially in the brain—and current treatments can’t get rid of it. The World Health Organization has flagged toxoplasmosis as a major foodborne disease in need of better treatment options. A promising new compound from the ocean, called TrtE, has shown the ability to quickly and effectively kill these hard-to-treat bradyzoite cysts in lab tests. This project aims to find out whether TrtE can also reduce or eliminate these cysts in living animals. If successful, this could pave the way for the first therapy that can truly cure chronic toxoplasmosis.
Generation of a novel bispecific antibody to enhance the anti-tumor function of canine macrophages for treating osteosarcoma
Osteosarcoma is a serious and aggressive bone cancer that mostly affects children, young adults, and dogs, where it makes up the vast majority of bone tumors. Despite standard treatments, survival rates haven’t improved much in the past decade, and most dogs with this cancer don’t survive beyond a year after diagnosis. This project explores a novel immunotherapy to enhance the dog’s own immune cells to fight the cancer. This new therapy is a “bispecific engager” designed to help macrophages better attach to and kill tumor cells. If successful, this approach could lead to more effective treatments for osteosarcoma and other types of cancer in dogs, and potentially inform similar therapies in people.
Molecular targets of the anti-apicomplexan compound, tartrolon E
Some of the world’s most widespread and difficult-to-treat diseases are caused by microscopic parasites known as apicomplexans. These include Toxoplasma gondii (which can cause serious illness in people with weakened immune systems), Plasmodium falciparum (the parasite responsible for the deadliest form of malaria), and Cryptosporidium (a major cause of waterborne illness). Finding effective treatments for these parasites is a major global health priority. This project focuses on a powerful new compound called TrtE, which has shown strong and specific action against several of these parasites. What makes TrtE especially exciting is that scientists haven’t been able to generate resistance to it—suggesting it targets something the parasites can’t easily change. More specifically, this project explores how TrtE works by interacting with two important proteins in Toxoplasma, known as TgLMF1 and TgLMF2. Understanding how TrtE works could lead to a new generation of treatments for some of the most challenging parasitic diseases in the world.
Investigating novel antimicrobial compounds produced by Bacillus species
As antibiotic-resistant infections continue to rise, the need for new and effective treatments has become urgent: without new drugs, our ability to fight bacterial infections in both humans and animals will become seriously threatened. This project focuses on discovering new antibiotics from a group of bacteria called Bacillus. These bacteria naturally produce chemical compounds called secondary metabolites that may have powerful effects against harmful pathogens. Specifically, this project will search Bacillus strains for the genetic instructions (known as biosynthetic gene clusters) that produce these antimicrobial compounds. It will also study how these potential new antibiotics work, how likely it is that resistance could develop, and what genetic changes might cause that resistance. Ultimately, this work could lead to the development of entirely new types of antibiotics to help combat drug-resistant infections and protect public health.
