The Midwest Veterans’ Biomedical Research Foundation is proud to support KCVA Healthcare System, Eastern Kansas VA Healthcare system and Robert J Dole VA Medical Center as they work to fulfill the VA Research Mission.
VA Research is unique because of its focus on health issues that affect Veterans. It is part of an integrated health care system with a state-of-the-art electronic health record and has come to be viewed as a model for superior bench-to-bedside research.
The Midwest Veterans’ Biomedical Research Foundation Currently Supports VA research in 11 Clinical areas. Funding provided through Federal Grants, clinical trials, Private donations and Grants from other Foundations make this work possible.
The focus of this group is to identify and prevent cardiovascularproblems in veterans in the largest study of data ever conducted involving 83,000 veterans.
Drs. Rajat Barua, Deepak Parashar, and George Cherian are involved in many NIH, VA-CSP and Industry sponsored clinical trials to address atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease and heart failure.
In Addition,this group found that normalization of testosterone level is associated with reduced incidence of myocardial infarction and mortality in men.
The results of this study are published in the August 2015 issue of the European heart journal.
Dr. Damandeep Walia, Rheumatologist is VA-CSP funded clinician working on gout.
Dr Prateek Sharma is one of the world's leading authorities in the field of gastroesophageal reflux disease, (GERD) and Barrett's esophagus, a condition leading to the development of cancer. His research is funded from VA-CSP, Industries and other foundations to address GI– disorders.
Dr. Sharma as noted below from the ASCO(American Society of Clinical Oncology) was among the first to categorize Barrett’s Esophagus Progression scoring into cancer.
Dr. Sharma is the architect behind the first system ever to categorize Barrett’s esophagus patients into risk-level groups. Called PIB (Progression in Barrett’s) scoring, the system determines Barrett’s esophagus patients’ progression to high-grade dysplasia and cancer. Nearly 4,600 patients were enrolled in this 10-year multi-center study.
Dr. Divyanshoo Kohli is also involved in push and pull endoscopic PEG placement and real-time and shear wave elastography industry sponsored clinical trials.
Dr. Steven Weinman is a VA Merit funded investigator is involved in understanding Role of Macrophages Adaptation in Alcoholic Liver diseases to discover novel therapeutic approach.
Dr. John Thyfault is a VA Merit funded basic scientist involved in understanding, if estrogen modifies risk for fatty liver through modulating hepatic mitochondrial function and bile acid metabolism to prevent and treat harmful fatty liver disease in female veterans, a condition that increases type 2 diabetes, cancer, and liver failure.
Drs. William Suo is a VA merit funded basic scientist involved in characterizing novel therapeutic molecules for Alzheimer Disease.
Dr. Shuangteng He is studying effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine in stroke.
Dr. Vikas Singh, Neurologist is involved in clinical studies addressing posttraumatic headache. Dr. Singh with Drs. Hemant Thakur and Thomas Demark are involved in database research on PTSD, TBI, Stroke and Epilepsy.
The focus of this group is basic research in new and effective ways to prevent pancreatic and prostate Cancer, including the development of experimental therapeutics and drug reformulation.
Dr. Sushanta Banerjee and Dr. Snigdha Banerjee are VA Merit funded basic scientists studying Role of CCN5 and Cyr61/CCN1 respectively in Triple Negative Breast cancer and Pancreatic cancer Progression andTherapy.
Dr. Faris Farassati is a DOD funded basic scientist involved in developing oncolytic viruses for cancer therapy.
Six Oncologists including, Dr. Chao Huang, Dr. Suman Kambhampati, Dr. January E. Fields-Meehan, Dr. Linda Verkruyse, Dr. NisreenHaideri, Dr. John Parks and Dr. Eashwer Reddy are involved in clinical trials funded by NCI, Industries and VA-CSP to provide veterans access to novel therapeutic modalities for various types of cancers.
Dr. Thomas Wiegmann, Dr. Santosh Sharma and Dr. Mariana Garcia-Touza are involved in clinical trials funded by VA-CSP and industries to address renal, hypertension and diabetic diseases. They are also involved in many database research projects including on COVID-19.
Dr. Mukut Sharma is NIH funded basic scientist involved in understanding the impact of fluid flow sheer stress in progression of kidney diseases. In addition, he is also involved in studying role of IL-6 family cytokine in chronic inflammatory kidney diseases.
Dr. Mukut Sharma is leading Dr. Sunil Upadhyay, Synthetic Organic Chemist and Dr. Pritam Thapa, Medicinal Chemist in designing, developing and synthesizing novel small molecules for treating Alzheimer Disease and Substance Use Disorders. Their effort has resulted in synthesis of more than 50 molecules with potential few patents.
Dr. Sushanta Govindan, DOD funded pulmonologist and Dr. Sonia Castillo and Dr. Kenneth Grasingare involved in COVID-19 related research. Dr. Grasing is conducting an industry funded clinical trial on COVID-19
Dr. Kenneth Grasing, VA merit funded clinician scientist is conducting research to understand chemical changes in the brain caused by substance use disorders to develop medications.
The primary focus of this group ( KCVA and Wichita) is early screening for lung cancer via “correlate performance of the LungLB Test with tissue/ FNA biopsy results of an indeterminate lung nodule cancer screening “ Study conducted by Dr. Andrea Covey , KCVA Dr. Hassan Zubair, Robert J Dole , Wichita VA