Chemistry lands $3 mil. in grants

Portland State’s chemistry department has received over $3 million in research grants in the last month, including two grants of over $1 million each for potentially life-saving research on diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.

The National Institutes of Health made contributions of $1.5 million and $1.05 million to PSU Chemistry Professors Kevin Reynolds and Robert Strongin, respectively, for their research on various diseases.

Strongin will use his grant to continue research that could provide cheap and accessible tests for detecting the presence of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and cancer.

“The more we understand the chemistry of these molecules, the closer we’ll be to developing simple tests using commercially available materials,” Strongin said.

Reynolds will continue to study malaria, cancer and immunosuppressants, which are drugs used in cancer treatment and to suppress the immune system.

Reynolds will use a team of researchers spanning from PSU to the University of Warwick in England. His study will last for three years and will take place in three different phases.

The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 1.4 million new cases of cancer and that 559,650 people will die from cancer in the United States in 2007. Malaria, however, is much less common in the U.S.

Fewer than 1,500 people reported cases of malaria in the U.S. in 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent statistics. The center’s website says that eight malaria-related deaths were reported in 2002 and that only five of the 1,337 total cases originated in the U.S.

More than five million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disorder that slowly deteriorates a person’s memory, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The disease primarily affects people over the age of 65.

Over 700,000 people in the United State suffer from a stroke each year, according to a 2005 press release from the National Institute of Health.

Kevin Reynolds received his Ph.D. from the University of Southampton and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Seattle at the University of Washington. Robert Strongin previously worked at Louisiana State University as a professor of chemistry. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.