FOUNDED IN 1859 BY QUEEN EMMA AND KING KAMEHAMEHA IV

Office of Research and Development

Office of Research and Development
The Queen’s Medical Center
1301 Punchbowl Street, UHT 508
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

Queen's Pilot Research Study Grant Awards

(QPSRSG Awards)

2018 Request for Proposals (due 1/15/2019)

  • Jared D. Acoba, MD. Pilot study of an electronic medical record based assessment of patient reported outcomes. Thousands of people in Hawaii are diagnosed with cancer each year. Some of these patients will receive chemotherapy to cure their cancer or relieve symptoms caused by their cancer. At large university hospitals, patients may report their symptoms to their nurses and doctors through a website. This communication over the internet helps patients to get quicker relief from their cancer-related and chemotherapy-related symptoms. People reporting their symptoms online also had fewer trips to the emergency room and did not need to stay in the hospital as often as people who do not report their symptoms over the web. This study will determine whether community cancer clinics like the Queen’s Cancer Center may be able to establish a similar system with the same benefits as the larger university cancer clinics.
  • Dominic Chow, MD, PhD, MPH and Lishomwa C. Ndhlovu MD, PhD. Association of microbiome on blood pressure and hypertension in HIV participants on suppressive antiretroviral therapy. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV patients. Recently, the role of human gut bacterial on the development of CVD particularly of hypertension has been gaining attention. This pilot study will investigate the characteristics of gut microbiome on ambulatory blood pressure in HIV participants.

2017 Request for Proposals (due 3/31/2018)

  • Sandi Kwee, MD, PhD, MSc. Analysis of Phospholipids and Other Liver Tissue Metabolites in Chronic Liver Disease. Liver fibrosis is the destructive tissue process underlying all chronic liver diseases. In this project, we will quantify a broad array of metabolites produced in fibrotic liver tissues and determine how their corresponding metabolic pathways are affected. In doing so, we hope to uncover promising diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for treating liver fibrosis.

  • Kazuma Nakagawa, MD. Novel Approach for Early Detection of Life-Threatening Neurological Complications of Preeclampsia with Severe Features. Severe form of preeclampsia can cause life-threatening brain swelling. To date, there is no bedside tool that can be used to screen those who are at risk. This study will explore the potential use of pupillometer to detect individuals who are at risk for potentially life-threatening brain swelling after preeclampsia.

2016 Request for Proposals (due 1/20/2017)

  • Michael Hayashi M.D. Fall From Standing as a Marker of Frailty; Are Outcomes Better for Elderly Patients After High Energy Falls? Hawaii’s large active elderly population results in frequent emergency room admissions injuries such as falls. This study will see if individuals sustaining ground level falls may experience worse short and long-term results compared to elderly people that fall from a height due to differences in baseline health.

  • Darcy Day, RN and Kara Terada, RN. Correlation of Nasal Cannula End-Tidal Carbon Dioxide Concentration with Need for Critical Resources for Blunt Trauma Patients During the First Two Days of Hospital Presentation. End-tidal carbon dioxide monitoring via nasal cannula is a non-invasive common device that can assist in the monitoring of a patient’s perfusion status. Early identification and treatment of trauma patients that may require critical resources is crucial to obtaining the needed resources to optimize trauma patient care.

2015 Request for Proposals (due 1/8/2016)

  • Sayuri Suzuki, PhD. High-throughput screening against TRPM7 to identify anti-proliferative cancer drugs. Cancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide. We have found that cancer cells need a particular ion channel protein called TRPM7 in order to grow and stop growing when that protein is blocked. Our goal is to discover novel TRPM7 blockers with properties that enable them to be used as anti-breast cancer drugs. We propose to screen chemical compound collections for TRPM7 blockers, test the found inhibitors for potency and selectivity against the TRPM7 target, and measure the growth inhibition and anti-breast-cancer efficacy on cancer cells.

  • Clay Wakano, PhD. High-throughput drug screening against TRPM2, a novel protein involved in neurodegeneration and cancer cell proliferation. The development of new medicines is at the frontline of translating basic research into patient care. The goal of this project is to validate the effectiveness of drug candidates against the Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin, subfamily 2, ion channel involved in human neurodegenerative and oncologic diseases.

2014 Request for Proposals (due 1/9/2015)

  • Aaron Cullen, Ph.D. Bithionol Derivatives as Anti-Cancer Therapeutics. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The following proposal outlines a plan for developing new anti-cancer agents. Our goal is to create a novel set of compounds, test these candidates for anti-cancer ability, and ultimately advance these candidates into human clinical trials.
  • Scott Kuwada, M.D. A novel serum-based detection of gastrointestinal malignancies. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. Just over half of all eligible persons in the U.S. undergo colorectal cancer screening. The options for screening (stool studies, colonoscopy, barium enema) are intolerable, invasive and expensive. We propose to develop a blood-base colorectal cancer screening test that would be easy to perform, effective and relatively inexpensive.

2013 Request for Proposals (due 1/27/2014)

  • Malika Faouzi, Ph.D. STIM/Orai channels as new therapeutic targets in pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most deadly cancer in the United States. Calcium, regulated by specific proteins, is a critical nutrient for tumor growth. The present proposal will test the efficacy of an FDA-approved drug in blocking these proteins and may lead to a novel therapeutic approach for pancreatic cancer.

2013 Requests for Proposals (due by 4/16/2013)

  • May Rose Dela Cruz, M.PH. Increasing HPV Screening through Targeted Education in Hawai’i. ‘Imi Hale Native Hawaiian Cancer Network seeks to advance cancer research by developing and testing targeted educational materials for children 11-18 years old who are not vaccinated with the HPV vaccine. Almost all cervical cancer can be prevented through widspread uptake of the HPV vaccine.
  • Scott Kuwada, M.D. Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST) Epidemiology and Genotypes in Hawaii. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are the most common type of tumors arising from walls of the digestive tract. Hawaii has the highest number of cases of GIST per every 100,000 people in Hawaii compared with all other regions of the United States. We have found that GIST is much more common in Asian and Pacific Islanders than Caucasians. We would like to determine if a common stomach infection increases the risk for developing GIST. Treatment of GIST that has spread to multiple sites in the body requires treatment with the drug imatinib. Certain mutations in the tumors cause resistance to imatinib but detection of these mutations in GIST is not routinely done in Hawaii. We wish to determine if looking at these mutations would predict which patients fail to response to imatinib.
  • Reinhold Penner, Ph.D. Pre-Clinical and Clinical Efficacy of Antibiotic AB1 in Ovarian and Pancreatic Cancer. Calcium is a critical nutrient needed for cancer cell division and tumor growth. It is regulated by specific proteins in cells. One of these mechanisms is tightly linked to the calcium storage compartments of cells. Certain antibiotics interfere with this mechanism, thereby causing ovarian and pancreatic cancer cells to stop growing. The present proposal will test an FDA-approved antibiotic in a pancreatic mouse model and in a pilot ovarian cancer clinical trial in humans for its effectiveness to stop tumor growth. This may directly lead to a novel adjuvant therapy for ovarian and pancreatic cancer patients.

2012 Requests for Proposals (due by 1/15/2013)

  • Kevin Christensen, M.D. Bisphosphonate-associated atypical femur fractures versus osteoporotic femur fractures: a histologic analysis.

  • Susan Steinemann, M.D., FACS Optimizing Trauma Team Performance through Education, Pre-briefing and Debriefing. Early care of the injured (“trauma”) patient requires fast and efficient teamwork between many healthcare providers (the “trauma team). Failures in teamwork and team communication can harm the patient. This project investigates differences in knowledge, perception and teamwork among trauma team members, and how structured education might improve teamwork.

The Queen’s Medical Center
Office of Research and Development
1301 Punchbowl Street
UHT 508
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

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Uniform Guidance

RE: DECLARATION OF PROCUREMENT STANDARDS

The Queen’s Medical Center (QMC) hereby elects to utilize the grace period established in the Office of Management & Budget Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards; final Rule – 2 CFR Chapter I, Chapter II, Part 200, et al. also known as the Uniform Guidance (UG) for July 1, 2015 (FY 16) and continue use of Circular A-110.

Excerpt from § 200.110 (a): “For the procurement standards in §§ 200.317 – 200.326, non-Federal entities may continue to comply with the procurement standards in previous OMB guidance (superseded by this part as described in § 200.104) for two additional fiscal years after this part goes into effect. If a non-Federal entity chooses to use the previous procurement standards for two additional fiscal years before adopting the procurement standards in this part, the non-Federal entity must document this decision in their internal procurement policies.”

In the meantime, QMC shall modify and develop procurement procedures to become consistent with the Uniform Guidance. QMC shall be in compliance with the UG effective July 1, 2018 (FY 19).