Dr. Miklos Sahin-Toth Awarded R01 Grant by NIDDK

On April 1, Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) Associate Professor Dr. Miklos Sahin-Toth was awarded a five-year R01 grant by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant totals $1,840,314 and will give him the opportunity to further study the role of chymotrypsin C in human pancreatitis.

"Together with my existing R01 grant, this new grant will allow me to continue studies toward the identification of new genetic risk factors and their mechanism of action in chronic pancreatitis, a debilitating human disease," said Dr. Sahin-Toth.

His existing NIDDK R01 grant titled, "Molecular Pathomechanism of Hereditary Pancreatitis," was renewed for a five-year term on February 1, 2005. In total this grant has been active for nine years and he hopes to renew it for another five years in 2010.

In 2007, Dr. Sahin-Toth’s team was first to suggest that the product of the CTRC gene, the digestive enzyme chymotrypsin C, plays an important role in the cause of chronic pancreatitis. Up to that point researchers had only studied trypsin’s role in chronic pancreatitis but following this discovery his team began looking at chymotrypsin C activity to help treat the disease.

"Dr. Sahin-Toth continues to impress with both his research and successful grant applications," said Dean Jeffrey Hutter. "We are very proud to have him on the faculty of GSDM."