U-M researchers awarded $500K grant to develop a Cystic Fibrosis Research Center

A team of U-M researchers has been awarded a $500,000 grant by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF). Alexandra Piotrowski-Daspit, Ph.D., the principal investigator, is a faculty member at the Center for RNA Biomedicine and Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Internal Medicine – Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division. 

Lindsay Caverly, M.D., the co-PI, is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Pulmonary Medicine. Michelle Hastings, Ph.D., Pfizer Upjohn Research Professor of Pharmacology and Director of RNA Therapeutics at the Center for RNA Biomedicine, and John LiPuma, M.D., James L. Wilson Research Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, are the other members of the leadership team. 

The grant will fund the development of a CFF Research Development Program (RDP) at the University of Michigan. In collaboration with a cohort of CF research and clinical colleagues, this initial funding will enable the development of the research infrastructure needed to garner additional extramural support for this program in 2026. 

“We aim to build a community of CF researchers and physicians at U-M to leverage our combined expertise to advance the development of therapeutic approaches for all people with CF,” says Piotrowski-Daspit. This award will provide the support to achieve this central objective with a concerted effort to connect discoveries made in the lab to CF care teams and patients at Michigan Medicine’s adult and pediatric CF clinics. 

The CFF's RDP network currently consists of nine RDP centers anchored at leading universities and their affiliated hospitals throughout the U.S. These RDP centers connect top-level scientists and clinicians from various disciplines to apply their collective expertise to face the challenges of treating CF.

Dr. Piotrowski-Daspit is currently co-PI on an umbrella project funded by a $3 million Collaborative Research Grant from the CFF to develop RNA therapeutics to combat cystic fibrosis – an initiative headed by Hastings. 

Rachel Niederer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Center for RNA Biomedicine Faculty Scholar, rounds out that team of three.  

“Although our collaborative grant award most certainly contributed to the success of this development award, it is a separate program,” Hastings relays. 

“It will seed our efforts to establish the framework and build the infrastructure for housing a major multi-faceted and interconnected CF research effort at the U-M campus, and provide resources to help us flesh out in detail exactly what that will look like.” 

“We’re excited to build a research center here at U-M with an interdisciplinary group of scientists and physicians from Engineering, Biology and Michigan Medicine, and are very grateful for the support from the CFF,” Piotrowski-Daspit says.

With the RNA Therapeutics Initiative rapidly gaining momentum, Hastings envisions a clear path ahead with no foreseeable roadblocks for U-M to join, and lead the elite ensemble of institutions with a CF Research Center. 

“We have a solid footing already in place, and establishing a research center with this firm foundation would position us at the forefront of CF research and discovery,” Hastings says. “We’d be closer to our goal of finding therapies – including RNA-based or RNA-targeting medicines – for people with CF who currently have no treatment options.”