The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a research grant to Thomas Weimbs for the proposal titled "A Novel Role of Syntaxin 3 as a Transcription Regulator". This is a 2-year Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award (R21). The total award for the first year is $219,525.

"Is suppression of cyst growth in PKD enough to preserve renal function?: STAT6 inhibition is a novel promising target", Commentary on our PNAS paper (Olsan et al) in the journal JAK-STAT 

Thomas Weimbs, an Associate Professor in the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Department since 2007, has a lab at UCSB focuses on uncovering the underlying mechanisms of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD), a common genetic disease for which a cure still remains elusive. He is a leading expert in biomedical research.

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have demonstrated in the laboratory that a new drug is effective in treating a very common kidney disease –– although it will be a few years before it becomes available for clinical testing. The findings resulted from a collaboration between UCSB and a biotech firm based in Indiana. The study is published in this week's Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.