Roy Professorships support research on Alzheimer’s, cancer, substance abuse disorders

Cancer patients, people who suffer from substance abuse disorders and those with Alzheimer’s disease stand to benefit from research by Clemson University’s newest Dr. Wallace R. Roy Distinguished Professors.

Kaileigh Byrne of the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, and Hugo Sanabria and Feng Ding, both of the College of Science, received three-year appointments.

The professorships are named for Wallace R. Roy, a 1926 Clemson graduate and one of the nation’s leading food technologists who helped develop frozen orange juice concentrate. The endowed professorships provide support for translational research partnerships between Clemson faculty members and Prisma Health or other health system partners.

The professorship appointments support Clemson Elevate and its goals to double research and transform lives statewide and beyond. The professorships will advance research in the targeted area of human genetics and personalized medicine, while investing in strategic partnerships with key health partners to grow the University’s impact and preeminence.

“Roy Professorships are awarded to outstanding faculty members whose innovative research endeavors actively advance the missions of both our Colleges and Clemson University,” said Leslie Hossfeld, dean of the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, and Cynthia Young, dean of the College of Science. “Drs. Byrne, Ding and Sanabria are exceptional scholars, and we look forward to how their work will improve health outcomes for people and communities across South Carolina and the nation.”

Learn more about the newest Roy Professors and their research:

Kaileigh Byrne

Byrne is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and director of Clemson’s Cognition and Decision Science Lab. She is also a Clemson University School of Health Research (CUSHR) Faculty Scholar and faculty affiliate for the Clemson Institute for Engaged Aging.

During her Roy Professorship, Byrne will continue her research on peer recovery coaching interventions for patients hospitalized with medical complications from alcohol use disorder. She plans to expand this work to include three Prisma Health hospital sites in the Upstate. She will also assess the effectiveness of peer recovery coaching interventions for opioid use disorder in mobile health clinic settings. 

The work continues more than seven years of fruitful research in collaboration with Prisma Health physicians Dr. Alain Litwin (addiction medicine), Dr. Prerana Roth (infectious disease) and Dr. Julia Cupp (hospitalist) to improve long-term health and reduce readmissions for those hospitalized with substance use disorder complications.

In collaboration with Dr. Litwin, Byrne will also conduct neuroimaging research to understand the neurocognitive changes that occur in individuals receiving medication for opioid use disorder. This work will provide insight into neurocognitive markers of recovery, including improved inhibitory control and reactivity to drug cues, indicative of greater cognitive control over cravings and stressors.

Feng Ding

Ding is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He is a CUSHR Faculty Scholar. 

During his professorship, Ding will continue his research into Alzheimer’s disease and nano-biosensor design.

He is a part of the effort to establish the South Carolina Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, a joint undertaking with Clemson, the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina. Ding is leading development of the research center’s cellular and molecular biomarker core. The core aims to provide longitudinal biomarker data from a diverse subject pool to support translational and clinical Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia research, to identify and validate novel biomarkers and to create a point-of-care testing device.

Ding will also work to develop innovative multiscale modeling approaches to study the impact of circadian rhythms and their disruptions on Alzheimer’s disease, in partnership with Kun Hu at the Massachusetts General Hospital of the Harvard Medical School.

In addition, he is working with Pengyu Chen at Auburn University to create cutting-edge nano-biosensors that enhance the precision of disease detection and monitoring. Another collaboration, with Pu-Chun Ke at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, focuses on uncovering molecular mechanisms of amyloid aggregation and exploring novel nanomedicine approaches to mitigate amyloid aggregation-associated toxicity, crucial in many neurodegenerative diseases and type-2 diabetes.

Hugo Sanabria

Sanabria is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He is a CUSHR Faculty Scholar and teaches in the College of Science’s Ph.D. medical biophysics program.

During his Roy Professorship, Sanabria will continue his research on the tumor-suppressing gene known as ARID 1a that encodes for a protein crucial in gene expression. He is conducting the research with Dr. Jeffery Edenfield, the academic vice chair of the Prisma Cancer Institute, and Emil Alexov, a professor in the Clemson Department of Physics and Astronomy.

These mutations are found in approximately 50% of ovarian cancers and 6% of all cancers. Sanabria and his collaborators aim to understand how these cancer mutations affect ARID 1a protein stability, interactions and dynamics. Gaining insights into these effects is essential for developing novel therapeutics and advancing personalized medicine in the fight against cancer.

Sanabria uses cutting-edge techniques to study the fundamental physical properties of life at the single molecule level. His group studies oncoproteins, neurotoxins and the development of novel biosensors. The results of the lab’s research have been published in high-impact scientific journals. 

Sanabria has collaborated with medical institutions such as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Texas Health Science Center and the School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.