Dr. Rekha Patel, professor in the Department, was just awarded a three year grant for $730,509 from the Department of Defense to support a research project titled "Dysregulation of eIF2 alpha pathway in drug-induced dystonia (DID) and inherited dystonia 16 (DYT16): testing novel therapeutic interventions." The project will investigate involvement of dysregulated, pro-apoptotic eIF2 alpha signaling in antipsychotic drug-induced dystonia and evaluate the effect of disrupting PACT-PKR interaction with luteolin on restoring protective eIF2 alpha signaling in drug-induced dystonia as well as in inherited dystonia 16. In addition, Dr. Patel's team will screen compound libraries for identifying small molecule inhibitors of PKR that will be protective against a wide variety of pathological conditions arising from a maladaptive integrated stress response. Congrats!