Trials & Research Projects

We fund ideas that are ready for clinical studies and provide seed funding to help research projects move forward.

Cancer Trials and Projects

• Pilot Study of Biomarker Evaluation and Safety of Pre-Incisional Ketorolac for Patients Undergoing Surgical Resection for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Renal Cell Carcinoma
  Principal Investigator: Viraj Master, MD, PhD

• Paricalcitol and hydroxychloroquine (PH) combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel in advanced pancreatic cancer
  Principal Investigator: Olatunji Alese, MD

• Propranolol Hydrochloride and Pembrolizumab in Patients with Recurrent or Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma: A Single-Institute Phase II Trial
  Principal Investigator: Bassel Nazha, MD, MPH

• A Phase Ib/II Study of Propranolol with Fixed-dose Pembrolizumab in Patients with Unresectable Stage III and Stage IV Melanoma
  Principal Investigator: Melinda Yushak, MD, MPH; Collaborative Trial with Roswell Park

• A Randomized Window of Opportunity Study of Preoperative Letrozole and Simvastatin Versus Letrozole Alone in Stage I-III Hormone Receptor Positive, HER2 Negative Breast Cancer
  Principal Investigator: Ruth Sacks, MD

• Arginine Therapy in COVID-19: An Open-Label Prospective Pilot Study
  Principal Investigator: Claudia Morris, MD

• Repurposing Atovaquone for the Treatment of Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer
  Principal Investigator: Namita Khanna, MD, MSPH

• Treatment of Brain Metastases with Arginine Supplementation
  Principal Investigator: Lisa Sudmeier, MD, MPH

• Prevention of Paclitaxel-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy with Cryotherapy With or Without Cilostazol
  Principal Investigator: Susan C. Modesitt, MD

• VA Pharmacoepidemiology Project
  We're collaborating with teams at Emory Winship Cancer Institute and the Atlanta VA Health Care System to leverage the scale of the VA's electronic health records system, which has access to several decades' worth of healthcare data from 22 million veterans. Research teams are conducting retrospective studies to investigate associations between medications and outcomes of cancer patients throughout the years.

Find a Complete list of Emory's Cancer Clinical Trials at the Winship Cancer Institute »

Morningside Center: COVID-19 Trials and Projects

The Morningside Center has been involved in various projects related to COVID-19 and repurposed drugs. Some of these initiatives include:

Fluvoxamine Study

A widely quoted review on fluvoxamine in COVID-19 has been written by Vidula and Vikas Sukhatme.

Read Fluvoxamine review

FDA-funded Long COVID Study

The Morningside Center has been working with the Federal Drug Administration to develop a randomized adaptive design study in COVID-19 outpatient and inpatient settings and provided guidance to the FDA on using repurposed drugs to treat "long COVID," or post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). The Morningside Center was able to receive a grant from the FDA that will enable data extraction on COVID-19 patients in the Emory Healthcare system.

DoD Health Monitoring and Long COVID Projects

Morningside team members are working with the Department of Defense on a suite of assays that monitor human health. They have also provided the DoD guidance on post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), with the potential for future grants in this area.

Publications

• Cicka, D. & Sukhatme, VP. (2021). Available drugs and supplements for rapid deployment for treatment of COVID-19. Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, Advance Online Publication.

• Sukhatme, VP & Sukhatme, VV (2021, February 9). A Call to Action: Immediate Deployment of Select Repurposed Drugs for COVID-19 Outpatient Treatment. Health Affairs.

• Sukhatme, VP & Sukhatme, VV (2021, May 11). Existing Affordable Drugs Could Rapidly Reduce Covid-19 Cases and Deaths in India. The Times of India.

• Sukhatme, VP, Reiersen, AM, Vayttaden, SJ & Sukhatme, VV. (2021). Fluvoxamine: A Review of Its Mechanism of Action and Its Role in COVID-19. Frontiers in Pharmacology, Advance Online Publication.

• William A. Stokes, Madhusmita Behera, Renjian Jiang, David A. Gutman, Zhonglu Huang, Abigail Burns, Nikhil T. Sebastian ,Sukhatme , Michael C. Lowe, Suresh S. Ramalingam , Vikas P. Sukhatme , Drew Moghanaki (2022). Impact of concomitant fibrates on immunotherapy outcomes for advanced non-small cell lung cancer

• Sukhatme, VP & Sukhatme, VV (2023, Nov 7). Rapid Development of New and Affordable Medical Treatments. Published in Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Social Impact Review