A million dollars in research grant funding will help launch two clinical trials led by Wilmington- and Chapel Hill-based doctors, Novant Health officials announced Tuesday.

The two $500,000 grants come from a collaborative of Novant Health, UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine, which formed after the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health in 2021. The funding marks the largest single investment so far from the collaborative.

The grants will fund two studies – one focused on building a research network to address health disparities for children with asthma and another that aims to incorporate advanced imaging and radiation to improve prostate cancer survival rates.

Mark King, Novant Health’s vice president for research and innovation, highlighted the role of clinical trials as a “cornerstone of medical innovation” during a news conference on Tuesday.

“Every drug – whether it’s prescription or an over-the-counter drug – every medical device, every surgical innovation, every novel idea in medicine is tested first in rigorously controlled clinical trials,” King said. “Absent such work, our medicine cabinets, our pharmacies, they’d all be empty.”

Doctors Jack Sharp, a Wilmington-based pediatric pulmonologist, and Michelle Hernandez, a pediatric allergist and immunologist at UNC School of Medicine, will help co-lead the clinical trial on pediatric asthma.

Children with asthma in Southeastern North Carolina are hospitalized at higher rates than the statewide average, according to Novant Health. Those who live in rural areas can often be exposed to environmental conditions like mold, dust mites, smoking, vaping and other environmental factors that only make asthma worse, Hernandez said.

“It’s a perfect place to brew a lot of unhealthy air,” she said, “and the medicines can only do so much.”

As part of their Coastal Carolina Children’s Research Initiative, the two doctors plan to establish a research infrastructure on the coast and create and engage a network of primary care practices to facilitate their research, Sharp said. That will allow patients in the Wilmington area to participate in the study, which is expected to start next year. Other research could be coming in the future, Sharp said.

“We have many other studies that we may be able to expand down here,” he said, “once we get the program up and running.”

Doctors Michael Papagikos, a Wilmington-based radiation oncologist, and Shivani Sud, a radiation oncologist with UNC Health, will lead the second clinical trial.

Their clinical trial will focus on new potential treatments for men with prostate cancer, Papagikos said.

Because prostate cancer typically needs testosterone to grow, it’s treated by giving patients medicine to lower the amount of testosterone the body produces. Eventually, however, prostate cancer cells will become immune to that treatment.

“They will mutate, and they will develop growth processes that don’t require testosterone to be around anymore,” Papagikos said.

The research focuses on men with cells “on the cusp” of becoming immune to treatment. Instead, the trial will use advanced imaging and radiation therapy to treat specific areas of cancer growth. 

Papagikos said the research aims to improve survival rates and decrease the number of patients who need to transition into a more intensive form of treatment like chemotherapy. The study will include approximately 80 Wilmington and Chapel Hill patients and is expected to last two to five years.

Papagikos said he hopes the research and the connections it will establish between doctors and health systems will create a foundation for future research.

“I’m excited for the science of the project that we’re doing,” he said, “but I’m also excited for all of the after-effects that these capacity-building grants are going to provide us.”