# BLRD Research Career Scientist Award Application

> **NIH VA IK6** · VA VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL · 2024 · —

## Abstract

This application is to support Dr. Lauren Ashley Cowart, PhD as a VA Research Career Scientist. Dr. Cowart
has been VA funded since 2005 and has served as PI on 2 NIH R01 awards (currently funded through 2025),
among other intra- and extramural support. Dr. Cowart began her independent career at the Ralph H. Johnson
VAMC and its academic affiliate, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). While there she developed
a robust research program with both NIH and VA support addressing the contribution of bioactive sphingolipids
to obesity-related disease. These studies included seminal work on how different fatty acids (e.g unsaturated,
saturated, etc.) modified sphingolipid metabolism in cells, and how aberrant production of sphingolipids led to
inflammation, maladaptive autophagy, oxidative stress, and other deleterious programs. These studies were
conducted in a variety of organs and tissues including skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, liver, and adipose tissue.
The research environment at Ralph H. Johnson VAMC was very rich, and while there she published over 40
manuscripts including 8 with prominent VA collaborators. From 2005-2017 Dr. Cowart advanced from a research
track Assistant Professor to a tenured Associate Professor. In 2017, Dr. Cowart moved to the Hunter Holmes
McGuire VAMC whose academic affiliate is Virginia Commonwealth University. She immediately connected with
Dr. Edward Lesnefsky, a VA cardiologist who serves co-investigator on her recent VA Merit award, and with
whom she has active research projects and publications in preparation. Recently she has developed projects
with investigators at other VAMCs including Dr. Abhinav Diwan in St. Louis (John Cochran VAMC/Wash. U.),
which has resulted in several grant applications and manuscripts in preparation, and Dr. Sushil Mahata in San
Diego (VA San Diego Healthcare System/UCSD), with whom she has two manuscripts in development and has
been actively applying for both NIH and VA funding (through the collaborative Merit program). While the scale of
the basic science research enterprise at Hunter Holmes McGuire is narrower than at Ralph H. Johnson, she
continues to seek out and forge new collaborations within the local VA and national VA research community.
 Dr. Cowart’s research addresses the constellation of metabolic diseases: type 2 diabetes, obesity,
metabolic syndrome, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. In this context her work addresses molecular
mechanisms by which sphingolipids regulate adipose tissue function, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),
and myocardial dysfunction. Major published findings include that saturated vs. unsaturated fatty acids
differentially regulate enzymes including sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) that produce the sphingolipid mediators
sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and ceramide, and that sphingosine-1-phosphate mediates NAFLD. These
findings led her to develop cell-specific knock outs of SphK1. Surprisingly, the adipocyte-specific SphK1 mouse
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10813044
- **Project number:** 5IK6BX006315-02
- **Recipient organization:** VA VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Lauren Ashley Cowart
- **Activity code:** IK6 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-04-01 → 2028-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10813044

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10813044, BLRD Research Career Scientist Award Application (5IK6BX006315-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10813044. Licensed CC0.

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