The 2025 Desai Sethi Urology Institute Pilot Grant Awardees
Summary
- Desai Sethi Urology Institute awarded $75,000 internal research grants to Zhipeng Wang, Ph.D., and Katherine Amin, M.D., through its Genitourinary Research Development Pilot Grant program.
- Dr. Wang is studying the ketogenic diet’s impact on lysine β-hydroxybutylome in prostate cancer.
- Dr. Amin is running a pilot study on prophylactic polyacrylamide hydrogel for de novo stress urinary incontinence prevention at the time of prolapse repair.
Desai Sethi Urology Institute (DSUI), part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, awarded $75,000 internal research grants to Zhipeng Wang, Ph.D., and Katherine Amin, M.D. The funding support comes from DSUI’s Genitourinary Research Development Pilot Grant program.
Dr. Wang, a DSUI assistant professor of urology, received funding to pursue his study on the ketogenic diet’s impact on lysine β-hydroxybutylome in prostate cancer. Dr. Amin, a DSUI associate professor of urology, was awarded for a pilot study on prophylactic polyacrylamide hydrogel for de novo stress urinary incontinence prevention at the time of prolapse repair. She served as co-principal investigator with Raveen Syan, M.D., DSUI assistant professor of clinical urology.
In its second year, the pilot grant award program funds high-impact research addressing prevention, early detection and treatment of genitourinary disorders. The funding helps investigators generate the preliminary data needed to launch new, externally funded research proposals.
This year’s funding spans the June 1 to May 31, 2026 period. DSUI provides an additional $75,000 in direct costs for a second year, depending on the study’s review and progress in year one.
“One of the important features of our pilot grant funding program is that these are projects that have undergone rigorous peer review by both basic scientists and academic urologists,” said Nima Sharifi, M.D., professor of urology at the Miller School and DSUI scientific director. “They have vetted the chosen studies in terms of the work and projects that we need to support and continue to grow. As a result, the impact is there, not just from our view but from objective, independent scientists who see this as high-impact science that should be supported.”
Could the Ketogenic Diet Impede Cancer Growth?
The ketogenic diet, which is low in dietary carbohydrates with varying levels of protein and fat, raises levels of molecules called ketone bodies. The diet has shown promise in impeding cancer growth by changing how cancer cells process.
“My lab will embark on research focusing on a unique type of modification to proteins called lysine β-hydroxybutyrylation, which increases under ketogenic conditions,” Dr. Wang said. “Lysine β-hydroxybutylome could play a key role in cancer, particularly prostate cancer. But its full impact and the proteins it affects are unclear.”
Early evidence suggests that enzymes called histone deacetylases, which are often more expressed in prostate cancer, may reduce lysine β-hydroxybutyrylation levels. Dr. Wang and colleagues believe the ketogenic diet might help slow cancer progression by counteracting the effects of histone deacetylases and increasing lysine β-hydroxybutyrylation levels.
“We’ll be the first to profile lysine β-hydroxybutyrylation in prostate cancer cells and link it to a small subgroup of histone deacetylases regulation of the protein modification, potentially paving the way for new cancer therapies and insights into conditions impacted by the ketogenic diet,” Dr. Wang noted.
A Less Invasive Way to Prevent Stress Urinary Incontinence
De novo stress urinary incontinence is a common side effect of pelvic organ prolapse surgery.
“I am passionate about this study because prolapse is a condition that affects up to 20% of women during their lifetime and the pathophysiology of stress urinary incontinence is similar to pelvic organ prolapse, where the muscles in the vagina have become weakened,” Dr. Amin said. “In some patients, the prolapse masks the stress urinary incontinence because the prolapse kinks the urethra. Therefore, stress urinary incontinence can be an unwanted condition of prolapse repair surgery. So it is important to address it prophylactically.”
Polyacrylamide hydrogel is FDA approved. As a urethral bulking agent, it is safer, less invasive and easier to use than the mesh slings that surgeons currently use to prevent stress urinary incontinence after pelvic organ prolapse surgery.
“It’s very exciting,” Dr. Amin said. “This gives us preliminary data to do a multi-institutional study on a larger scale, which would really put DSUI on the map. If this leads to positive results, it would be groundbreaking for patients and could change the paradigm of how we approach prolapse repair surgery and concomitantly treat stress urinary incontinence.”
Tags: Desai Sethi Urology Institute, Dr. Katherine Amin, Dr. Zhipeng Wang, Pilot Grants, prostate cancer, stress urinary incontinence