Yellowstone Times

Dana Rashid, an assistant research professor at Montana State University, has been awarded a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to study the role of inflammation in skeletal development. The project originated from efforts to re-engineer ancestral dinosaur traits in modern birds, revealing unexpected inflammation during bone fusion.

Rashid's research showed that inflammation was present even without broken bones, suggesting its importance in avian skeletal development. This finding was published last year in PNAS. The new funding will allow Rashid and her collaborators, Susan Chapman from Clemson University and Kim Cooper from the University of California, San Diego, to continue their exploration.

In previous studies, anti-inflammatory drugs were found to halt bone fusion in chickens—an evolutionary mechanism developed over millions of years. If similar effects occur in humans, it could impact the use of corticosteroids or other anti-inflammatories on children's skeletal growth.

Alison Harmon, MSU’s vice president for research and economic development said: “The W.M. Keck Foundation invests in high-risk but high-reward research. Their awards are very competitive and difficult to secure.”

The award will fund three years of continued research into non-pathological inflammation in mammals. Rashid explained that this step is necessary to make findings applicable to human medicine.

Rashid stated: “We’re still learning which fusions are susceptible to anti-inflammatory drugs.” This knowledge is crucial for children on long-term anti-inflammatory treatments.

The team will also investigate necroptosis—a form of cell death known to drive inflammation—and its potential connection with diseases like ankylosing spondylitis.

Rashid noted the interdisciplinary nature of her work: “Because it came from such an unorthodox origin...this project has allowed us to look at things from a different perspective.”

The W.M. Keck Foundation supports outstanding science, engineering, and medical research since its establishment by William Myron Keck in 1954.