A recent award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health will aid Wayne State University researchers in their exploration of the underlying biology of several diseases.

The five-year, $1.8 million grant, “Mechanisms of Mitophagy in Tissue Health and Homeostasis,” will be led by Ryan Insolera, Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology, visual and anatomical sciences in the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

In recent years, vaping has become popular as an alternative to traditional cigarettes. Flavored electronic cigarettes — known as e-cigarettes — have become so popular among young adults that some states have implemented restrictions such as flavor bans and taxes on e-cigarettes in an effort to reduce teen vaping.

A new study from researchers at the University of Missouri and the Yale School of Public Health found that state restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes led to a decrease in vaping among young adults in the United States. However, those restrictions also led to an increase in traditional cigarette smoking among young adults compared to states without such restrictions.