Curated News: Grant Funded News

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The University of Delaware’s Jason Gleghorn, an assistant professor in biomedical engineering with a joint appointment in biological sciences, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Award to understand how the body's adaptive immune system activates. He said that he will use the five-year, $550,000 grant to develop a new class of microfluidic devices to culture an entire lymph node outside the body and study the cells’ behavior in real time.

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With an estimated 1.7 million new cases and 600,000 deaths during 2017 in the U.S. alone, cancer remains a critical healthcare challenge. Researchers used the Comet supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to evaluate their new molecular docking tool which aims to improve immunotherapy outcomes by identifying more effective personalized treatments.

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A study of national dietary trends over 18 years finds some improvements in the diets of U.S. children, but the majority still have a poor-quality diet. Disparities persisted or even worsened, finds the study published in JAMA and led by researchers at Tufts.

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Expressive language sampling yielded five language-related outcome measures that may be useful for treatment studies in intellectual disabilities, especially fragile X syndrome. The measures were generally valid and reliable across the range of ages, IQs and autism symptom severity of participants. According to the study, led by UC Davis researchers and funded by NIH, the measures are also functional in supporting treatments that can improve language, providing far reaching benefits for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

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Researchers from UC San Diego and Brookhaven Laboratory in New York investigated a diverse population of meteorites. Among the 15 pieces of comets and asteroids studied, they found two with superconductive grains.

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Children with aggressive blood cancers have differences — not just in the DNA code of their blood cells — but also in the heavily twisted protein superstructure that controls access to genes.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide $60 million to establish multidisciplinary teams to develop new tools and techniques to harness supercomputers for scientific discovery.

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Lipid droplets, membrane-bound packages of lipids, have been one of our cells’ least studied components. But recently, more scientists have begun probing the mysteries that surround them and finding fascinating results. James Olzmann, Ph.D., discusses how a protein on the surface of lipid droplets could be targeted to help treat cancer.

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A team of University of California, Irvine researchers have published the first comprehensive overview of the major changes that occur in mammalian skin cells as they prepare to heal wounds. Results from the study provide a blueprint for future investigation into pathological conditions associated with poor wound healing, such as in diabetic patients.

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Research to develop lightweight multifunctional metallic materials that can mimic structural properties in nature has won an assistant professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) a $540,000 National Science Foundation CAREER grant.

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In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mercy Medical Center sought and received an Emergency Certificate of Need approval from the Maryland Health Care Commission to construct a new 32-bed acute care unit on the 17th floor of the hospital’s main inpatient facility, The Mary Catherine Bunting Center.

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded $8.2 million to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to extend the life of the Overturning in the Sub-polar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) in a key part of Earth’s ocean-climate system. The award is part of a $15.5 million grant to four U.S. institutions that will help add four years to the record being assembled by the observatory.

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Nutrient cycling of stream ecosystems dependent on portion of salmons’ lifecycle.

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Ziva Cooper, research director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, has been awarded a $3.9 million grant from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the NIH to study whether cannabis chemicals called terpenes can reduce the amount of opioid medication a person needs to reduce pain.

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Researchers from the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine are leading a clinical study that could provide a promising new method for early detection of Parkinson’s disease.

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Bioengineers have created a 3D-printed scaffold designed to regenerate complex tissues composed of multiple layers of cells with different biological and mechanical properties.

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Inspired by a tactic cancer cells use to evade the immune system, University of Pittsburgh researchers have engineered tiny particles that can trick the body into accepting transplanted tissue as its own, while leaving the immune system intact.

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DHS S&T announced the grand prize winner of the Escape Respirator Prize Challenge.

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A mechanical engineering professor from The University of Texas at El Paso will lend his expertise to early-stage space exploration technology research through a $550,000 grant from NASA to investigate the viability of power sources in the extreme temperatures of space.

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Despite Mercury's 400 C daytime heat, there is ice at its caps, and now a study shows how that Vulcan scorch probably helps the planet closest to the sun make some of that ice.

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Rutgers student Julia Van Etten, whose @Couch_Microscopy Instagram page garnered more than 25,000 followers by showcasing microorganisms as art, is now working with NASA on research into how red algae can help explain the origins of life on Earth.

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Tens of thousands of reservoir and dam systems are being operated in communities across the United States, ensuring access to reliable sources of water. That access, however, isn’t a guarantee. Altered rainfall patterns driven by global warming, increased urbanization, and growing populations are setting up parallel increases in demand for water and energy. Sustainable approaches to managing these systems are a critical part of the solution. To that end, mechanical engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are developing a better understanding of how water and sediment flow through reservoirs and dams, in the hopes of making that process closer to earth’s natural dynamics. Their work is being supported by a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant.

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The researchers have already confirmed their discovery in human tissue samples and used it to reverse high blood pressure in lab mice.

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A room-temperature bonding technique for integrating wide bandgap materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) with thermally-conducting materials such as diamond could boost the cooling effect on GaN devices and facilitate better performance through higher power levels, longer device lifetime, improved reliability and reduced manufacturing costs.

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People with serious mental illness report that poor physical health rather than their mental health condition creates barriers to job searching, according to a Rutgers study.

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The American Society for Cell Biology wants to encourage scientists who have exhibited great promise early in their professional journeys with a variety of honorific awards. Below are several awards available to life scientists who are just beginning their careers—from graduate school through the first few years as a new investigator. Applications for all these awards open March 15.

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More than 35 million Americans take statin drugs daily to lower their blood cholesterol levels. Now, in experiments with human cells in the laboratory, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have added to growing evidence that the ubiquitous drug may kill cancer cells and have uncovered clues to how they do it.

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Publishing in the March 16, 2020, online issue of Host, Cell and Microbe, a team of researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology, in collaboration with researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute, provides the first analysis of potential targets for effective immune responses against the novel coronavirus. The researchers used existing data from known coronaviruses to predict which parts of SARS-CoV-2 are capable of activating the human immune system.

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For teenagers with cystic fibrosis, maintaining a healthy weight can be a daily struggle. A psychology student is trying to make life easier for those teens.

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Researchers from seven institutions team up to create a device combining artificial intelligence, bioelectronics and regenerative medicine for regrowing muscle tissue, especially after combat injuries.

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GRF annual glaucoma research grants will support 12 investigators at prestigious colleges and universities across the United States.

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Sandia National Laboratories has received a $6 million grant from the the National Institutes of Health to build a prototype medical device that would make magnetoencephalography (MEG) — a type of noninvasive brain scan — more comfortable, more accessible and potentially more accurate.

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Nationally-known developer Chris Jeffries and his wife Lisa have donated $25 million to Henry Ford Health System, the largest single gift from an individual in the health system’s 105-year history. This historic gift will rapidly accelerate the growth and expansion of Henry Ford’s Precision Medicine program, with the ultimate goal of creating a Precision Health Center. The efforts will have a robust focus on the advancement of cancer research and treatment, while also expanding to other medical specialties treating behavioral health, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

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Chemists and biochemists at UC San Diego took the first look at the onset of DNA-editing activity in an RNA-editing enzyme called “TadA” that served as the precursor to a class of base editors known as ABEs.

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The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and its Collaborative Research Network (CRN) are pleased to announce the recipients of a $150,000 research grant.

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Astronomers working on “first light” data from a newly commissioned telescope in Chile made a chance discovery that led to the identification of a rare eclipse of two brown dwarfs.

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The renewed cooperative agreement to Colorado State University continues the work of the Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning to develop computer and field study tools, best practices and guidance that help local governments decide how to best invest resources intended to lessen the impact of extreme weather and other hazards on communities and to recover rapidly

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Many farmers struggle with an enemy that looks like a friend. Agricultural weeds that are close relatives of crops present a particular challenge to farmers because their physical similarities to the desirable species make them difficult to detect and eradicate. Along the way, the imitators compete with crops for water, nutrients and space — often depressing crop yields.

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will invest $176 million over 10 years to connect Missourians in rural areas to high-speed internet. But with more than 1 million residents who need access, systems expert Dr. Casey Canfield says bridging the digital divide will also take an investment in broadband research. “Analytical research can help decision-makers make more strategic investments in broadband infrastructure by using simulations to compare different approaches,” says Canfield.

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Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they have successfully turned back the biological hands of time, coaxing adult human cells in the laboratory to revert to a primitive state, and unlocking their potential to replace and repair damage to blood vessels in the retina caused by diabetes. The findings from this experimental study, they say, advance regenerative medicine techniques aimed at reversing the course of diabetic retinopathy and other blinding eye diseases.

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Propagating Motor Cortical Dynamics Facilitate Movement Initiation

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New discovery in breast cancer could lead to better strategies for preventing the spread of cancer cells to other organs in the body, effectively reducing mortality in breast cancer patients. According to a study, published today in Nature Cell Biology, breast cancer cells shift their metabolic strategy in order to metastasize. Instead of cycling sugar (glucose) for energy, they preferentially use mitochondrial metabolism.

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Rutgers School of Public Health assistant professor Thomas Mackie was awarded a $4.1 million contract from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study the effectiveness of Perinatal Psychiatry Access Programs available to pregnant and postpartum women across the United States.

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Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have created a computer program for scientists at no charge that lets users readily quantify the structural and functional changes in the blood flow networks feeding tumors.

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In the past, biologically-active peptides – small proteins like neurotoxins and hormones that act on cell receptors to alter physiology – were purified from native sources like venoms and then panels of variants were produced in bacteria, or synthesized, to study the structural basis for receptor interaction. A new technique called zombie scanning renders these older processes obsolete.

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More than half of the planet’s fresh water is in Antarctica. While most of it is frozen in the ice sheets, underneath the ice pools and streams of water flow into one another and into the Southern Ocean surrounding the continent. Understanding the movement of this water, and what is dissolved in it as solutes, reveals how carbon and nutrients from the land may support life in the coastal ocean.

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With the help of a $1.98 million award from the NIH, Wayne State University researchers are working to develop biomarker technology for identification of biomarkers of sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease of unknown causes that affects multiple organs in the body.

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Researchers at the University of Rhode Island (URI) used San Diego Supercomputer Center’s (SDSC) Comet supercomputer to show that high-performance computer modeling can accurately simulate tsunamis from volcanic events. Such models could lead to early-warning systems that could save lives and help minimize catastrophic property damage.

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An artificial intelligence (AI) device that has been fast-tracked for approval by the Food and Drug Administration may help identify newborns at risk for aggressive posterior retinopathy of prematurity (AP-ROP). AP-ROP is the most severe form of ROP and can be difficult to diagnose in time to save vision.

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A $6 million grant from Arnold Ventures will support replication and rigorous study of the outcomes of the Transitional Care Model (TCM) in four U.S. health care systems. Designed by a team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), the TCM has been proven in multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded randomized clinical trials (RCTs) to improve health outcomes, reduce rehospitalizations and decrease total health care costs among the growing population of Medicare beneficiaries.