Research Wire: September 2015


9.29.15
​​Steven George, MD, PhD, the Elvera & William Stuckenberg Professor of Technology & Human Affairs and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has received a grant of $152,500 in the fourth year of a five-year grant with an expected total of $884,102 from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences for a project titled “An Integrated In vitro Model of Perfused Tumor and Cardiac Tissue.”


9.29.15
​Steven George, MD, PhD, the Elvera & William Stuckenberg Professor of Technology & Human Affairs and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has received a grant of $228,707 as part of a five-year grant that totals $1,112,809 from theNational Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences for a project titled “Linking DDR2 Expression, the Cancer-associated Fibroblast and Angiogenesis in the Tumor Microenvironment.”​


9.29.15
Ross C. Brownson, PhD, the Bernard Becker Professor in the Brown School, has received $166,216 in the second year of a grant from theNational Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute for “A Cross-Country Comparison of Evidence-Based Prevention of Cancer.”


9.29.15
Roch Guerin, PhD, Harold B. and Adelaide G. Welge Professor of Computer Science, Chenyang Lu, PhD, Fullgraf Professor, andChristopher Gill, DSc, professor of computer science, all in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, have received a four-year, $602,228 grant for “NeTS: Medium: Provisioning, Enforcing, and Pricing Temporal Service Differentiation in Virtualized Networked Environments” from theNational Science Foundation.


9.29.15
E.A. Quinn, PhD, assistant professor of anthropology, and Geoff Childs, PhD, associate professor of sociological anthropology, both in Arts & Sciences, have received a three-year, $354,999 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Infant Growth, Milk Composition, and Maternal Energetics in a High-altitude Environment.”


9.29.15
John Shareshian, PhD, professor of mathematics in Arts & Sciences, has received a four-year, $180,997 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Topological, Enumerative and Algebraic Combinatorics.”


9.29.15
Lucia Strader, PhD, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciencs, has received $301,188 in the first installment of an expected four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences for research titled “Regulation of Auxin Response Factor Activity in Arabidopsis.”


9.29.15
ShiNung Ching, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, will use a three-year, $374,643 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop and analyze mathematical models of brain networks. Specifically, Ching will use these models to investigate how particular features of brain networks may enable processing of information, such as sounds and visual cues from the environment. For more details, visit the School of Engineering site.


9.23.15
Richard J. Perrin, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology; co-investigator Jacqueline E. Payton, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology; co-investigator Chengjie Xiong, PhD, professor of biostatistics and of neurology; and collaborator R. Reid Townsend, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology, all in the School of Medicine, have received a three-year, $250,000 grant from the BrightFocus Foundation for research titled “Novel CSF Biomarkers in Familial Alzheimer’s Disease.”


9.17.15
​Kevin D. Moeller, PhD, professor of chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $465,000  grant from the National Science Foundation for research entitled “Intramolecular Anodic Olefin Coupling Reactions.”


9.17.15
Liviu M. Mirica, PhD, associate professor of chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, has received a $289,750 grant toward an expected total of $1,448,750 over five years from the National Institutes of Health for research entitled “Novel Bifunctional Chemical Agents as Theranostic Tools for Amyloid Diseases.”


9.17.15
Kater Murch, PhD, assistant professor of physics in the College of Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $662,027 grant from the John Templeton Foundation for research entitled “Structure of Time in Quantum Mechanics.” The purpose of this research is to investigate the origins and degree of time symmetry in continuously measured quantum systems, and to examine the extent to which quantum systems and measurements validate or question the notion of determinism to help elevate the debate on time symmetry and the causal nature of the quantum world.​


9.15.15
Scott A. Mangan, PhD, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, received $86,808 of an expected three-year, $163,739 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue his study “Collaborative Research: Genetic Diversity, Resistance Genes and Negative Density Dependence in Tropical Tree Seedling Dynamics.”


9.15.15
Liviu M. Mirica, PhD, associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, received continuing funding as part of a five-year, $890,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for his study “Novel Redox Catalysts for Greenhouse Gases Utilization.” Mirica’s work looks at the conversion of methane into liquid fuels, which could allow for a more efficient use of natural gas reserves as inexpensive energy resources.


9.15.15
Kenneth F. Kelton, PhD, the Arthur Holly Compton Professor of Arts & Sciences, received a three-year, $408,015 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue his work on the “Elastic and Inelastic Scattering Studies of Supercooled Metallic Glass-forming Liquids — the Connection Between Ordering and Fragility.” Kelton’s work aims to understand the process of glass formation, which remains a key unsolved problem for scientists.


9.14.15
I-Ting Angelina Lee, PhD, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, and Kunal Agrawal, PhD, associate professor of computer science and engineering, both in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, have received a three-year, $449,947 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “SHF: Small: Locality-Aware Concurrency Platforms.”


9.14.15
Anne Hofmeister, PhD, research professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $65,423 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Collaborative Research: Thermal Structure of Continental Lithosphere Through Time.”


9.14.15
Hani Zaher, PhD, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has received $268,008 of what’s expected to be a a five-year, $1.47 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for “The Role of Ribosome in Determining the Fate of Damaged MRNA.”


9.14.15
Roch Guerin, PhD, Harold B. and Adelaide G. Welge Professor of Computer Science in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, andFred Prior, PhD, professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, have received a two-year, $475,590 grant from the National Science Foundation for “CC*DNI Networking Infrastructure (Campus Cyberinfrastructure-Data, Networking, and Innovation): Washington University Research Network.”


9.14.15
Christine Floss, PhD, research professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, has received renewal of a two-year, $60,000 grant from NASA for “Atom-Probe Studies of the Origins of Meteoritic Nanodiamonds and Silicon Carbide.”


9.14.15
Sarah C.R. Elgin, PhD, the Viktor Hamburger Professor of Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $544,394 grant from the National Science Foundation for “The Drosophila Dot Chromosome: Gene Expression in the Context of Repetitious DNA.”


9.10.15
Sanmay Das, PhD, associate professor of computer science and engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, received a three-year, $429,600 grant from the National Science Foundation to combine an interdisciplinary mix of computer science, economics and operations research, including computational game theory and multi-agent simulation, to model the dynamics of competing platforms in the financial markets, kidney exchange and e-commerce searches. For more details, visit the School of Engineering.


9.10.15
Viktor Gruev, PhD, associate professor of computer science and engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has received a one-year, $299,857 grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to develop a bio-inspired, low-noise spectral-polarization imaging system. This instrument’s capabilities are based on the vision of the mantis shrimp, which has among the most sophisticated vision of all animals. For more details, visit the School of Engineering.


9.9. 15
Alexander S. Bradley, PhD, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has received a $269,829 grant, over two years, from the National Science Foundation for “Collaborative Research: Experimental Calibration of the Isotopic Content of Marine Sulfate.”


9.4.15 
Dave Spencer, MD, PhD, instructor in pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, has received a one-year, $91,500 Leukemia Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for research titled “HOX Gene Regulation in Hematopoiesis and AML.”


9.1.15
Jr-Shin Li, PhD, associate professor of electrical and systems engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has received a three-year, $476,658 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a framework for optimal control of the dynamics in the brain’s networks through neurostimulation. Innovative technology using neurostimulation has created new treatment options for patients with neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, tremors or chronic pain. To read more, visit theSchool of Engineering.


8.31.15
Lan Yang, PhD, the Edwin H. & Florence G. Skinner Professor in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has been awarded $250,000 over three years from the National Science Foundation for ”Collaborative Research: Thin-Film Chalcogenide Glass Materials for High-Quality Integrated Photonics.”


8.31.15
Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has been awarded $450,000 over three years from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research for “Probing Biotic/Abiotic Interfaces at the Nanoscale Using Limited Proteolysis and Chiral Plasmonics.”


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