Research Wire: May 2016

5.31.16
Gwendalyn J. Randolph, director of the Division of Immunobiology and a professor of pathology and immunology and of medicine at the School of Medicine, has received a five-year, $3.8 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Integrating Cell and Lipoprotein Trafficking with Vascular Biology in Human IBD”; a five-year, $1.9 million renewal grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH for research titled “Differentiation and Function of Monocytes and Macrophages”; a two-year, $417,900 grant from the Midwest Strategic Pharma-Academic Research Consortium Awards Program for research titled “Vascular and Lymphatic Remodeling in Crohn’s Disease”; a two-year, $221,887 grant from the National Institute on Aging of the NIH for research titled “Local Thermogenesis in Lymphatic Vessel/Node Function Continuation”; and a one-year, $36,000 grant from Leading Technology Group for research titled “HDL Trafficking Into and Out of Tissue Interstitium.”


5.31.16
Audrey McAlinden, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and of cell biology and physiology at the School of Medicine, has received a five-year, $1.71 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Regulation of Skeletal Development by micorRNAs.”


5.31.16
Melissa A Jonson-Reid, professor in the Brown School, and Cathy Spatz Widom, of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, have received a five-year, $636,626 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project titled “Building a Multidisciplinary Pipeline of Researchers in Child Abuse and Neglect.”


5.31.16
Sharon C. Morley, PhD, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, has received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of theNational Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Control of Adaptive Immunity by Actin-Regulatory Proteins.”


5.26.16
Andrew Yoo, assistant professor of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, has received a two-year, $498,817 grant from the Missouri Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Research Program for his research titled “Generation of human spinal cord motor neurons by microRNA-mediated direct conversation of fibroblasts.”


5.26.16
Robert P. Mecham, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the School of Medicine, has received a four-year, $1.8 million renewal grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) for research titled “Assembly of Lung Elastin.”


5.26.16
Dalston Ward, a graduate student in political science in Arts & Sciences, received a two-year, $20,225 National Science Foundation research grant to support dissertation on “Local Political Contexts and Immigrant Integration” under the direction of professor Margit Tavits, professor of political science.


5.26.16
Subhadra Gunawardana, associate professor of cell biology and physiology at the School of Medicine, has received a one-year, $50,000 grant from the Diabetes Research Connection for research titled “Reversing Type 1 Diabetes without Insulin.”


5.26.16
Marco Colonna, MD, the Robert Rock Belliveau, MD, Professor of Pathology and a professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, has received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “TREM2 in Microglia Biology and Alzheimer’s Disease”; a two-year, $500,000 grant from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund for research titled “The Biological Impact of TREM Locus Mutations in Alzheimer’s Disease”; and a one-year, $381,240 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH for research titled “Inhibitory Receptors in Immunity Against Lethal Acute Virus Infection.”


5.25.16
Michael Sherraden, the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Social Development at the Brown School, has received a $150,000 grant from from the National Endowment for Financial Education for a project titled “Financial Capability and Asset Building: Preparing School Workers to Reach Millions of Households.” The project is part of a large effort at the Center for Social Development called the Financial Capability and Asset Building initiative. The vision is social-work and human-service practitioners who are well-prepared to improve financial functioning and well-being in financially vulnerable households.


5.17.16
Himadri B. Pakrasi, Myron and Sonya Glassberg/Albert and Blanche Greensfelder Distinguished University Professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, received a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for a research project titled “INSPIRE: Unraveling Factors that Determine Fast Growth of a Photoautotroph.”


5.13.16
John McCarthy, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Mathematics in Arts & Sciences, has received a five-year, nearly $625,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study operator theory and applications. Read more from theDepartment of Mathematics site.


5.11.16
Christine Floss, research professor in physics in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $565,000 grant from NASA for research on “constraining the origin(s) of meteoritic nanodiamonds through correlated transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography analyses.”


5.11.16
Carlos Botero, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $136,918 grant from the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science to support his research on cultural variation as a result of ancestry, historical processes, local ecology, and social context. His project is titled “Untangling the Role of History and Adaptation in the Evolution of Human Culture.”


5.11.16
Kelly Monk, assistant professor of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, has received a five-year, $1.66 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Molecular and genetic analysis of adhesion GPCRS in myelinating glial cell development”; and a two-year, $285,605 grant from the Missouri Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Research Program for research titled “Regulation of spinal cord myelination.”

Amy Herbert, a student in Monk’s laboratory, has received a two-year, $60,231 predoctoral fellowship award from the NIH for her project titled “Control of myelinating glial cell development by actr10.”


5.5.16
Maxim Artyomov, assistant professor of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine and of biomedical engineering, has received a one-year, $170,000 grant from Immuneering Inc. for research titled “Evaluation of Potention Effects of Targeted Knock-Outs on Cellular Phenotypes.”


5.5.16
Thaddeus Stappenbeck, MD, PhD, professor of pathology and immunology and of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, has received a one-year, $412,500 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Defining of Crohn’s Disease Subtypes Using Genetics and Metagenomics”; and a 1 1/2–year, $202,529 grant from Genentech for research titled “IL-6 Intestinal Epithelial Repair after Injury”; and a one-year, $100,000 grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for research titled “Therapeutic Potential and Manipulation of a Novel Microbial Receptor that Triggers Autophagy.”


5.5.16
Thomas Ellenberger, DVM, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the School of Medicine, along with Darin E. Jones, assistant professor of organic, pharmaceutical and biochemistry at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, have received a five-year $1.69 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Pharmacological modulation of poly (ADP-ribose) metabolism.”


5.4.16
Spencer Lake, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, recently received a $325,000 National Science Foundation grant to study the role of mechanical force on tendons at the nanoscale level. The research, which will also include computational modeling, aims to someday help better manage injuries and offer more effective prevention strategies. To learn more, visit the School of Engineering & Applied Science website.


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