| 2007 Seed Fund Awards
Toward a Closer Alignment between High School and University Curricula: A Pilot Study on International Comparison in Students' Study of Chemistry This collaborative effort between the Education and Chemistry departments will examine the secondary education systems of nations that consistently outperform the US in 8th grade to determine the differences in their science curricula. This research will position the team to develop a chemistry curricular framework for U.S. secondary schools-and urban schools in particular-that prepares students for university-level scientific study. PI: Kenneth Wong, Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair for Education Policy Professor of Education, Political Science and Public Policy & Director of Urban Education Policy Program, Department of Education Integrin Mediated Adhesion and Retraction during T Cell Migration Using newly developed biophysical and engineering tools, an interdisciplinary team of physicists, engineers and hospital-based research faculty will study the forces involved in the adhesion and migration of T cells. These tools will allow for the visualization and tracking of specific proteins such as integrin, which are involved in adhesion during migration. The knowledge acquired will be pertinent to understanding the precise mechanisms used by immune cells to fight infectious diseases. PI: Jay X. Tang, Assistant Professor of Physics and Engineering, Physics Evolutionary Response to Nanomaterial Exposure in the Environment: Functional Genomics of C60-Resistance in Drosophilia The release of nanoparticles to the environment could have significant impacts on the genetic composition of natural communities. Using fruit flies as a model system, this project will address the ecotoxicological effects of Buckminster fullerene (C60) exposures to determine the long-term environmental effects on the genetic variation in populations. This project will further current nanotoxicology research by adding a novel ecological and evolutionary component and will enhance the work of Brown's emerging cross-departmental center, the Alliance for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation. PI: David Rand, Professor of Biology, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Developing an Integrated Genomic Approach to Explore the Antitumor Activity of Vitamin D and Derivatives to Treat Ovarian Cancer The goal of this project is to take a global genomic view to understand the effect of vitamin D and the vitamin D derivative, MT19C, on ovarian tumors. This cross-disciplinary team of experts from molecular biology, chemistry, mathematics and medicine will combine complementary genomic technologies to understand how cells respond to vitamin D. This research will provide important insights to develop novel therapeutic treatments for ovarian cancer. PI: Alexander S. Brodsky, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry Carbohydrate-binding Flourescent Nanoparticles: an Enabling Technology for Glycomics This project brings together chemists, pathologists and biologists interested in studying cell surface carbohydrates and their functions. Using the tools of quantitative fluorescence microscopy and pattern recognition algorithms, this team will generate more accurate descriptions of cell surface carbohydrate compositions. This knowledge will contribute to a strategy for diagnosing cancer at the molecular level and for understanding the basic glycobiology of plant development. PI: Amit Basu, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry Targeted Research Seed Fund Award for Energy Research:Development of a "Spouted Bed" Direct Carbon Fuel Cell (SB/DCFC) In 2005, one billion tons of coal were consumed in the US for electricity generation. Given the increasing demands for electricity and the constraints on natural gas and nuclear power, coal will continue to play a very important role in the energy future of this country. In conjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, this research is focused on the construction and characterization of a prototype of a new kind of direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) that is being developed to circumvent some of the more important shortcomings of current DCFC designs. DCFCSs are electrochemical devices that produce electricity directly from carbonaceous sources, such as coal and biomass, without combustion or gasification. With much higher theoretical efficiencies than thermal power plants, DCFCs can significantly reduce CO2 emissions, as well as many other pollutants generated by conventional coal-fired power plants. PIs: J.M. Calo, Professor of Engineering; Targeted Research Seed Fund Award for Scientific Computing:The Cellarium Project: A Teaching and Research Environment for Computational Systems Biology The goal of this project is to build a novel research environment that will address unmet challenges of computational and systems biology in the post-genome-sequence and systems biology era. Building on Dr. Istrail's experience in leading the construction of some of the most powerful genomics suites of tools to date, for whole genome comparison, annotation and analysis, and his biological systems research in protein folding and misfolding, and gene regulatory networks, he will collaborate with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and California Institute of Technology to develop new computational environments for molecular reconstruction. This project will involve the world's most powerful accelerator-based neutron source to create an environment where for the first time, researchers can computationally reconstruct in vivo protein folding. PI: Sorin Istrail, Julie Nguyen Brown Professor of Computational and Mathematical Sciences, Professor of Computer Science, Director of the Center for Computational Molecular Biology 2006 Seed Fund Awards Development and Verification of CTX Imaging for Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Research This team, composed of zoologists, bioengineers and a computer scientist, is collaborating on the development of “CTX,” a new biomedical imaging technology for dynamic visualization of bones and joints in motion. With this advanced technology researchers will be able to look inside living humans and animals and see their skeletons moving in 3D. This new technology will find broad application in orthopedics and zoological biomechanics research, and possibly lead to clinical diagnosis and treatment of orthopedic problems. PI: Elizabeth Brainerd, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Nanoscale Biomimetic Materials for Nerve Regeneration The goal of this project is to determine the critical cues needed to guide nerves, thus providing essential information for new strategies for nerve regeneration. This interdisciplinary team from Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology and the Division of Engineering, hopes to converge synergistically to develop and fabricate novel biomimetic biomaterial systems with drug delivery capabilities, to characterize these biomaterials in vitro, and to evaluate them in in vivo models of nerve injury. PI: Diane Hoffman-Kim, Assistant Professor, Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology Exceptional Children—Exceptional Challenges: Developing an Interdisciplinary, Multinational Project for Studying Work-Family Dilemmas among Parents Raising Children This team of sociologists, along with an economist and pediatrician, will undertake an innovative pilot study to gather preliminary research on the prevalence and types of child disability, the choices families make to meet conflicting family economic needs and time constraints, and the relative public and private costs of raising children with disabilities. The emphasis will be on the analyses that contrast and compare varying societies, starting with a U.S.-Australia comparison analysis of work/family dilemma. PI: Dennis P. Hogan, Professor, Sociology Structural Biology and Function of Macromolecular Complexes. Using Dynamic Light Scattering to Initiate the Establishment of a Brown University Facility for State-of-the-Art Biophysical Protein Characterization This undertaking will add essential instrumentation to the cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary Laboratories of Molecular Medicine (LLM), which is home to a diverse set of faculty whose research interests span all levels of biology. The acquisition of a dynamic light scattering (DLS) instrument will facilitate key collaborative research studies of eight primary uses and help to establish a centralized facility for protein biophysical characterization. PIs: Rebecca Page, Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry and Gerwald Jogl, Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry Brown Influenza Microchip: Rapid Identification of Sequence Specific Subtypes In this project, the Division of Engineering teams up with Medical School faculty to develop an Influenza Detection Microchip capable of rapidly identifying influenza subtypes, which is not currently possible outside of specialized labs. This new technology aims to provide health care and public health professionals with key information for determining a public health response appropriate to the viral threat. PI: Anubhav Tripathi, Assistant Professor, Engineering 2005 Seed Fund Awards Brown University – Rhode Island Hospital Cooperative Research Network: A research problem selection paradigm based on medical needs Metrics for Quantifying White Matter Variation: image analysis, testing, and application Development and Optimization of Novel Chemotherapeutic Agents for Cancer Quantitative Neuroimaging of Object Representation and Perceptual Decision-Making Using Physiological Measurements and Artificial Neural Networks to Monitor and Predict Cognitive States 2004 Seed Fund Awards The Ersatz Brain Project: Brain-Like Computer Design for Cognitive Applications Strengthening Brown University Vaccine Development Capability. A Collaborative for Vaccine Research and Development (CVRD) Management of the Wadi Khalil/Nahal Besor Environmental Borderscape Development and Validation of a Gene Expression Profile for Identification of Potentially-Carcinogenic Nanofibers Impact of adolescent Pregnancy Intention and Stress of Poor Birth Outcomes Neuroproteomics of Learning and Addiction 2003 Seed Fund Awards Microsphere – Based Drug Delivery Systems and Hydrogels for the Creation of Cartilage Biocomposites. A Tissue Engineered Solution to Joint Damage Bio-Materials Transient Hearing Loss and Milestones of Language Learning Understanding and Modeling Land Cover-Land Use Change |
External funding opportunities
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