Research & Innovation Seed Grants Total Nearly $2 Million
Funds give new faculty and multidisciplinary teams a nudge toward earning external funding
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Among the OVPRI award winners: Clockwise from top left, Tingjun Chen; Ming Chen; Anita Disney; Bradley Kolls; Sarah Komisarow; Alison Korn; Paul Magwene; and Opeyemi Olabisi.
The Office of Research and Innovation has awarded nearly $2 million in seed grants for two programs, the Duke Science & Technology SPARK fund and the Duke Science & Technology LAUNCH fund.
As the names suggest, these programs are intended to jump-start new research ideas that can then go on and secure external funding. SPARK is for early- to mid-career faculty from the campus and School of Medicine. LAUNCH encourages new research partnerships across departments and disciplines.
Nine SPARK seed grants were awarded in this round, totaling $1.17 million. The LAUNCH program will be funding eight projects, totaling just under $800,000.
“We’re impressed and excited by the novel ideas that our faculty have for exploring everything from labor markets to antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” said Jenny Lodge, Duke’s vice president for Research & Innovation. “Several proposals draw on the new power of artificial intelligence and all of the proposals exemplify the tremendous creativity and energy of our faculty. We look forward to seeing what each funded program can achieve.”
DST SPARK GRANTEES
SPARK funds are for full-time tenure track professors who have been at Duke for a minimum of three years and Associate Professors who have been promoted or appointed within the last five years.
These funds are directed towards enhancing the creativity and novel research and scholarship of Duke’s early/mid-career faculty and will help our faculty pursue new directions and ideas that would otherwise be difficult to fund from other sources.
Ming Chen, associate professor of pathology, School of Medicine, will be studying the expression and regulation of a transmembrane protein that is unusually abundant in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Anita Disney, assistant professor of neurobiology, School of Medicine, is using genetically encoded sensors to simultaneously measure two neuromodulators in the brain.
Daniel Gross, assistant professor, Fuqua School of Business, will be studying how organized labor and automation changed U.S. newspapers from 1960 to 1990.
Dana Hunt, associate professor of microbial ecology, Nicholas School of the Environment, will be quantifying the loss of stored carbon and nutrients in coastal environments.
Sarah Komisarow, assistant professor of public policy and economics, Sanford School of Public Policy, will be developing an intervention designed to reduce racial disparities in the disciplinary suspensions of K-12 students.
Carlene Moore, assistant professor of neurology, School of Medicine, is applying targeted gene therapy on pain receptors to attempt to fight migraine headaches.
Opeyemi Olabisi, associate professor of medicine, School of Medicine, is studying how donor brain death contributes to the failure of transplanted kidneys.
Justin Pollara, associate professor of surgery, School of Medicine, is developing a non-viral alternative for gene therapy.
Junjie Yao, associate professor of biomedical engineering, Pratt School of Engineering,will be using focused ultrasound to crated 3D printed structures inside the body.
DST LAUNCH GRANTEES
LAUNCH grants are for two Duke Co-PIs with primary faculty appointments in different schools (or divisions within Trinity). Collaborations that involve science are strongly encouraged. These funds are directed toward supporting nascent collaborative, interdisciplinary projects, with a preference for projects that advance science and technology. The goals of this program are to enable faculty from multiple disciplines to initiate high-impact projects that could lead to additional external funding.
Alison Korn of Law and Noel Ivey of Medicine are working together on a project to improve access to care for people with opioid use disorder.
Boyla Mainsah of electrical and computer engineering and Bradley Kolls of neurology are working on a way to continuously monitor the brains of traumatic brain injury patients in intensive care.
Biomedical engineer Daniel Reker is working with Ru-Rong Ji of anesthesiology are using artificial intelligence to design longer lasting nanoformulations of anesthetic.
Cell Biologist Amy Gladfelter is working with Biologist Paul Magwene and microbiologist Erica Washington to understand how pathogenic fungi adapt to temperature stress.
Chemist Katherine Franz is teaming up with Lingchong You of biomedical engineering to find ways to selectively suppress antibiotic bacteria.
Computer scientist Tananun Songdechakraiwut and Michael Lutz of neurology are combining artificial intelligence, biomarkers and brain imaging to detect Alzheimer’s disease earlier.
Norbert Linke of physics and Tingjun Chen of electrical and computer engineering are establishing a testbed for quantum computing networks by connecting East Campus with the Chesterfield building.
Philosopher Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and psychiatrist Murali Doraiswamy are developing an artificial intelligence tool that would help predict the care choices an incapacitated dementia patient would prefer.
