‘High-risk’ research receives University seed funding

University Research Awards, which provide “seed” grants for promising research, have been awarded to 15 projects for 2018-19. The projects range from an analysis of the roles of prisons in the Rochester region, to a new approach to genome editing, to new initiatives for advanced materials for powerful lasers. The funding has been increased from $500,000 to $1 million. Half of the funding comes from the President’s Fund, with the rest being matched by the various schools whose faculty members are recipients. The newly funded projects are:

• Inscriptr Genome Editing – Directed Non-homologous DNA Integration: Douglas Anderson, assistant professor, Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute.
• Particle Assembly of Mesomorphic Ceramics (Advanced Materials for Powerful Lasers Initiative): Mitchell Anthamatten, Shaw Chen, and Matthew Yates, professors of chemical engineering, and Thomas Brown, professor of optics.
• Robust Optical Devices Comprising Glassy Liquid Crystals with Photoalignment Polymer Films (Advanced Materials for Powerful Lasers Initiative): Shaw Chen, professor, and Alexander Shestopalov, associate professor, both of chemical engineering, and Tanya Kosc, scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics.
• Autonomic Nervous System Biomarkers Distinguish Epileptic vs. Psychogenic Seizures: David Auerbach, research assistant professor, Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute; Jean-Phillippe Couderc, associate professor of medicine; and Giuseppe Erba, professor emeritus, and Giovanni Schifitto, professor, both of neurology.
• How Is Rochester a Prison Town? Joel Burges, assistant professor of English; Kristin Doughty, assistant professor of anthropology; Kara Finnigan, associate professor of educational leadership; Evelyn Leblanc-Roberge, assistant professor of art and art history; Diane Morse, associate professor of psychiatry; Dena Swanson, associate professor of counseling and human development, and Joshua Dubler, assistant professor of religion.
• Pre-clinical mouse model for atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS): Ian Dickerson, associate professor of neuroscience, and Joseph Miano, professor, Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute.
• White Matter Integrity and Cognitive Performance in Adolescents with Primary Hypertension: Marc Lande, professor of pediatrics; and Heather Adams, associate professor, and Giovanni Schifitto, professor, both of neurology.
• Non-invasive quantitative assessment of tendon healing using ultrasound and machine learning: Alayna Loiselle, assistant professor, Center for Musculoskeletal Research, and Constantinos Ketonis, assistant professor of orthopaedics.
• Disparate Geographies: Spatial and Racial Landscapes in Rochester, New York: Kathryn Mariner, assistant professor of anthropology.
• Novel Supramolecular Hydrogels for Sustained and Localized Drug Delivery: Bradley Nilsson, associate professor of chemistry, and Takahiro Takano, research assistant professor, Eastman Institute for Oral Health.
• Quantum Optomechanical Networks: John Nichol, assistant professor of physics, and William Renninger, assistant professor of optics.
• Bifunctional tandem-catalysts for CO2 conversion to plastics, chemicals and fuels: Marc Porosoff, assistant professor of chemical engineering.
• Daily Emotional Reactivity among Adolescents: Genetic and Early Environmental Contributors and Longitudinal Outcomes: Lisa Starr, assistant professor of psychology.
• Brain Elastography with Optical Coherence Tomography: Kevin Parker, the William F. May Professor of Engineering; Jannick Rolland, the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering, and Maiken Nedergaard, professor of neurosurgery.
• Computer Vision Enabled Quantitative Analytics for Ultra-Widefield Fluorescein Angiography: Ajay Kuriyan, assistant professor of ophthalmology; Rajeev Ramchandran, associate professor of ophthalmology, and Gaurav Sharma, professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Read more about University Research Awards and past recipients.