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News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, February 29, 2012

IU faculty teams pursue new projects with nearly $1M in collaborative grants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 29, 2012

BLOOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Vice President for Research Jorge José has announced that 17 teams of researchers have been awarded IU Collaborative Research Grants, ranging from $13,000 to $70,000.

The program, in its second year, will provide close to $1 million in seed funding to teams of researchers from different departments, schools and campuses for transformative research projects that have a substantial chance of external funding.

More than 350 faculty members from five IU campuses were involved in the 110 proposals submitted this year. IU faculty members reviewed the proposals, evaluating them on the basis of scientific excellence, transformative potential and likelihood for future external funding. The teams submitting applications were required to be new collaborations working on new projects. Teams that receive IUCRG awards are required to submit external funding proposals within 18 months of their awards.

"I'm particularly pleased that more than half of the projects receiving funding involve faculty from multiple campuses," José said. "Collaborations that involve faculty members from more than one campus are on the rise and are an exciting way to draw upon IU's broad strengths to enhance our research profile."

Overall, 55 faculty members on teams from 10 schools received IUCRG awards this year.

Last year, 18 teams received funding. Those teams are meeting in early March to present results of their work to one another in a session that will be available to all members of the IU community via webcast.

"While it is important for those who received funding to hear what their colleagues have been doing, it is also a good opportunity for others at IU to learn about the new and transformative research that our faculty are engaged in," José said. "I hope that this will spark ideas for people and catalyze new partnerships and research projects across the university as well as ideas for submitting IUCRG new proposals next year."

Project abstracts for 2011-12 IUCRG recipients can be found online. The teams awarded IUCRG funding are:

• "A Search for New Spin-Dependent Forces of Nature"; William Snow (College of Arts and Sciences), Joshua Long (College of Arts and Sciences), Ricardo Decca (School of Science), Alan Kostelecky (College of Arts and Sciences) and Ruihu Cheng (School of Science)

• "Amyloid Precursor Protein Brain Neuronal Markers in Children With Autism"; Deborah Sokol (School of Medicine), Debomoy Lahiri (School of Medicine), Dean Hawley (School of Medicine) and George Sandusky (School of Medicine)

• "Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Among Women Who Have Sex With Women and Men (WSWM) and Their Sexual Networks"; Vanessa Schick (School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation), James Fortenberry (School of Medicine), David Nelson (College of Arts and Sciences), Barbara Van Der Pohl (School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation)

• "Balance Control in Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration"; Shirin Hassan (School of Optometry) and John Shea (School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation)

• "Effects of Chronic Cannabis Abuse on Associative Learning and Neuroplasticity in Early Adolescence and Young Adults"; Amanda Bolbecker (College of Arts and Sciences), Kenneth Mackie (College of Arts and Sciences), William Hetrick (College of Arts and Sciences), Charles Goodlett (School of Medicine) and Alan Breier (School of Medicine)

• "Family Environment and Its Role in Outcomes in School-Age Children With Hearing Loss"; Rachael Holt (College of Arts and Sciences), William Kronenberger (School of Medicine), Jessica Beer (School of Medicine) and David Pisoni (College of Arts and Sciences)

• "Integrating Clinical Data Systems With Social Context to Map Neighborhood Health"; Lisa Staten (School of Medicine), Christian Mushi (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences), Marc Rosenman (School of Medicine) and David Bodenhamer (School of Liberal Arts, Polis Center)

• "Ionizing Radiation Induced DNA Demethylation and Brain Development"; Feng Zhou (School of Medicine), Marc Mendonca (School of Medicine), Yun Liang (School of Medicine) and Amy Cristine Lossie (School of Medicine)

• "MIMP Modeling of Alzheimer's Disease Data Towards a Robust Diagnostic Test"; Jake Chen (School of Informatics), Andrew Saykin (School of Medicine), Xiaogang Wu (School of Informatics) and Li Shen (School of Medicine)

• "Modeling Epithelial Organization"; Robert Bacallao (School of Medicine) and James Glazier (College of Arts and Sciences)

• "Neurobiological Mechanisms Underlying Affect Recognition Deficits After Brain Injury"; Wang Yang (School of Medicine), Dawn Neumann (School of Medicine), Brenna McDonald (School of Medicine), and Arlene Schmid (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences)

• "Novel Anti-Cancer Agents Targeting G-Quadruplexes"; Amar Flood (College of Arts and Sciences) and Brittany-Shea Herbert (School of Medicine)

• "Placenta Stem Cell-Based Tissue Engineering of the Trachea: Airway Management of the Future"; Stacey Halum (School of Medicine), Michael Murphy (School of Medicine) and Marco Bottino (School of Dentistry)

• "Quantifying Reproductive Transfer of Cadmium Burden in Daphnia"; Laura Wasylenki (College of Arts and Sciences) and Joseph Shaw (School of Public and Environmental Affairs)

• "Self-Limiting Mechanisms Inhibiting Thrombus Growth"; Elliot Rosen (School of Medicine), Horia Petrache (School of Science) and Bogdan Dragnea (College of Arts and Sciences)

• "The Role of Phototropins in Optimizing Photosynthesis in Soybean"; John Watson (School of Science) and Roger Hangarter (College of Arts and Sciences)

• "Translational Potential of Combined Electrical Stimulation and Testosterone Treatment for Peripheral Nerve Injury Repair"; Dale Sengelaub (College of Arts and Sciences) and Kathryn Jones (School of Medicine)

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