News Archives: August, 2019

The National Institute on Minority Health and Minority Health Disparities (NIMHD), part of NIH, has funded three new awards and renewed eight awards funded under the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Specialized Centers Program. The RCMI program develops the infrastructure needed to conduct state of the art biomedical research while fostering the next generation of researchers from underrepresented populations. Project periods span five years and the centers are anticipated to share around $187 million in funding.

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) created the Genomic Innovator Awards in 2018 to provide funding to support investigators with outstanding records of productivity. The awards will provide funding to six institutions to support early career researchers studying genome biology, genomic medicine, technology development and societal implications of genomic advances. The amount of support to accelerate genomics research is expected to total approximately $500,000 per year over a fiveyear project period.

In an NIH funded study, Brown University’s Superfund Research Center examines how graphene-based film can protect people from mosquito bites. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lee Morin is a former astronaut that flew on a 2002 shuttle mission to the International Space Station. Originally from New Hampshire, Morin received his bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire. At 66, Morin is now leading work on NASA’s Orion Spacecraft.

Last week on August 7, NSF announced the recipients of its FY 2019 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards. NSF has invested over $250 million in its nearly 700 award recipients. This year’s EPSCoR representation includes 103 recipients across 25 jurisdictions.

On July 24, 2019 Office of Science and Technology Policy Director (OSTP) Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier testified at the House Appropriations Committee Budget and Oversight Hearing. As he explained his personal connection to STEM, Dr. Droegemeier reminded members that he hails from the “so-called EPSCoR state” of Oklahoma. He was also quick to emphasize his focus on ensuring everyone has access to opportunity, that “Americans of all backgrounds should have access to STEM education and skills.”

"Stimuli is a summary collection of college and university basic research and technology development reports impacting NASA's earth science, aviation, and human and robotic deep space exploration programs. This document addresses research which is relevant to NASA’s mission, and currently administered by the agency's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research." Read the full report from NASA here.

The National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the United Kingdom Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have begun a collaboration to develop cutting-edge responses to fundamental food security questions. These "Breakthrough Technology Awards" enable the "high-risk, high-reward" research that is essential to developing solutions to drought, flood, pests, and disease.

Coral reefs are retreating from equatorial waters and establishing new reefs in more temperate regions, according to new research in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. The researchers found that the number of young corals on tropical reefs has declined by 85 percent – and doubled on subtropical reefs – during the last four decades.

"Scientists using an experimental treatment have slowed the progression of scrapie, a degenerative central nervous disease caused by prions, in laboratory mice and greatly extended the rodents’ lives, according to a new report in JCI Insight. The scientists used antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), synthetic compounds that inhibit the formation of specific proteins.