Research Highlights

The larval health of an Antarctic cold-water coral species may be resistant to warming water temperatures, a University of Maine study finds, bringing new hope for the climate change resilience of deep-sea ecosystems in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The study was published in the journal Coral Reefs. The research was funded by the NSF.

University of Louisville research could help spur new medicines by extending the usable life of test heart tissue from one day to 12. The findings were published in the journal Nature – Communications Biology.

“We’ve created a complete cardiac cycle within the chamber, so the heart tissue stays pumping and viable for longer,” said Tamer M. A. Mohamed, an associate professor of medicine who led the research. “This system will save time and costs of clinical trials during Phase 1 research, which includes testing for toxicity and proof of efficacy.” Research was supported in part by grants from NIH and DOD.

A Kansas State University-led study has found that reintroducing bison — a formerly dominant grazer — doubles plant biodiversity in a tallgrass prairie. The research includes more than 30 years of data collected at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, an NSF-supported Long-Term Ecological Research site, and is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The rapid spread of monkeypox is unlike the virus’ past outbreaks and may be a result of genetic mutations identified by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researchers. Led by Dr. David Ussery, a professor in the College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics and director of the Arkansas Center for Genomic and Epidemiology Medicine at UAMS, the UAMS team published its findings this month in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. The work was supported in part by an NIH IDeA CTPR grant and Arkansas NSF EPSCoR Track-1 DART.

NIH NIGMS recently featured Mikhail Bobylev, a professor of chemistry at Minot State University who has mentored more than 70 undergrad researchers in his lab through support from North Dakota INBRE, in a Biomedical Beat Blog article entitled, “Training Students and Communicating Science on Capitol Hill.” Bobylev focuses on training students to conduct rigorous, meaningful research and to communicate it clearly to a variety of audiences, including the general public, scientists, and policy-makers.

Longtime Nebraska NSF EPSCoR State Committee member Dr. Kenneth Bayles has been named as the next Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

A professor in the UNMC Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Dr. Bayles has been serving as the associate vice chancellor for basic science research at UNMC and as the associate vice chancellor for research and creative activity at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Photos by Louisiana Space Grant & NASA EPSCoR Programs alum Connor Matherne and his a collaborate recently went viral. The remarkable images of the moon have never-before-seen color and detail.

Over the course of a single evening, astrophotography collaborator Andrew McCarthy shot more than 200,000 detailed photos of the moon from Arizona while Matherne shot another 50,000 images from Louisiana to capture color data. Over nine months, they stitched together thousands of photos of the lunar landscape to create the high-resolution moon shot. They named the images "The Hunt for Artemis," in tribute to NASA's Artemis I mission, an uncrewed flight test that, according to the space agency: "will provide a foundation for human deep exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to return humans to the moon and extend beyond."

KY INBRE’s weekly newsletter series introduces the 2022 KY INBRE funding recipients. This week, meet Dr. Lili Ma, Northern Kentucky University, recipient of a KY INBRE CUREs award: “The Undergraduate Research in Organic Chemistry Course (UROCC) at NKU utilizes Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) model. While the UROCC experience has organic chemistry at its core, students are also exposed to the research in biochemical and medicinal chemistry fields. The funding from KY INBRE provides support to pilot and implement this course at NKU.”

SC INBRE Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Director Dr. John Kaup, Furman University, has been selected to become a Riley Fellow. Selected participants are leaders who will have the opportunity to gain new tools and perspectives to leverage diversity to improve organizational outcomes and drive social and economic progress in South Carolina through their participation in the Riley Institute’s Diversity Leaders Initiative (DLI). These leaders were selected through a rigorous application and interview process after being nominated by DLI alumni.

Rhode Island INBRE’s Molecular Informatics Core collaborated with faculty around the state and completed virtual reality (VR) apps resulting from their Enhanced Virtual Education, Research, and Training (EVEREST) awards.

Two apps for training in methods to produce nanoparticles and liposomes for drug delivery were demonstrated at the 2022 Rhode Island National Guard STEM Exploration Open House for high school students, in addition to other technology.