Research Highlights

Alaska EPSCoR Boreal Fires co-lead Uma Bhatt, professor of atmospheric sciences at the Geophysical Institute and College of Natural Science and Mathematics, has been named winner of this year’s University of Alaska-Fairbanks Emil Usibelli Distinguished Research Award.

Bhatt, who holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in atmospheric sciences, arrived at UAF in 1998. She also has two bachelor’s degrees: one in Russian and another in mechanical engineering.

At UAF, she has conducted wide-ranging research into climate-related phenomena of value to scientists, resource managers and industries. She published a groundbreaking study of the connection between sea ice and tundra vegetation, and she currently leads a worldwide effort to better predict the seasonal extent of sea ice. She also is working on methods to seasonally forecast wildland fire risks.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have mapped 16 groups of cells that play a key role in how dopamine and other neurotransmitters travel through the brain. By identifying the cell groups in the brain's ventral tegmental area, UAB researchers laid the building blocks for future research on how the groups interact and connect to the rest of the brain in people with addiction, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other neurological conditions.

This research was partially funded by grants from the NIH.

NASA KY Space Grant researcher Benne W. Holwerda, University of Louisville, and an international team of researchers have discovered a powerful megamaser — a radio-wavelength laser emission usually indicative of colliding galaxies — that is the most distant such megamaser found so far.

Working on a project called “Looking at the Distant Universe with the Meerkat Array” (LADUMA), the team is using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa to look for neutral hydrogen gas in galaxies that are very, very far away, both in space and in time. By measuring the neutral hydrogen gas in galaxies from the distant past to now, LADUMA will contribute to our understanding of the evolution of the universe.

The discovery was made by LADUMA, led by Holwerda, Andrew Baker of Rutgers University and Sarah Blyth of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, in some of the first data the team obtained from the MeerKAT, which was commissioned in 2019.

Josephine (Josie) Chandler, PhD, first became interested in science when she took a high school chemistry class. In college, she fell in love with microbiology and ultimately earned a Ph.D. in the field. Today, she’s an associate professor of molecular biosciences at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where her lab investigates interactions in bacterial communities. NIGMS recently featured Dr. Chandler in their video series, Career Conversations.

Soumen Paul, University of Kansas Medical Center, is one of four KU scholars to receive the University Scholarly Achievement Award. He is a past Kansas INBRE Pilot and Bridging Grant awardee.

The University Scholarly Achievement Award recognizes truly outstanding scholarly or research contributions, with one award given each year in each of four categories: arts and humanities; medicine and clinical sciences; science, technology and mathematics; and social science and professional programs.

In the US, approximately 1.5 million individuals experience bone fractures related to osteoporosis each year. In addition to this being a major public health concern, it poses a significant financial burden.

Recently, issues with bone health have gained attention around how they relate to bleeding disorders. Individuals with hemophilia tend to have low bone mineral density that’s believed to be a consequence of prolonged immobility, recurrent hemarthrosis, decreased weight bearing, lower physical activity level and obesity.

While there’s some literature relating to bone health and hemophilia, there’s a lack of understanding around impaired bone health in individuals with von Willebrand disease (vWD) and those who are hemophilia carriers (HC). This motivated investigators to estimate the prevalence of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and bone fractures in these individuals.

Research led by Divyaswathi Citla-Sridha at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences found people with von Willebrand disease or hemophilia have significantly higher risks for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and bone fractures than the general population. Ten risk factors, including vitamin D deficiency, obesity, hypothyroidism, smoking and use of corticosteroids or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, were more prevalent in cases, compared with controls.

Alaska EPSCoR and Sitka Science recently held a workshop to teach nine Sitka-area educators how to deliver an EPSCoR wildfire ecology curriculum that uses a board game to teach students about topics like the fire triangle and fire behavior.

SC INBRE Student-Initiated Research Project Program (SIRP) student mentor George Shields, Furman University, has been recognized for his mentorship as the recipient of the 2022 Faculty Mentor Award from the Council on Undergraduate Research and the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. Four students under the chemistry professor’s tutelage have won Fulbright awards and 13 became Goldwater Scholars, including five at Furman, three of those in 2021.

Mississippi INBRE recently awarded a grant totaling nearly $2,500 to Mt. Salus Christian School, a private K-12 school based in Clinton, MS. Mt. Salus used the grant to purchase materials for multiple STEM-focused classes, ranging from simple wrenches and screwdrivers to microscopes and even robots. Mt. Salus reports that these materials have made a profound difference in the quality of education the students have received. Many have even expressed an interest in pursuing a STEM-focused career during college and beyond.

Recently Independence, KS residents found more than books to check out at their local library. They found “Microbes on the Move,” a traveling program from KU Natural History Museum, funded by Kansas NSF EPSCoR. The interactive event drew many visitors, giving Kansans of all ages a chance to learn about how microbes – tiny life that take a microscope to see – live among us and connect with other lifeforms.