UB Faculty Teams Receive Multidisciplinary Research Grants

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Seventeen faculty teams at the University at Buffalo with excellent ideas for original, multidisciplinary research have been awarded grants totaling more than $300,000 by the university.

The grants, ranging from $10,000 to $20,000, are part of a UB program, now in its third year, designed to provide seed funding for multidisciplinary pilot projects to improve their chances of attracting external support.

Applications were evaluated by expert reviewers at other institutions around the world who had no personal or financial ties to the applicants. Proposals with the highest ratings were funded.

Research projects had to be in an area central to UB's graduate-education, research and public-service goals, and special consideration was given to proposals that crossed traditional boundaries of distinctly different disciplines.

• Evaluation of Immunologic Tolerance in Solid Organ Transplantation, Julian L. Ambrus, Jr., M.D., associate professor of medicine

• Assessment and Quality of Life Outcomes of Cancer Weight Loss, Jean K. Brown, Ph.D., assistant professor of nursing

• Structure and Function of the KP6 Toxin, Jeremy Bruenn, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences

• A Putative Cannabinoid Receptor in Human Sperm, Lani J. Burkman, Ph.D., research assistant professor of gynecology/obstetrics

• Great Earthquakes of the Kamchatkan Subduction Zone, Marcus Bursik, Ph.D., associate professor of geology

• Converting Mutant Mouse Models to Cell Culture Systems, Michael D. Garrick, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry

• Pilot for an Intra-SUNY Distributed Network-Based Graduate Materials Course on Molecular Conductors, Michael J. Naughton, Ph.D., associate professor of physics

• Brain Activation in Chronic and Acute Pain Responses for Myogenic Temporomandibular Pain Patients, Elliot N. Gale, Ph.D., professor of oral diagnostic sciences

• Computational Modeling of Business Processes, Bharadwaj Jayaraman, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science

• Flow Velocity Measurement in Arteriovenous Malformations (AVMs) Using Droplet Path Angiography, B. Barry Lieber, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering

• Cell-cycle Localization and Association of the Human Replication Protein A Subunits, Thomas Melendy, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology

• Tiber Valley Archaeological Project, J. Theodore Pena, Ph.D., assistant professor of classics

• RNA Binding Proteins from Plasmodium Falciparum, Laurie K. Read, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology

• The Pathogenesis of Gram Negative Bacillary Pneumonia, Thomas Russo, M.D., professor of medicine

• Adolescent Violence and Alcohol Abuse: A Multiple Component Empirically Based Prevention Strategy, John S. Wodarski, Ph.D., professor of social work

• Effects of Dehydration, Osteoporosis & Calcium Deficiency on Mechanical Aspects of Motion Segment in the Rat, Israel Ziv, M.D., professor of orthopaedic surgery