University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: April 3, 2003

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

The Office of the Vice President for Research has announced the recipients of funding from the Interdisciplinary Research and Creative Activities Fund (IRCAF), with the grant recipients representing a wide variety of disciplines ranging from theatre and dance, anthropology and media study to pharmacology, neurosurgery and occupational therapy.

The IRCAF was created a little more than a year ago to promote research collaboration in areas that cut across two or more schools. The idea behind the fund was to support and facilitate the formation of collaborations and the exploration of innovative ideas that would open new directions in research and creative activities, enhance the intellectual environment of the campuses and lead to long-term funding support from external sources, says Jaylan Turkkan, vice president for research,

"IRCAF is the primary internal source of support for research at UB," notes Joseph Cusker, executive assistant to the vice president for research, "and many UB researchers depend on it to obtain the preliminary results often needed to be competitive for external funding."

Adds Turkkan: "As things stand now, it's virtually impossible to get a federal grant without strong pilot data. The IRCAF program will give our faculty a leg up."

Kenneth Tramposch, associate vice president for research, praises the range of disciplines represented in the grant proposals.

"We have been very impressed by the wide diversity of projects submitted by faculty representing almost every school," Tramposch says. "Unfortunately, we cannot fund every worthy project. One major award criteria is the potential of the project to garner external funding if the proposed work is completed. Our faculty peer-review panels have done an outstanding job in helping us select the most promising projects that meet this criteria, and I thank them for their service."

Competition for the grants is keen, Cusker says, pointing out that in the three funding cycles of the program thus far, there have been 58, 51 and 67 proposals submitted, with 17, 20 and 15 awards made, respectively.

Awards are made twice each year through a competitive UB peer review process. Proposals submitted for the Feb 1 or Oct. 1 deadlines are funded on March 1 or Nov. 1, respectively. Proposals are funded for amounts of up to $50,000.

Further details on the IRCAF can be found at http://www.research.buffalo.edu/internal_funding/default.htm, or by contacting Turkkan or Tramposch at 645-3321.

The projects receiving money in the most recent funding cycle, February 2003, and their principle investigators are:

• "Insulin Gene Delivery with Tissue Engineered Skin Equivalents: Development of a Tissue-Based Device for the Treatment of Type-1 Diabetes," Stelios Andreadis, Department of Chemical Engineering

• "Dance and Percussion-Integral Partners in Sight and Sound," Tressa Gorman Crehan, Department of Theatre and Dance

• "Identification of In Vivo Targets of Protein Kinases by RNA Interference and Mass Spectrometry," Arthur Edelman, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

• "A Distributed Computing Prototype for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: Enabling a Documentary on American History," Sarah Elder, Department of Media Study

• "Hypoxic Ventilatory Depression in Experimental Obesity," Gaspar Farkas, Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences

• "Functional and Psychosocial Impact of Computer-Based Assistive Technology for Adults with Disabilities," James A. Lenker, Department of Occupational Therapy

• "Metal Ion Facilitated Binding of Quinolones to HIV-1 TAR RNA: New Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Compounds for RNA Recognition," Janet R. Morrow, Department of Chemistry

• "Integrating Genetics & Proteomics to Study CNS Effects of EtOH," Richard Rabin, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

• "Protein Arginine Methylation in Trypanosomes," Laurie K. Read, Department of Microbiology

• "Influence of Race on Immunosuppressive Pharmacology and Immune Response During Transplantation," Kathleen Tornatore, Department of Pharmacy Practice

• "The Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series," Piero R. Bianco, Department of Microbiology

• "Stem Cells and Cell Transplantation," Richard Salvi, Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences

• "Dynamic Posturography Instrumentation for Clinical Research of Human Balance," Robert Burkard, Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences

• "Capillary HPL"C System to Aid LC/MS-MS Analysis," Sathyamangalam (Balu) V. M. Balasubramanian, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

• "High Throughput Proteomic Analysis in Health and Disease," John M. Canty, Jr., Department of Medicine

Award winners for the October 2002 funding cycle were:

• "Treating Motor Vehicle Accident Survivors with PTSD using Immersive Virtual Reality," Gayle Beck, Department of Psychology

• "Poetry/Rare Books Collection," Robert Bertholf, University Libraries

• "User Customized Haptic Rehabilitation Environment (UCHRE)," Venkat Krovi, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

• "Single Molecule Detection of the SV40 T-Antigen DNA Helicase in Real Time," Thomas Melendy, departments of Microbiology and Biochemistry

• "Synthesis and Characterization of Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor Nanocrystals," T.J. Mountziaris, Department of Chemical Engineering

• "Cooperation in Sequential Choice Institutions: Theory & Experiments," William Robert Nelson, Jr., Department of Finance and Managerial Economics

• "Development of a Tissue-Engineered Vascular Graft," James Russell, departments of Physiology, Biophysics and Pediatrics

• "Real-time Monitoring of Land, Lakes and Atmosphere from Space-borne Observations," Mohamed Sultan, Department of Geology

• "Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Nanoparticles and Assemblies Thereof," Mark T. Swihart, Department of Chemical Engineering

• "Integration of Xerogels and CMOS Focal Plane Arrays for Biosensor Systems," Albert Titus, Department of Electrical Engineering

• "Sediment Transport in Unsteady Open-Channel Flow," Christina Tsai, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering

• "Focus Group in Molecular Signaling," Kenneth J. Blumenthal, Department of Biochemistry

• "Information Technology and Cities," Hank Bromley, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy

• "Asian/American Studies Graduate Students Group," Thomas W. Burkman, Asian Studies Program

• "UB Transdisciplinary Planning Group on Health Disparities," Kim S. Griswold, Department of Family Medicine

• "Increasing Organ and Tissue Donation among New York State College and University Students," Thomas L. Jacobson, Department of Communication

• "Media and Communication in German-Speaking Europe Through History and Today," Patricia Mazon, Department of History

• "Integrative Studies of Techniques for Perceptual Remediation," Eduardo Mercado III, Department of Psychology

• "Neuroscience Planning Grant Proposal," Malcolm Slaughter, Department of Physiology and Biophysics

• "Nanotechnology and Nanobiotechnology Workshop at UB," Hiroaki Suga, Department of Chemistry

• "Securing the Cyberspace," Shambhu Upadhyaya, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

• "International Comparison of Disability and Human Rights," Ezra Zubrow, Department of Anthropology

Award winners for the program's initial funding cycle in February 2002 were:

• "The Wall," Minglu Gao, Department of Art History

• "Determining the Molecular Mechanisms of Tooth Root Agenesis in NFI-C Knockout Mice," Richard M. Gronostajski, Department of Biochemistry

• "A Novel Approach to the Development of Combinatorial Libraries Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions: HoxPbx: DNA Complex as a Model," David G. Hangauer, Department of Chemistry

• "The Effects of Nicotine on Reward Conditioning: Initial Tests of a Model of the Maintenance of Smoking Dependence," Larry Hawk, Department of Psychology

• "Bubble Based Microfluidic Chip," Susan Zonglu Hua, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

• "Impact of Monovalent Cations on B-DNA Structure and Site-Specific Binding of Proteins: An NMR Study," Gerald B. Koudelka, Department of Biological Sciences

• "The Functional Neuroanatomy of Visceral Pain in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Controlled Prospective Study of Behavioral Self-Management Training," Jeffrey Lackner, Department of Medicine

• "Using the Power of Somatic Genetics to Define Signal Transduction Pathways Used by a Novel Family of Crytokines," Xin Lin, Department of Microbiology

• "Alterations in Gene Expression Following Exposure to Chemical Carcinogens," James Olson, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

• "Analog Paralysis of Quorum Sensing in P. aeruginosa," Hiroaki Suga, Department of Chemistry

• "Identification of Malaria Parasite Resistance Genes in Mosquitoes Using Microarray Analyses and Bioinformatics Tools," Guiyun Yan, Department of Biological Sciences

• "Physiological Diagnosis of ADHD Based on Non-Invasive Measurement of the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Attention," Michele Youakim, Department of Occupational Therapy

• "Real-Time Medical Imaging Analysis and Visualization," Kenneth R. Hoffmann, Department of Neurosurgery

• "End of Life (EOL) Issues," Mary Ann Jezewski, School of Nursing

• "Center of Excellence in Pharmacodynamic Integration of Genomics and Informatics," William J. Jusko, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

• "Interdisciplinary Work Group on Childhood and Adolescent Mental Health," William E. Pelham, Department of Psychology