College of Arts and Sciences
Biology
Environmental Studies
Chemistry
March 22, 2019
The College of Arts and Sciences has received four external grants for undergraduate research and projects. These grants will support faculty research and K-12 outreach work in the local community. Collectively, these individual grants total almost $180,000, with an additional $50,000 in matching funds contributed by CAS. The first of these grants is funded by the Society for Developmental Biology and the latter three by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, which has been a generous, key contributor to CAS for many years.
Laura Dyer, biology professor, has received the SDB Education Grant for her project Engaging elementary school students in developmental biology through brine shrimp lifecycle activities. This grant will provide approximately $1,500 for dissecting microscopes and lab supplies in support of a developmental biology-related project for the fourth graders of Astor K-8 School. The project, slated to begin in April 2019, will enable students to study the developmental life cycle of brine shrimp and design experiments to test environmental factors that help these organisms survive.
Chemistry professor Rachel Hutcheson received the Natural Sciences Grant for Spectroscopic, mechanistic, and structural investigations of uncharacterized radical S-adenosyl L-methionine enzymes. Funding in the amount of $59,650 will support research on Radical S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) enzymes, specifically an examination of unclassified subgroups of enzymes and tests to determine whether they belong in the radical SAM superfamily. A good portion of the work will be in an anaerobic chamber (a chamber with no oxygen), as the iron-sulfur clusters in the enzymes are oxygen sensitive.
Kristin Sweeney, professor of environmental studies, was honored with the Natural Sciences Grant for Quantifying feedbacks between topography, rock properties, sediment, and ecology on rocky shore platforms of the Oregon Coast. This grant will provide $58,777 in research funds to use combined measurements of topography, rock hardness, and biodiversity to quantify the extent to which topography influences ecosystem structure and vice versa. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration with Tara Prestholdt (biology) and is a great example of how UP’s close campus community can inspire fruitful cross-departmental partnerships.
Biology professor Susan Murray obtained the Natural Sciences Grant for: Effect of SMAC (second mitochondrial activator of caspases) mimetics on human T cell activation and function. This project is essentially about understanding the signals that determine T cell activation. $60,000 in funds will help drive research on an overall hypothesis that a new class of chemotherapy drugs called SMAC mimetics, which were developed for their ability to kill cancer cells, might have a very different effect on T cells—namely to relieve T cell negative regulation, and thus improve the ability of T cells to attack a patient’s tumor.
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