ECU faculty awarded seed grants to further research
East Carolina University’s Division of Research and Graduate Studies awarded $550,000 in grants to 23 professors last month under the new Research Development Grant Program.
The grants will enable ECU researchers to develop preliminary data for a major research grant application to an external sponsor, said Glen Gilbert, interim vice chancellor for research and graduate studies.
“The research grant program is an important investment in the future of the institution. There is a great need to increase external funding and this program has great potential to move us in a positive direction,” Gilbert said.
This year, the program received 89 proposals from faculty members. To respond to the number and quality of the grant proposals, the division was able to more than double its original plan of sponsoring 10 projects with $270,000. Four faculty panels reviewed and ranked each proposal on the basis of scientific merit and the potential for external funding, and the division’s research advisory committee made funding recommendations to Gilbert, based on the panels’ ranked results.
Alan Schreier, director of new program development in the Division of Research and Graduate Studies, said he is optimistic this year’s grant recipients will help advance the research goals of the university.
“We anticipate that the research resulting from these awards will position our faculty to be highly competitive when seeking major funding from federal and other external sources,” Schreier said.
Grant recipients for 2005 are:
• Shaw Akula, (Microbiology & Immunology) Analyzing Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Entry ($26,416)
• Christine Avenarius (anthropology) Understanding Changing Concepts of Fairness and Justice in China ($19,986)
• Fred Bertrand (Microbiology & Immunology) Regulation of the PTEN Tumor Suppressor Gene by the Notch-1 Signaling Pathway ($30,000)
• Colin S. Burns (chemistry) Metal Cofactors in Natively Unfolded Proteins: What Binding Motifs are used by these Species and what Functions do they fulfill? ($28,885)
• David Chalcraft (biology) The effects of biodiversity on pond communities: incorporating natural patterns of diversity loss ($28,621)
• I. Randolph Daniel, Jr. (Anthropology) Tar River Geoarchaeology ($25,000)
• Melanie Elliott-Wilson (psychology) Taking a closer look at mother-infant interactions across time and across contexts ($24,798)
• Robert Hickner (exercise and sport science) Suppression of lipolysis by nitric oxide in overweight children ($23,376)
• Tibor Hortobagyi (exercise and sport science) Transcranial Magnetic Brain Stimulation to Assess Brain Function in Health and Disease ($30,240)
• Terry Jones (physical therapy) Transcriptional regulation of muscle’s glucose transporter protein in response to exercise and a high-fat diet ($29,150)
• Jamie Brown Kruse (economics) Spatial, Environmental and Behavioral Determinants of Valuation of Coastal Erosion Risk ($30,000)
• Yong-qing Li (physics) New Approaches to Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Using Tweezers Spectroscopy ($24,000)
• Kwang Hun Lim (chemistry) Structural Studies of Intermediate States involved in the Amyloid Formations of the Beta-Amyloid Peptide associated with
Alzheimer’s Diseases ($19,937)
• Haiyong Liu (economics) Participation in Food Assistance, Maternal Employment, and Child Obesity ($14,483)