# data[].attributes.title
I-Corps: Translation Potential of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic for Preeclampsia

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Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP)

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This I-Corps project is based on the development of a diagnostic test for preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication associated with high blood pressure. Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and is estimated to occur in up to 10% of all pregnancies. When left untreated, preeclampsia can result in serious and sometimes fatal complications including stroke, seizure, kidney disease, heart disease, and preterm birth. Diagnosis of preeclampsia remains a significant challenge. The current diagnostic standard for preeclampsia relies on insensitive tests and outdated standards, allowing diagnosis only after evidence of organ damage in the mother. Also, preeclampsia tests generally need to be performed in clinical labs by trained personnel, leading to increased costs, decreased accessibility, and decreased likelihood of catching preeclampsia before it becomes dangerous to mother and fetus. This technology addresses these challenges by providing a preeclampsia diagnostic that can be used at home by untrained personnel with just a finger-stick volume of blood that is no more difficult to interpret than an at-home COVID test. This technology may improve detection, treatment, and management of preeclampsia and improve the outcomes of pregnant individuals with this condition.    This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of a preeclampsia diagnostic that can be used at home by untrained personnel with just a finger-stick volume of blood. The technology is based on a recently developed cell-free synthetic biology technique to measure proteins harnessed from nature and re-engineered to detect recently discovered biomarkers for preeclampsia in a mother’s blood sample. A visually interpretable color change that provides semi-quantitative screening for preeclampsia has been created that is similar to an at-home COVID test. The use of cell-free systems, which consist of purified bacterial extracts, enables easy reprogramming to create diagnostics for new diseases without the extensive, expensive, trial-and-error development cycle associated with existing point-of-care protein measurement techniques. This system is compatible with the lyophilization that is needed to enable shelf-stable products that can be distributed commercially. This technology may allow the development of at-home screening and diagnostic testing for preeclampsia and for many other different types of diseases in the future with the goal of improving patient outcomes.    This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

# data[].attributes.title
Conference: Algebraic Topology: Methods, Computation, and Science 2025

# data[].attributes.funder_divisions[]
Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)

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"Algebraic Topology: Methods, Computation, and Science (ATMCS)" is the main conference in the rapidly expanding field of applied algebraic topology. ATMCS11 will be held 21-25 July 2025 at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. The conference program includes 13 invited talks, contributed talks, and a poster session. This project will support speaker-participants, as well as US-based student and early-career participants. The conference will convene approximately 250 researchers in applied topology, construed broadly. As ATMCS9 was cancelled due to COVID-19, ATMCS11 is only the second time that this international conference is hosted in the USA. In addition, as this conference is typically held bi-annually, ATMCS11 has a strong potential to set new research directions and collaborations.    By providing funding for convening experts in applied and computational topology across the globe and funding US-based participants, this award will directly impact the state of research in applied and computational topology both in the US and around the world. The meeting will benefit the researchers who attend by exposing them to some of the latest results across a wide domain of applied and computational topology. In addition, the results presented at the conference will be broadly disseminated both through extended abstracts posted on the conference website and a follow-up special issue of the Springer journal La Matematica. A conference website is available at https://comptag.github.io/atmcs11/.    This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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Chip Design Hub: Open, Accessible and Scalable Infrastructure for Research and Education

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Semiconductors and chips are a crucial part of everyday life in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the problems caused by relying on imports for these essential components, affecting the economy, healthcare, and national security. To ensure national security, there is need to control all aspects of chip design, manufacturing, and integration. However, bringing chip manufacturing back to the US requires a significant increase in skilled workers, including technicians, engineers, scientists, and support staff. Chip manufacturing processes involve complex modeling and simulation tools, which are not commonly used in education today. Only a small number of universities in the US currently educate integrated circuit (IC)  design engineers, and even tripling their enrollments won't meet the workforce demand. More universities need to be enabled to teach chip design. Many research institutions face challenges such as lack of Information Technology (IT), legal, and hardware support, educational materials, and experienced instructors. Chipshub will be a National Chip Design Hub for all US universities and colleges, providing education and training that is critical to bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the US.     Chipshub will overcome challenges that span (1) content/products: creation of appropriate and sharable educational and tool content; (2) infrastructure/market: secure, scalable, seamless, user-friendly, well-supported, and sustainable web delivery of the content; (3) users/customers: reaching, engaging, incentivizing, and training faculty to teach and/or conduct research in IC design; and (4) sustainability through community building and growth across partners, users, and content providers. Chipshub will robustly and sustainably meet the key requirements for a national chip design hub, including licensing, access, and maintenance of commercial and open-source electronic design automation (EDA) tools for end-to-end chip design and verification; secure cloud-based availability of process design kits that span from open-source nodes to emerging technologies; and paths to multi-project (i.e., shuttle) integration. Chipshub will leverage past NSF investment in nanoHUB infrastructure, plus multiple other investments at similar scale: NSF gateway infrastructure; DARPA and commercial funding of OpenROAD and Precision Innovations; and commercial investment in chip design software. Chipshub team members have individually been at the forefront of the quest for accessible infrastructure that can serve training and workforce needs. This project will aim to deliver Chipshub as an infrastructure that is built to last.    This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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Novel cysteinyl leukotriene receptor signaling in regulating cellular, and molecular events in lung inflammation

# data[].attributes.funder_divisions[]
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

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Project summary: Cysteinyl leukotrienes (cys-LTs; LTC4, LTD4, and LTE4) play an important role in asthma, allergy, and inflammatory bowel diseases via their receptors, CysLT1R and CysLT2R. However, the role of cys-LTs in regulating the inflammatory and proliferative phenotypes of macrophages (MФ) or their role in MФ-mediated lung inflammation is not well defined. Our preliminary work revealed a previously unidentified role for CysLT1R in balancing MФs’ inflammatory potential, metabolic function, and proliferation in vitro, and a role in driving LPS- mediated lung inflammation in vivo. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that the presence of CysLT1R drives the inflammatory state of MФs and lung inflammation in response to LPS. Further, since CysLT1R and CysLT2R antagonize each other, CysLT1R may act as a molecular brake for MФ hyper-proliferation via binding to and inhibiting CysLT2R. We propose to test this hypothesis in three aims. In Aim 1, we will determine the mechanistic aspects of how CysLT1R promotes the hyper-inflammatory MФ phenotype in vitro and analyze how CysLT1R influences the resident and recruited immune population in the lung in response to acute lung injury (ALI). In Aim 2, we will elucidate how CysLT1R suppresses MФ proliferation, and metabolism, and we will explore its antagonism towards CysLT2R in deciding the MФ activation state. Finally, in Aim 3, we will determine the pathophysiological significance of myeloid CysLT1R signaling in mediating lung inflammation in murine ALI models. Further, we will explore the therapeutic potential of blocking CysLT1R using MK571/Singulair, an FDA- approved asthma drug. Although a few reports have suggested the benefits of Singulair in reducing pulmonary inflammation during LPS-ALI and COVID-19, neither the mechanistic aspects, nor its prophylaxis vs therapeutic effect on all ALI parameters, were previously addressed. The successful completion of our project will unravel the previously unknown unique roles of CysLTR in influencing MФ function and its role in lung inflammation/injury.

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This award supports US-based participants in the 21st International Conference on Permutation Patterns, which will be held in July 2025 at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Permutation patterns is the area of research in mathematics and computer science that studies how small patterns can occur as parts of larger patterns, particularly in rearrangements of objects in a line.  There are applications in biology, particularly in the study of DNA rearrangements and amino acid sequences. This conference is part of a series that has been held annually since 2003 (with virtual substitutes during the COVID pandemic), rotating mostly between different institutions in North America and Europe. Each year, the conference features two plenary talks and approximately thirty-five contributed talks, providing researchers with the opportunity to present and discuss their results, while also offering newcomers to the study of permutation patterns a broad perspective on the subject as a whole.  This year, there will also be an introductory workshop aimed at graduate students.  The conference offers a platform for collaboration between junior and senior researchers. There will be time set aside for open problems to be discussed by the entire community. The conference attracts broad participation, including significant numbers of faculty from primarily undergraduate institutions.     The conferences will feature research on permutation patterns and their applications. Permutation patterns is an interdisciplinary area with roots in both theoretical computer science and combinatorics. Major themes include the structural properties of permutation classes, asymptotic behavior from both enumerative and probabilistic points of view, extremal questions, algorithmic and decidability questions, and automated theorem proving and discovery. There are applications to other areas of mathematics and computer science as well as to biology. The conference website is at https://sites.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/pp25/    This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

# data[].attributes.title
Collaborative Research: The mechanics of respiratory particle production in the larynx during phonation

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Infectious disease transmission, as highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, exacts a severe toll on the physical and psychological well-being, economic development, and health of the global community. To better understand how airborne diseases are spread, this project will determine how speaking generates microscopic respiratory particles that can release infectious pathogens into the surrounding air. Although actions like coughing and sneezing produce high numbers of respiratory particles, these events are not as common as speaking. In comparison, speaking produces particles continuously that results in large quantities of particles being expelled from the mouth over time. The rates at which individuals produce respiratory particles when speaking vary widely among people for unknown reasons.  This project will answer this conundrum by performing experiments using both human subjects and physical models of phonation, with the goal of discovering how the mechanics of speaking influences how respiratory particles are produced. This approach will unlock new ways to understand aerosol generation in the vocal tract and how it affects airborne transmission of infectious diseases. Large-scale community outreach efforts through a university sponsored innovation fair (ImagineRIT) will transmit project findings to an interested public.    The objective of this project is to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of aerosolized particle generation during phonation and their implications for the transmission of airborne pathogens. The multidisciplinary approach will utilize experimental models and human measurements to quantify the relationship between the biomechanical processes of speech and the mechanics of respiratory particle production. The project will explore how variations in the rheological properties of the respiratory tract lining fluid and the biomechanical actions at the physiological sites of particle generation contribute to the observed heterogeneity in aerosol production rates among individuals. This research is critically important due to the potential for asymptomatic speech-driven transmission of viruses, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from this work will inform the development of evidence-based strategies for mitigating infection risk and will have broad application to public health policies regarding airborne diseases. The multi-disciplinary approach of the research plan will also provide a unique educational and training environment for two graduate students and three undergraduates that will participate in the work plan. Research findings will also be incorporated into existing classroom curricula at both the undergraduate and graduate level.    This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

# data[].attributes.title
Collaborative Research: The mechanics of respiratory particle production in the larynx during phonation

# data[].attributes.abstract
Infectious disease transmission, as highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, exacts a severe toll on the physical and psychological well-being, economic development, and health of the global community. To better understand how airborne diseases are spread, this project will determine how speaking generates microscopic respiratory particles that can release infectious pathogens into the surrounding air. Although actions like coughing and sneezing produce high numbers of respiratory particles, these events are not as common as speaking. In comparison, speaking produces particles continuously that results in large quantities of particles being expelled from the mouth over time. The rates at which individuals produce respiratory particles when speaking vary widely among people for unknown reasons.  This project will answer this conundrum by performing experiments using both human subjects and physical models of phonation, with the goal of discovering how the mechanics of speaking influences how respiratory particles are produced. This approach will unlock new ways to understand aerosol generation in the vocal tract and how it affects airborne transmission of infectious diseases. Large-scale community outreach efforts through a university sponsored innovation fair (ImagineRIT) will transmit project findings to an interested public.    The objective of this project is to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of aerosolized particle generation during phonation and their implications for the transmission of airborne pathogens. The multidisciplinary approach will utilize experimental models and human measurements to quantify the relationship between the biomechanical processes of speech and the mechanics of respiratory particle production. The project will explore how variations in the rheological properties of the respiratory tract lining fluid and the biomechanical actions at the physiological sites of particle generation contribute to the observed heterogeneity in aerosol production rates among individuals. This research is critically important due to the potential for asymptomatic speech-driven transmission of viruses, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from this work will inform the development of evidence-based strategies for mitigating infection risk and will have broad application to public health policies regarding airborne diseases. The multi-disciplinary approach of the research plan will also provide a unique educational and training environment for two graduate students and three undergraduates that will participate in the work plan. Research findings will also be incorporated into existing classroom curricula at both the undergraduate and graduate level.    This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

# data[].attributes.title
CAREER: Advancing academic cultures of well-being by understanding professional  experiences of engineering faculty

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University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

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In the COVID-19 pandemic, we have all come to recognize the importance of promoting well-being in every facet of life, including and especially in higher education. We recognize that promoting well-being among faculty and students must be a central focus rather than an afterthought of professional education. Accordingly, this project will advance cultures of well-being in engineering education by understanding faculty members’ personal experiences of coping with negative emotions and failure within their professional context. Engineering faculty members are highly influential to students who seek their guidance to understand what it means to become an engineer. Faculty are best positioned to influence equitable, inclusive, and healthy cultures of engineering education when their own emotional needs are met. Therefore, this project will examine how faculty members meet their well-being needs and how they use their influence to nurture or inhibit cultures that allow for engineering students to experience well-being. This project aims to transform how faculty relationally connect with students and other faculty and staff by transforming the ways that they understand themselves. In addition to the research plan, which includes intensive interviews with engineering faculty at multiple institutions, this project will also provide direct training to faculty on coping with failures and preserving a positive professional identity. In line with the PI’s career mission, this project will develop and define a scholarship of care within engineering education research that influences national and local policies of well-being through research-informed insights.    Specifically, this project will address two significant gaps in extant literature: 1) the role of failure and negative emotions in facilitating or mitigating cultural patterns of well-being; 2) the complex, dynamic nature of the lived emotional experiences of engineering faculty. This project is organized around the following objectives:  Objective 1: Examine social and individual experiences of failure and negative emotions in engineering faculty.   Objective 2: Characterize the link between faculty’s emotional experience and their surrounding cultures of well-being.   Objective 3: Establish a framework to provide training for engineering programs to establish cultures that support healthy strategies for coping with professional failure.     This project will use a qualitative mixed-methods approach that embeds an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study that examines the lived experiences of professional failure and negative emotions in engineering faculty (Objective 1) within a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) analysis that generates a theoretical model of the relationships between faculty emotional regulation and cultures of well-being (Objective 2). The education plan to develop faculty training on regulating emotions related to professional failure (Objective 3) will be interwoven with the research focus to change cultures of well-being (Objective 2). This study will occur at three purposefully selected institutions and involve 10-12 faculty participants for the IPA study, 18-22 participants that are interviewed twice for the CGT study (36-44 total interviews), and a three-module training series to be delivered at four institutions.    This project is jointly funded by Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) in the Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) Division of Engineering (ENG), and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).    This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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Effects of Vaccination on Acute and Post-Acute Respiratory Viral Infection Outcomes in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients

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National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

# data[].attributes.abstract
Respiratory viral infections (RVI) including SARS-CoV-2, RSV, and influenza, are major threats to the health of solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs), who live at the intersection of chronic comorbidity, frailty, and heavy immunosuppression. These factors contribute to high rates of clinically observed severe RVI and pose risks for poorly understood post-acute syndromes including organ dysfunction and protracted infections associated with immune evasive mutations of

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Novel B cell epitope discovery against human coronaviruses

# data[].attributes.funder_divisions[]
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

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Human coronaviruses have caused devastating global pandemics and epidemics and continue to threaten global public health. Coronaviruses are highly variable, which has led evasion of most neutralizing antibodies and reduction in vaccine effectiveness. Many potent antibodies to coronaviruses have very limited breadth, while some of the broadest neutralizing antibodies described to date exhibit notably lower neutralization potency. Thus, the exigency to capitalize on what we have learned during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to find novel epitopes that elicit broad and potent antibodies against the coronavirus family and enhance pandemic preparedness.  We have developed a highly integrated platform for identification of B cell epitopes against coronaviruses. Our previous studies revealed over ten B cell epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2 spike, through comprehensive characterization and high-resolution structure determination. This project aims to identify novel B cell epitopes on SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronaviruses, focusing on conserved and cryptic epitopes that elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies. Specifically, we will (1) identify unexplored epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, (2) uncover cryptic epitopes that have been largely understudied, and (3) identify pan-sarbecovirus, pan- betacoronavirus, and pan-coronavirus epitopes. Collectively, utilizing diverse donor samples, state-of-the-art multi-bait B cell isolation strategies, and high-throughput structural biology, this research aims to uncover novel B cell epitopes that inform on the design of next-generation vaccines and therapeutics, enhancing our preparedness for future coronavirus pandemics.