Deadline for 2006 SPRinG applications is Thursday, December 1, 2005
Previous Awardees
2005:
James Deshler, a CAS and GRS assistant professor of biology, is taking a closer look at the way mammalian nerve cells grow, and his research may someday lead to potential treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Deshler studies the flow of genetic information in growing neurons, a process crucial for learning and memory processes.
Deborah Kelemen, a CAS and GRS assistant professor of psychology, is trying to understand why young children and adults construe nature in profoundly different ways. When asked why rocks are pointy, for example, many first and second graders will respond that it’s so animals won’t sit on them and smash them. Kelemen is testing the hypothesis that children treat objects of all kinds as though they are intentionally designed artifacts, and she hopes to develop new study methods that might someday be applied to work with autistic children.
Janusz Konrad is helping doctors peer into patients’ bodies and visualize organs and tissues in three dimensions. Konrad, an ENG associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is developing new ways of combining medical imaging technology such as computed tomography scanning, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound to create three-dimensional images that doctors can navigate like scuba divers swimming through a reef. The technology would be a boon in surgery and diagnostics and for scientists collecting complex data on the brain, the inner ear, and the retina.
Elise Morgan is looking for better ways of healing fractured bones. Working with biomedical engineers and orthopedic surgeons at Boston Medical Center, Morgan, an ENG assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, is developing new experimental techniques to study how mechanical stimulation of fractured bones either promotes or prevents osteogenesis, the growth of new bone. Her research may shed light on the interactions between osteoblasts, the cells that produce bone tissue, and endothelial cells, which line blood vessels.
Ruth Paris, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work, is investigating postpartum mood disorders, which affect roughly 15 percent of women in the United States (see this week’s “Research Briefs”). Paris is evaluating the effectiveness of Early Connections, an innovative intervention providing therapeutic home visits to mothers with serious postpartum mood disorders, developed by a nonprofit community mental health agency.
Ketul Popat, an ENG biomedical engineering senior research associate, is also working on bone healing with an interdisciplinary team. But Popat is specifically interested in how bone integrates with synthetic materials such as prosthetic metal implants, and how certain metal-oxides’ surface textures can control and stimulate the growth of bone cells. Popat’s team will develop, refine, and extend new methods of fabricating metal-oxide films for skeletal implants.
Richard Primack and Xiaoyang Zhang are collaborating on a project to better forecast pollen season (see this week’s “Research Briefs”). Primack, a CAS and GRS professor of biology, and Zhang, a CAS and GRS research assistant professor of geography, will combine their expertise in botany and satellite-based remote sensing to monitor the leaf-out times of trees in the spring, the timing of pollen release, the duration of windborne pollen in the air, and the incidence of pollen allergies among people.
Joshua Semeter (ENG’92,’97), an ENG assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is developing a new kind of magnetometer, a device that measures changes in the Earth’s magnetic field. Most magnetometers have been developed for terrestrial and military applications, but Semeter’s team is building one capable of sensing the magnetic field in the Earth’s magnetosphere, which extends far out beyond the atmosphere.
Anna Swan, an ENG research assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is aiming for a fresh approach to carbon nanotubes, tiny structures less than one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair that are extremely strong and conductive. Despite the large amount of research in the area of nanotubes, scientists still don’t know very much about their light-emitting properties. Swan’s team will explore the electronic and optical characteristics of individual tubes and study how these change in different environmental conditions.
Project descriptions by Tim Stoddard, BU Bridge. Stoddard's complete article is available here.
2004:
Matt Wachowiak (CAS Biology) and Howard Eichenbaum (CAS Psychology): Imaging olfactory activity in the awake behaving brain
Michael Ruane (ENG ECE): Test cell resonant cavity imaging biosensors
Tejal Desai (ENG ECE), Paul Cook (CAS Biology), and Tania Vu: Quantum dot probes for visualization of physiological activity in living neural circuits of the retina
Joyce Wong (ENG BME): Development of an integrated experimental and computational platform to probe endothelium induced control of cell cycle and apoptosis in smooth muscles
Harlan Spence (CAS Astronomy) and Rick Murray (CAS Earth Science): Paleo Solar Activity: Revealing ancient space weather through analysis of NO(y) impulsive precipitation events in polar ice
James McCann (CAS Center for African Studies, History): New evidence of disease effects of agro-ecological change
Mary Erskine (CAS Biology): Estrogen receptor knock-out mice and initiation changes of pregnancy
2002:
Benjamin Campbell (CAS Anthropology): Biosocial Models of Adolescent Sexual Behavior among Adolescent Boys in East Africa (partial funding)
Vadim Demidov (CAB): Interference of pseudocomplementary peptide nucleic acids (pcPNAs) with DNA-processing enzymes (partial funding)
Jackie Liederman (CAS Psychology): Distinct Behavioral and Brain Activity Profiles for Two Kinds of Dyslexia: Implications for Individualized Treatment
Laura MacLatchy (CAS Anthropology): Locomotor Anatomy and Kinematics of Ateline Primates
Todd Murray (ENG AME): High Frequency Optacoustic Imaging using Laser Array Interferometry
David Starobinski/Jeff Carruthers (ENG ECE): Inter-Layer Modeling and Design of Wireless Communication Networks
Joe Tien (ENG BME): Dynamic Substrates for Cell Structure
James Traneillo (CAS Biology): Neural correlates of aging, size, individual development and social plasticity in the ant Pheidole dentata
Xin Zhang (ENG MFE) A Heart on a Chip: MEMS Technology for Minimally Invasive Organ Replacement
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