Game-Changing Research Incentive Program Award Winners Include Sciences Faculty
The Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development (ORIED) is extremely pleased to announce the teams who were selected as winners of GRIP awards. The GRIP initiative was conceived to incentivize NC State faculty to think outside the box and to stimulate collaborations across college and institutional boundaries. The response was overwhelming: ORIED received 59 pre-proposals that spanned all 10 NC State colleges, included more than 300 NC State faculty, and involved talented collaborators at RTI, Duke, and UNC-Chapel Hill. Following the oral presentations by the six team finalists, the GRIP scientific and administrative review panel deliberated and debated the merits of each proposal team. It was a difficult decision, but in the end, these four project teams were chosen:
Title: The NCSU/RTI Program In Genetic Discovery and Prediction (PGDP)
Primary Investigator: Fred Wright, Alison Motsinger, Jung-Ying Tzeng, Zhao-Bang Zeng, Yi-Hui Zhou, Marie Davidian, Spencer Muse, Siddhartha Thakur (NCSU); Carol Hamilton, Wayne Huggins, Rebecca Boyles, James Balhoff, Stephen Hwang, Michelle Krzyzanowski
Synopsis: This proposal seeks to create a multi-faceted three-year Program in Genetic Discovery and Prediction (PGDP), initially organized around a demonstration and feasibility pilot for a highly ambitious effort the team calls the “1000 GWAS Project.” The Project will compile an unprecedented number of publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS, representing hundreds of thousands of patients). These studies have been used to identify genetic variants that predispose humans to disease and can be used to predict patient outcomes. The Project will re-analyze the combined data using the latest methods for genetic analysis and quality control, combined with new linkages to standard measures for phenotypes, as well as data on clinical covariates and exposures. Finally, the Project will feed back into public repositories, providing an open-source analysis pipeline and community resource for ongoing research. The unprecedented data compilation and comprehensive analysis will reveal subtle and more complex interactions between genes, environmental exposures and resulting disease and treatment outcomes.
Title: Water Sustainability through Nanotechnology: Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the Solid-Water Interface
Primary Investigator: Jacob Jones, David Berube, Douglas Call, Jan Genzer, Detlef Knappe, Yaroslava Yingling, Mohammed Zikry (NCSU); Young Chul Choi, Khara Grieger (RTI); Susan White (WRRI); and many other participants at NC State, RTI, UNC, and Duke
Synopsis: An interdisciplinary team assembled by the Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network (RTNN), the Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) of the UNC system, and the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) propose a fundamental and comprehensive research development effort in nanotechnology-enabled systems for water sustainability, e.g. biofouling on desalination membranes, energy extraction from wastewater, and nanotechnology-based water monitoring sensors (e.g., nano-sensors for precision agricultural engineering and space applications).
Title: Computer Science for All K-12 Students
Primary Investigators: Glenn Kleiman, Eric Wiebe, James Lester, Tiffany Barnes (NCSU); Kimberly O’Mally (RTI)
Synopsis: The proposed project will establish NC State as a national center addressing this critical need to provide pre-college students with foundational knowledge and skills in Computational Thinking. The partnership of NC State’s Friday Institute (FI), College of Education, Center for Educational Informatics (CEI) and Department of Computer Science, along with the RTI Center for Evaluation and the Study of Educational Equity, is uniquely positioned to take a broad-based, systemic approach to addressing this challenge by fostering state-of-the-art educational innovations, conducting design research in partnership with K-12 schools, developing and implementing scalable and effective approaches to preparing teachers, and working with state government and business leaders to make NC a model in bringing computational thinking and digital-age workplace skills into K-12 education.
Title: 3D Printing of Fibrous Tissue Engineered Medical Products: A New Paradigm for Tissue Biofabrication and Therapeutics
Primary Investigators: Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Frances S. Ligler, Benoit Maze, Matthew B. Fisher, Rohan A. Shirwaiker, Kyle G. Mathews (NCSU); Shawn D. Hintgen, Jeffrey T. Spang, Bruce Cairnes (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Synopsis: 3D printing is driving major innovations in many areas, such as engineering, manufacturing, and medicine. While currently used primarily to manufacture prototypes and small products, recent innovations have enabled 3D printing of biocompatible materials, cells, and supporting components on fibrous structures to form complex functional living tissues. However, there is need for mass customization. This proposal seeks to extend the recent innovations in 3D printing and bioprinting by developing a fiber-based printing system that underpins the essential need for mass customization technologies, and open up new interdisciplinary areas of research for healthcare, engineering, and other applications.
(Original post at NC State Research Development Office)
