{"id":41033,"date":"2022-01-19T16:30:47","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T21:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/?p=41033"},"modified":"2022-01-24T15:21:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T20:21:18","slug":"third-round-of-presidential-interdisciplinary-seed-grants-awarded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/third-round-of-presidential-interdisciplinary-seed-grants-awarded\/","title":{"rendered":"Third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants awarded"},"content":{"rendered":"

How can nanotechnology and big data be used to improve diagnosis of infectious viruses like SARS-CoV-2?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the questions that will be explored through funding provided by a third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants.<\/p>\n

Eleven grants totaling $1.5 million were awarded in November 2021 to recipients of the third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants. Overall the awards went to faculty from 13 UGA departments, centers, programs, schools and colleges.<\/p>\n

The program launched in 2017, with a second round of grants in 2019, through a partnership between UGA Research and UGA Public Service and Outreach. Teams in the first two rounds were highly successful at winning external funding to pursue the work initiated through these seed grants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased with the continued success of this program as the University of Georgia seeks ways to grow our research enterprise and expand the impact of our faculty,\u201d said President Jere W. Morehead. \u201cResearch funding opportunities such as the Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants are investments in the future of our state, nation and world as well as our university.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, 89 faculty teams submitted research proposals in round three, targeting significant challenges at the local, national or global level that align with the goals in UGA\u2019s\u00a02025 Strategic Plan<\/a>. Examples include areas identified by the Provost\u2019s Task Force on Academic Excellence (precision agriculture, security, climate and environment, brain and behavioral sciences, and\u00a0 data science and AI), as well as those requiring close collaboration between social\/behavioral and biomedical faculty.<\/p>\n

\u201cUGA faculty are finding creative ways to explore challenges that affect our daily lives,\u201d said Karen Burg, vice president for research. \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to seeing how their collaborations across subject areas result in novel approaches and innovative solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A project co-led by\u00a0Lisa Renzi-Hammond<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Jenay Beer<\/strong>\u00a0will develop a UGA center focused on countering state-wide disparities in prevention and access to health care for Alzheimer\u2019s disease and related dementias (ADRD).<\/p>\n

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Lisa Renzi-Hammond (Photo by Peter Frey\/UGA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u201cADRD will place a $1 trillion annual burden on the health care system by 2050,\u201d said Renzi-Hammond, co-primary investigator and associate professor in the College of Public Health. \u201cRural Georgia has limited education and programming to prevent ADRD, limited opportunities to join clinical research and limited access to diagnosis and support resources, but risk factors\u2014older age, poor nutrition, poverty, co-morbidities, obesity, etc.\u2014are more prevalent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe envision a Georgia in which everyone has access to early and accurate diagnosis and treatment,\u201d said Jenay Beer, co-primary investigator and associate professor in the College of Public Health and School of Social Work. \u201cTo achieve this goal, we created the Cognitive Aging Research and Education Center, which will provide state-wide community dementia prevention education, health care provider education, and development of digital health infrastructure for diagnosis, as well as geographically and culturally tailored post-diagnosis support, linkage to care and treatment, and opportunities to participate in cutting-edge research.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Assistant professor Jenay Beer sits next to an interactive companion robot. (Photo by Peter Frey\/UGA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The team has already begun offering dementia education workshops in four Archway Partnership communities\u2014Grady, Hart, McDuffie and Washington counties. This funding will expand their program to two additional Archway communities. The Archway Partnership is a UGA Public Service and Outreach unit.<\/p>\n

Renzi-Hammond and Beer are core faculty at UGA\u2019s Institute of Gerontology. The team also includes\u00a0Denise Dixon Everson<\/strong>\u00a0(UGA Extension, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences);\u00a0Bernadette Heckman<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Education);\u00a0Donald Scott<\/strong>\u00a0(Augusta University\/UGA Medical Partnership);\u00a0Sharon Liggett<\/strong>\u00a0(Archway Partnership);\u00a0Devin Lavender<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Pharmacy);\u00a0Timothy Heckman<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Grace Bagwell Adams<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Public Health);\u00a0Lawrence Sweet<\/strong>\u00a0(Franklin College of Arts and Sciences);\u00a0Alexander Scherr<\/strong>\u00a0(School of Law); and\u00a0Tiffany Washington<\/strong>\u00a0(School of Social Work).<\/p>\n

\u201cI am encouraged by the number of faculty from across campus who will collaborate to address some of the challenges in our state,\u201d said Jennifer Frum, vice president for Public Service and Outreach. \u201cPart of UGA\u2019s mission, as the state\u2019s land-grant and sea-grant institution, is to extend our knowledge and expertise to help communities thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Yiping Zhao is Distinguished Research Professor of Physics in UGA\u2019s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker\/UGA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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One project, led by primary investigator\u00a0Yiping Zhao,<\/strong>\u00a0aims to combine nano-optics and machine-learning techniques to develop a rapid, portable and cost-effective point-of-care method to detect viruses\u2014such as SARS-CoV-2\u2014and bacterial infections in patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cMitigating epidemic and pandemic diseases like COVID-19 will require improved diagnostic methods,\u201d said Zhao, Distinguished Research Professor of Physics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. \u201cPreliminary results have shown that our approach can deliver direct and differential detection of important respiratory viruses within 20 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhao\u2019s team includes\u00a0Ralph Tripp<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Hemant Naikare<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Veterinary Medicine),\u00a0Xianyan Chen<\/strong>\u00a0(Franklin College of Arts and Sciences) and external collaborators.<\/p>\n

Additional proposals that received Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant funding include:<\/p>\n

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  • \u201cIntegrated Approaches to Address Current and Future High Consequence Biological Agents.\u201d\u00a0Franklin E. Leach III<\/strong>\u00a0(primary investigator, College of Public Health, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center);\u00a0Fred Quinn<\/strong>,\u00a0Danny Mead, Jeff Hogan<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Eric Lafontaine<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Veterinary Medicine); and\u00a0Ryan Weiss<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Tiemeyer<\/strong>\u00a0(Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, CCRC).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cThe THRIVE Project: Development of a Mother-Centered \u2018Lay Doula\u2019 Communication Intervention to Improve Black Maternal Outcomes.\u201d\u00a0Soroya McFarlane<\/strong>\u00a0(primary investigator, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences);\u00a0Andrea Swartzendruber<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Tamora Callands<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Public Health); and external collaborators.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cFrom AI Ethics to AI Aesthetics: Artificial Intelligence and Aesthetic Harm.\u201d\u00a0Aaron Meskin<\/strong>\u00a0(primary investigator, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences);\u00a0Pengyuan Wang<\/strong>,\u00a0Rosanna Smith\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Carolina Salge<\/strong>\u00a0(Terry College of Business);\u00a0David Saltz<\/strong>,\u00a0Isabelle Wallace\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Katie Geha<\/strong>\u00a0(Franklin College of Arts and Sciences); and\u00a0Anna Abraham<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Education).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cMolecular Level Biodosimetry for National Security: Proteomic, Glycomic, Epigenetic and Metabolomic Approaches for Quantitative Assessment of Low-Dose Radiation Exposure.\u201d\u00a0Olin \u201cGene\u201d Rhodes<\/strong>\u00a0(primary investigator, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Odum School of Ecology);\u00a0Franklin Leach<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Public Health, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center),\u00a0Michael Tiemeyer<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Lance Wells<\/strong>\u00a0(Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, CCRC); and\u00a0Ben Parrott<\/strong>\u00a0(SREL, Odum School of Ecology).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cEvaluating the Agrivoltaic Potential of Emerging Perovskite-Based Solar Cells for Greenhouse Applications.\u201d\u00a0Susanne Ullrich<\/strong>\u00a0(primary investigator, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences);\u00a0Tho Nguyen<\/strong>\u00a0(Franklin College of Arts and Sciences),\u00a0Marc van Iersel<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences),\u00a0Maric Boudreau<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Richard Watson<\/strong>\u00a0(Terry College of Business), and\u00a0Tom Lawrence<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Engineering).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cAn Interdisciplinary School-Based Health Center in Partnership with the Clarke County School District, the University of Georgia and the Augusta University\/University of Georgia Medical Partnership.\u201d (Suzanne Lester<\/strong>, primary investigator, AU\/UGA Medical Partnership);\u00a0Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber<\/strong>,\u00a0Carrie Kelly<\/strong>,\u00a0Marguerite\u00a0Tresa Chappell<\/strong>,\u00a0Lia<\/strong>\u00a0Bruner<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Jean Chin<\/strong>\u00a0(AU\/UGA Medical Partnership);\u00a0Edward Delgado-Romero<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Education);\u00a0Megan Ford<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Family and Consumer Sciences); and\u00a0Jason Cade<\/strong>\u00a0(School of Law).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cGeorgia Aflatoxin Research and Mitigation Center of Excellence.\u201d (Harald Scherm<\/strong>, primary investigator, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences);\u00a0Thirimachos Bourlai<\/strong>,\u00a0Jaime Camelio<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Changying \u201cCharlie\u201d Li<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Engineering);\u00a0Robert Kemerait,<\/strong>\u00a0Cristiane Pilon,<\/strong>\u00a0Glen Rains<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0George Vellidis<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences); and\u00a0Alicia Peduzzi<\/strong>\u00a0(Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cBloom and Doom: Is Increasing Risk of Harmful Algal Blooms an Inevitable Consequence of Global Change? Assessing Risk and Exploring Strategies in Georgia from Biological and Social Perspectives.\u201d (Cory Struthers<\/strong>, primary investigator, School of Public and International Affairs);\u00a0Peter Hazelton<\/strong>\u00a0(Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources);\u00a0Michelle Ritchie<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Public Health); and\u00a0Alex Strauss<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Krista Capps<\/strong>\u00a0(Odum School of Ecology).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cDeveloping New Storm Design Criteria for Natural Hazards Planning Research and Practice.\u201d (Scott Pippin<\/strong>, primary investigator, Carl Vinson Institute of Government, a UGA Public Service and Outreach unit);\u00a0Brian Bledsoe<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Engineering);\u00a0Marshall Shepherd<\/strong>,\u00a0John Knox<\/strong>,\u00a0Pam Knox<\/strong>,\u00a0Lynne Seymour<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Thomas Mote<\/strong>\u00a0(Franklin College of Arts and Sciences); and\u00a0Michelle Ritchie<\/strong>\u00a0(College of Public Health).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants, totaling $1.5 million, were awarded to University of Georgia faculty conducting research targeting significant challenges at the local, national or global level that align with the goals in the university\u2019s 2025 Strategic Plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":41034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[284],"tags":[],"post_medium":[314],"publications":[],"authors":[345],"photographers":[],"video_credit":[],"takeaways":[],"class_list":["post-41033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funding","post_medium-read","authors-allyson-mann","entry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41033"},{"taxonomy":"post_medium","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_medium?post=41033"},{"taxonomy":"publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications?post=41033"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=41033"},{"taxonomy":"photographers","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photographers?post=41033"},{"taxonomy":"video_credit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/video_credit?post=41033"},{"taxonomy":"takeaways","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/takeaways?post=41033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}