Category: Notable Grants

We propose to investigate whether water from the Okefenokee Swamp flows into the underlying Upper Floridan Aquifer—a key source of drinking water for communities in southern Georgia and northern Florida. While past studies hinted at a possible connection, no one has directly compared the swamp’s water with nearby groundwater using modern scientific tools. This project will collect water samples from the swamp, nearby rivers, and underground wells, and test them for natural “tracers” like stable isotopes, gases, and chemicals. These tracers help reveal where the water came from and how long it’s been underground. Early results suggest swamp water may already be entering the aquifer. Confirming this connection would help scientists, water managers, and other stakeholders better understand how the aquifer gets replenished and how to protect it. In addition to testing whether the swamp recharges the aquifer, we will also evaluate whether upward gradients exist—suggesting that groundwater may discharge into the swamp under certain conditions. Our findings will support improved conceptual and numerical models that can forecast hydrological responses to mining or other withdrawals.

Funder: Chemours Company

Amount: $259,242

PI: Jaivime Evaristo, Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources

This project addresses the Big Question: how can anthropologists and theologians responsibly navigate the extremes of relativism and unreflexive judgmentalism to support good human lives? While both disciplines have explored the concept of good human lives, a collaborative approach is urgently needed to tackle the analytical challenges posed by relativism, which can devolve into amoral nihilism, and judgmentalism, which risks becoming moralistic reproach. By combining theological insights with anthropological methodologies, this project seeks to establish a robust framework for assessing religious doctrines and practices in ways that meaningfully contribute to living good human lives. To this end, the project fosters active collaboration between theologians and anthropologists through a structured series of engagements, including monthly Zoom meetings, two in-person workshops and two master classes. These gatherings will bring together senior and emerging scholars from diverse backgrounds to engage in sustained dialogue and develop innovative approaches. A key objective is to explore definitional criteria for good human lives that remain attentive to cultural and theological particularities while resisting reductive universalism. Through these discussions, anthropologists will gain tools to critically navigate cultural relativism and judgmentalism, while theologians will be encouraged to bridge the gap between professed faith and lived experience, ensuring their contributions are both reflective and practical. By integrating theological and anthropological perspectives, the project aims to provide actionable insights that can positively influence good human living across diverse cultural and religious contexts. The project’s outputs will include an edited book, a special journal issue, podcasts, and conference presentations to share the resulting framework designed to inform both academic inquiry and practical applications.

Funder: Templeton Foundation

Amount: $259,255

PI: James Lemons, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Religion

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Chemsex is a practice of drug use before or during sexual activity to facilitate, enhance, prolong, and sustain sexual pleasure. The drugs that are most commonly used in chemsex include crystalized methamphetamine (crystal meth), gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), mephedrone, amyl nitrite, ketamine, and ecstasy/MDMA. They are chosen for their disinhibition effects on the common social, psychological, and physiological barriers to sex, like self-consciousness, concerns about partner’s HIV status, and pain experienced during sex. The relationship between chemsex and risky sexual behaviors has been identified in various studies with potential implications for increasing HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Chemsex is more prevalent among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), and it is associated with condomless sex, group sex, transactional sex, and negative health outcomes such as STIs and mental health issues. Despite the complex interplay between recreational drug use, high-risk sexual practices, and STIs among GBMSM, there is a lack of knowledge about chemsex practice patterns and harm reduction approaches, like HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use among GBMSM in the South. This study will seek to identify psychosocial drivers and social contextual factors associated with chemsex among GBMSM that are amenable to intervention using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). An experienced and well-positioned research team will use a socioecological lens to examine individual factors, such as mental health issues (depression, anxiety, traumatic stress, lack of self-efficacy and resilience), substance use, HIV prevention knowledge and intentions (e.g., PrEP, condom use); interpersonal factors, such as social support, stigma and discrimination, peer substance use norms, gay community connectedness; and structural factors, such as availability and usage of preventive and curative services and support services. Understanding modifiable factors and knowledge of and intentions to use services are important steps in developing effective strategies for behavioral harm reduction interventions for chemsex. In this context, the current study intends to achieve (Aim 1) examine features of chemsex, e.g., types and dosage of drug use, frequency, number of partners, place, psychosocial drivers, and harm reduction approaches using in-depth interviews among 20 GBMSM; (Aim 2) Collect real-time data on drug use, sexual behavior, chemsex, psychosocial variables, and harm reduction approaches among 142 GBMSM who practice chemsex using EMA to (a) assess the usability of EMA for chemsex data collection; (b) examine the patterns of chemsex; and (c) identify the psychosocial drivers and modifiable factors associated with chemsex among 142 GBMSM who practice chemsex. This study will provide preliminary data on the patterns of chemsex, psychosocial, and other drivers of chemsex, PrEP, and condom use among the GBMSM in Georgia, a Southern state with high HIV burden. This study will also evaluate the effectiveness of the EMA approach for tracking chemsex practice among GBMSM.

Funder: NIH

Amount: $405,490

PI: Mohammad Rifat Haider, College of Public Health

Malaria is a serious disease caused by the parasite Plasmodium, which initially infects liver cells before spreading to red blood cells and causing a potentially lethal infection. Traditionally, this early liver stage was considered to be relatively invisible to the immune system. However, recent studies, including our own, have found that liver cells can detect and respond to Plasmodium using their natural immune defenses. When Plasmodium enters liver cells, the cells recognize the parasite’s presence and activate a chain of immune responses. These responses include producing reactive molecules, recruiting cellular machinery to attack the parasite’s protective bubble, and eventually breaking it down. As the parasite’s barrier is compromised, its DNA is exposed, triggering further immune actions that lead to the destruction of the infected liver cells. Together, these actions help control the parasite in the liver. However, Plasmodium can still survive in a small portion of liver cells, allowing it to continue its life cycle and eventually spread to the blood. This is enough to cause a potentially lethal malaria infection. We believe that Plasmodium uses special proteins we call ‘exported effectors’ to counteract the liver cell’s defenses, helping it evade destruction in these few cells. Our research aims to identify these protective proteins from Plasmodium and understand how they work. Our approach includes systematically identifying these parasite proteins, studying their behavior, and exploring how they interact with the mediators of liver cell defenses. By uncovering these survival tactics, we hope to find new ways to prevent the parasite from neutralizing our liver cells’ defenses, allowing the liver cells to clear the parasites more effectively.

Funder: Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Amount: $505,000

PI: Samarchith Kurup, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Cellular Biology

This project will advance our understanding of soil processes that control the amount of carbon stored in soil. Understanding the controls on soil carbon storage and loss are critical for managing our natural environment for plant productivity, for improving our water quality, and for mitigating the effects of anthropogenic climate change. This project involves a series of experiments that will describe how fire and erosion impact the storage of carbon in soil, how it is chemically transformed over time, and how it may impact water quality. The results of this work will inform land managers in both urban and forested areas to make management decisions to improve productivity, increase carbon storage, and improve water quality. The educational component of this project will make collected data publicly available for educators in teaching modules that can be freely used to teach about soil, water quality, and the natural environment. The aim of this research project is to determine the relative importance of burn severity, soil type, erosion, and time since fire as drivers of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and pyrogenic carbon (PyC) quality and quantity in soils and outflow water. This work will be achieved by (1) collecting intact soil cores from plots with differing burn severities and conducting simulated leaching experiments to quantify throughflow of PyC and DOM, (2) establishing sediment fences to describe the role of burn severity on sediment and the related DOM quality from water extracted sediments to demonstrate the importance of sediment as a source of PyC into DOM, and (3) establish a tree vault study with applied PyC (as biochar) with two soil types (sandy and clay; typical of Georgia, USA) to describe the rate and quality of throughflow of applied PyC over longer time scales. Coupling these field and laboratory studies on different temporal and experimental scales will reveal the relative importance of different controls on the formation and transport of DOM and dissolved PyC, a significant and not well understood component of the global soil carbon cycle.

Funder: NSF

Amount: $836,711

PI: Rebecca Abney, Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources

Black history has been identified as important to psychosocial adjustment and education outcomes. In K‒12 and in higher education settings, Black history supports transformational educational experiences whereby African descent students can more readily negotiate race-based discrimination and develop counternarratives that challenge deficit ideas about their abilities as students and their value as people. Despite growing evidence to suggest the significance of Black history in contributing to African descent students’ academic outcomes and overall psychological well-being, there has been little scholarly attention given to identifying ways to quantitatively assess Black history among African descent youth. Quantitative self-report measures are among the most widely used non-cognitive assessments that support the measurement of individuals’ beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and emotions. Using a validated adult self-report measure of Black history consciousness as a foundation, the goal of the current study is to develop and initially validate a brief self-report measure assessing the importance and meaning of Black history for youth using a mixed-methods critical, participatory action approach to scale construction. This study will be grounded in transformative Black education and Black psychology frameworks to center the lived experiences of African descent youth and accurate histories within the African diaspora.

Funder: Spencer Foundation 

Amount: $74,985 

PI: Collette Chapman-Hilliard, Mary Frances Early College of Education 

In mammals, taste bud cells are post-mitotic, and they have a short lifespan and undergo continuous renewal, therefore, progenitors in the immediate surrounding tissue must be available to renew taste bud cells for homeostasis. Thorough information of taste bud progenitors and molecular regulation in the cell differentiation is essential to understanding taste disorders caused by taste bud progenitor deficiencies. Taste bud progenitor cells have been thought to reside in the basal layer of the stratified lingual epithelium and express Krt14, Krt5, Gli1, p63, Sox2 or Lgr5. Our recent findings indicate the existence of an underappreciated source of progenitors that express Sox10 (Sox10+) — cells under, but not within, the stratified tongue epithelium. These Sox10+ taste bud progenitors contribute to a significant proportion of taste bud cells including most of type-III taste cells that transduce sour and salt taste. Our further studies and early work using circumvallate papilla (CvP) transplantation provide compelling data to demonstrate that von Ebner’s minor salivary glands (vEGs) are the niche of these novel Sox10+ progenitors for taste buds. Questions remain regarding the exact locations, specific type(s), molecular signatures of Sox10+ taste bud progenitors in vEGs and regulatory roles of Sox10 transcription factor in cell differentiation. In mice, the single CvP in the midline of posterior tongue houses hundreds of taste buds with abundant vEGs underneath to form the CvP-vEG complex, which enables efficient analyses and will be our focus in this proposal. The goal of this application is to (Aim 1) define the spatial distribution and molecular signature of Sox10+ taste bud progenitors in vEGs, and (Aim 2) test whether Sox10 transcription factor regulates the differentiation of these progenitors to taste bud cells. We will take advantage of the unique strengths of conventional and modern tools (e.g., inducible transgenic mouse lines, proliferating and retaining cell labeling, spatial transcriptomic analysis, and CRISPR/Cas9 technology). In Aim 1, we will use adult Sox10-iCreERT2/tdTTmx mice to trace Sox10+ cell lineages, perform proliferating and retaining cell labeling and MERFISH (Multiplexed Error Robust Fluorescence in situ Hybridization) that combines the power of single-cell transcriptomics with spatial biology by directly visualizing and counting RNA transcripts of ~140 marker genes in tissue slices. In Aim 2, we will analyze phenotypes in Sox10 conditional knockout (cKO) — adult Sox10-iCreERT2/Sox10 fx mice, and Sox10- iCreERT2/ R26LSL-Cas9-EGFP mice with microinjection of AAV-Sox10 gRNA into CvP-vEG tongue region. The yielded data will allow us to pinpoint the Sox10+ taste bud progenitors in vEGs and to detect the marker gene expression in these progenitors and other cells on the tissue sections, and to collect solid data as to whether Sox10 is essential for the differentiation of Sox10+ taste bud progenitors in vEGs. The studies will enable us to better understand the features (spatial, cellular, molecular) and differentiation of these Sox10+ taste bud progenitors in vEGs and thus better understand the maintenance of taste bud homeostasis.

Funder: NIH 

Amount: $377,681 

PI: Hongxiang Liu, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Department of Animal and Dairy Science 

Cushing’s disease (CD) is a serious endocrine disorder characterized by an adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-secreting PitNET that subsequently stimulates the adrenal glands to overproduce cortisol. Chronic exposure to excess cortisol has wide ranging and detrimental effects on health, including increased stroke rates, diabetes, obesity, depression, anxiety and death. Although CD is linked to a threefold increase in the risk of death, the advancement of current standard of care medical therapy is lacking. Current treatments exhibit low efficacy and tolerability for patients. The absence of preclinical models that replicate the complexity of the adenoma tissue has prevented us from developing effective therapies that are targeted to the tumor directly. The first-line treatment for CD is pituitary surgery. In the hands of an experienced surgeon, tumor recurrence occurs in as many as 30% to 50% of patients during the 10-year follow-up period. Despite multiple treatments, biochemical control is not achieved in approximately 50% of patients, suggesting that in routine clinical practice, initial and long-term disease remission is not achieved in a substantial number of CD patients. Hence, medical therapy is often considered in the following situations: when surgery is contraindicated or fails to achieve remission, or when recurrence occurs after apparent surgical remission. While stereotactic radiosurgery treats incompletely resected or recurrent PitNETs, the main drawbacks include the longer time to remission and the risk of hypopituitarism. There is an inverse relationship between disease duration and reversibility of complications associated with CD, thus emphasizing the importance of targeting the pituitary adenoma early. The primary barrier to developing new medical therapies is the lack of human relevant advanced in vitro tumor models.

Pituitary cell lines do not reproduce the multicellular complexity of PitNETs. In this instance, the overall objective is to develop PitNET organoids to advance our understanding of the pathogenesis and treatment of pituitary tumors in CD patients. The overall goal will be successfully achieved by collaborative efforts between the University of Arizona (UA) and Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) that will leverage the expertise of professionals trained in complimentary fields including surgical treatments, pathology and cell biology of pituitary disease, organoid technology and high throughput data analysis including dug screening, molecular profiling, and transcriptomics. This led us to develop Specific Aims: 1) To use human PitNET derived organoids to define the molecular signatures of corticotroph tumor subtypes in CD, and 2) To use the pituitary tumor organoids as a preclinical model to accelerate targeted therapies for patients with CD. At the completion of the funding period, we will be positioned to implement patient-relevant organoids to accelerate the development of therapies that will effectively target ACTH-secreting pituitary adenomas in patients with CD.

Funder: National Institutes of Health 

Amount: $549,941 

PI: Yana Zavros, School of Medicine 

Despite the implementation of numerous successful harm reduction programs across the state, accessing harm reduction services remains a challenge for those living in rural communities. This lack of proximity to resources can directly impact the outcomes for those at risk of an opioid overdose. Our proposal seeks to utilize an untapped healthcare resource currently available in nearly every rural community in Georgia: our pharmacists. More than ninety percent of the US population live within 5 miles of a community pharmacy. With rural community pharmacists often being the only accessible healthcare professionals nearby, they also have the advantage of existing relationships and trust built within those communities. Despite being one of the most accessible and trusted healthcare resources, pharmacy has not yet been widely included in the harm reduction landscape. Enlisting these pharmacies to assist in increasing both access and education for harm reduction measures for those at risk of an opioid overdose can help to reduce the current death rate in these areas of our state.

Our project will seek to accomplish three goals:

1. Increase access to harm reduction services, with a focus on naloxone distribution, by utilizing an existing network of independent pharmacies.

2. Education of individuals falling into opioid overdose risk categories, or those close to those at risk.

3. Data capture assessing demographics, attitudes, and characteristics of those seeking harm reduction services.

Funder: Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities 

Amount: $1,182,902 

PI: Jordan Khail, College of Pharmacy 

Dysregulated expression of retrotransposons and other transposable elements (TEs) can lead to increases in TE copy number, DNA damage and instability, or aberrant regulation of host genes, which in turn can contribute to human disease. Conversely, TE activity is required for processes ranging from early mammalian development and cell senescence to horizontal transposon transfer (HTT) between species. The natural downregulation or absence of TE defense mechanisms such as RNA interference, DNA methylation, and repressive chromatin provides opportunities for TE expression and mobility. The fact that TEs do not always proliferate unchecked in such cases suggests new mechanisms of TE control remain to be discovered. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae/Ty paradigm is an attractive model for discovering new types of retrotransposon control. S. cerevisiae and its close relative S. paradoxus lack canonical TE control pathways but contain multiple active yet restrained retrotransposon families (Ty1-Ty5). We will expand on our discovery of a self-encoded form of copy number control (CNC) for the canonical Ty1 element (Ty1c) to determine if other Ty elements undergo forms of CNC, systematically determine whether Ty family interactions influence mobility, define the origin of Ty1c CNC, and understand the evolution and function of endogenized Ty sequences. In addition, we will develop new experimental models to study the mechanisms and consequences of HTT between species. Our work will combine rigorous experimental and computational approaches to provide insight into how novel mechanisms of retrotransposon regulation function and evolve to limit TE mobility and HTT.

Funder: NIH 

Amount: $1,488,092 

PI: David Garfinkel, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology