March 2016
Volume 3, Issue 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Barsanjit Mazumder Receives
$1,450,000 NIH R01 Renewal
Grant
CSU Receives $1,000,000
Ohio Federal Research
Network Grant
Meet CSU's New Faculty
Featured Researcher
Video Series
CSU Scholar News
News from the Technology
Transfer Office
Barsanjit Mazumder Receives
$1,450,000 NIH R01 Renewal Grant
Prof. Barsanjit Mazumder from
the Center of Gene Regulation
in Health and Disease (GRHD)
and
the
Department
of
Biological,
Geological
and
Environmental
Sciences
(BGES) in the College of
Sciences
and
Health
has
Professions (COSHP)
renewed his NIH R01 grant for
a
second
time.
Prof.
Mazumder's R01 grant began
in March 2005, and has since brought over $5,000,000 of
research funding to CSU.
Prof. Mazumder's grant is titled "Translational silencing in
monocytes: Role of L13a," and is devoted to the study of
uncontrolled inflammation, which is a leading cause of many
diseases, including atherosclerosis and cardiovascular
disease. Inflammation is a cellular defense mechanism that
The History of Institutional
involves immune cells and that is necessary for protection
Review Boards
against infection. However, inflammation must be carefully
Dr. Cole Selected as a Fellow
controlled because chronic inflammation can lead to
numerous diseases, including heart disease and stroke. Prof.
New PI Summary Report
Mazumder's research team has discovered new information
from SPRS
about how cells protect against inflammation, which could
greatly enhance the development of therapies to reduce the
New Opportunities for
risk of disease. "Human cells have natural protection
NIH and NSF Funding
systems that shut off inflammation if it begins to damage to
the body," says Prof. Mazumder. "Our team identified, for the
first time, a specific key to these systems, a ribosomal protein called L13a that blocks the
synthesis of inflammatory molecules leading to reduced inflammation in cells. This discovery
could lead to the development of specific therapies to promote L13a-dependent inflammation
resolution in cells where natural protection has been weakened." Prof. Mazumder's research has
been published in premier research journals such as Cell; Molecular Cell; Journal of
Immunology; Molecular and Cellular Biology; Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology;
and Cellular & Molecular Immunology. Prof. Mazumder's team plans to further investigate how
L13a impacts different types of cellular inflammation, and how that inflammation impacts disease
development in humans. Click here for more details about Prof. Mazumder's research.
New Journal Edited by
Professors Candice Hoke and
Brian Ray
CSU Receives $1,000,000 Ohio Federal Research Network Grant
The Federal Research Network awarded CSU a two-year
$1,000,000 grant to support the Ohio Federal Military Jobs
Commission (FMJC). The grant will be led by Dr. Jerzy
Sawicki, Vice President for Research. The FMJC initiative is a
State of Ohio program that focuses on the development and
commercialization of high-priority federal research at Ohio
universities. CSU will provide business development,
technology transfer, industry outreach, networking, and
workforce development services to four technical Centers of
Excellence at universities across Ohio. The FMJC initiative will
provide CSU the opportunity to develop as an innovation
leader, and to directly engage with universities across Ohio
and with researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Click here for more details about the grant.
Meet CSU's New Faculty
Prof. Cyndi Hovland-Scafe joined CSU in fall 2013 as a college
associate lecturer in the School of Social Work. In fall 2015 she
accepted a position as an assistant professor. She also directs
the Education Core for the Center of Health Disparities at CSU.
She develops inter-professional educational opportunities, both
on campus and in partnership with the community, to raise
awareness of health disparities, and to reduce health
disparities. Prof. Hovland-Scafe's research is grounded in
nearly 20 years of practice as a medical social worker, grief
counselor and supervisor, grief camp director, and hospice
psychosocial and spiritual manager. Her research explores
disparities in healthcare, end-of-life care, death and dying, grief
and loss, spirituality, aging, care-giving, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and interprofessional practice and education.
In her work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received her Ph.D. in 2013, Prof.
Hovland-Scafe studied the experiences of family caregivers of elders with dementia. She
explored how caregivers define preparedness for the death of an elder with dementia, the
benefits and outcomes of not being prepared, hindrances to preparedness, factors that help
caregivers prepare for death, and inter-professional recommendations to prepare caregivers for
death. She is currently expanding her research by examining the preparedness for death of
ethnic and racial minority elders who care for individuals who are dying from dementia-related
conditions. Prof. Hovland-Scafe is also collaborating inter-professionally on studies that explore
spirituality in health care education, student reflections on health disparities, and education
simulations that focus on the geriatric population. In addition to presenting her work at national
conferences, Prof. Hovland-Scafe has published her research in peer-reviewed journals and
currently has a manuscript under final review with The Gerontologist, which is one of the toprated gerontology journals in the world.
Featured Researcher Video Series - Orhan Talu
Research by Prof. Orhan Talu is the focus
of the latest installment of the Featured
Researcher Video series.
Prof. Talu is a professor in the Department
of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering.
He has made a broad range of
contributions to teaching, service, and
research since arriving at CSU in 1986.
The main theme of his research is
interfacial phenomena between solids and fluids, and includes molecular simulations, porous
material synthesis, kinetics and equilibrium experiments, and processes. His thermodynamics
research interests include phase equilibria, interfacial phenomena, adsorption, molecular
simulations, experimental measurements, and classical and statistical modeling. His kinetics
research interests include micropore diffusion, meso- and macro-pore diffusion, membrane
permeation, and theoretical modeling. His process-related research interests include gas
separations (pure oxygen from air), gas (methane and hydrogen) storage, environmental
problems, bio-separation, and ion-exchange. His materials-related research includes studies on
various silica systems, both with and without field enhancement, zeolites, and amorphous porous
materials.
We encourage you to learn more about Professor Talu's research and to take a look at our
previous Featured Researcher Videos.
CSU Scholar News
Prof. Cheryl Bracken is a professor in the School of
Communication, and is also the director of the
Media Engagement and Digital Interaction (MEDIa)
Center. The MEDIa Center allows affiliated faculty to
conduct both academic and client-based research.
The focus of the center is to explore the impact on
users of media content, media form, and
communication technologies; the role of audiences
in participatory communication; and user experience
(UX) research. The MEDIa research facilities include
eye-tracking
hardware
and
software;
psychophysiological recording capabilities; media
viewing rooms and video game stations; computers
and software for questionnaire design, survey
research, social network mapping, and data analysis; and social media aggregation software.
Prof. Bracken's research explores people's experiences with popular media. Popular media is
defined as media channels that people use in their daily lives for entertainment and news
consumption, including television, cinema, radio, video games, online content, computers,
tablets, and smart phones. Her research has been published in Media Psychology, Journal of
Communication, and American Journal of Health Behavior. She is the co-editor of Immersed in Media: Telepresence and Everyday Life (Routledge, 2010).
News from the Technology Transfer Office
Patent: The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 9,268,315
B2 to CSU for Prof. Zhiqiang Gao's invention, "Extended Active Disturbance Rejection
Controller." Prof. Gao's motion control technology has applications in multiple fields, including
motor control and factory automation. This patent is part of the intellectual property portfolio that
CSU has licensed to LineStream Technologies.
I-Corps@Ohio Update: Prof. Ye Zhu, who is an associate
professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science, and his doctoral student Jonathan
Gurary, have received an invitation to submit a full
proposal to the I-Corps@Ohio program. This is the first ICorps@Ohio invitation to CSU faculty. Prof. Zhu's proposal
aims to provide novel, highly secure, but user-friendly log-in screens for mobile phones. The
NSF-based I-Corps@Ohio program provides hands-on training to Ohio faculty and students in
the lean launchpad® methodology.
Federal Research Network: The Federal Research Network, for which CSU is providing
commercialization and workforce development services, has issued a call for white papers for
$8.1M of phase 2 funding. One project requirement is to include collaboration with researchers
from Ohio federal research laboratories, such as NASA Glenn Research Center or the Air Force
Research Laboratory. White paper submissions are due March 31, 2016. Interested faculty
should contact Jack Kraszewski of the TTO for further information and for a copy of the call for
white paper materials.
New Journal Edited by Professors Candice Hoke and Brian Ray
A new journal, Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & eDiscovery Law &
Policy eJournal, is being edited by CSU professors Candice
Hoke and Brian Ray. Profs. Hoke and Ray are co-directors of
the Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection in the
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. The new journal is part of
the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), which is the top
research repository in the world, with almost 300,000 authors, over 500,000 papers, and over
600,000 abstracts across multiple disciplines. This new eJournal fills an important gap in SSRN's
Legal Scholarship Network by collecting and abstracting papers that address the legal and
regulatory aspects of cybersecurity, data privacy, and eDiscovery, and by providing a hub for
research across all social science disciplines in these interconnected fields.
The Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection takes a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary
approach to address privacy and cyber-risk management concerns. Through innovative
programming, training, and practical research, the Center builds partnerships bridging
organizational, professional and political divisions; integrates technical, legal, and business
perspectives; creates dialogue between government agencies and regulated entities; and
promotes creative legal, technical, managerial and regulatory approaches to security and privacy.
The History of Institutional Review Boards
On Wednesday, March 30 at 5:00 pm in the FT
ballroom, the Department of History is sponsoring a
presentation by Dr. Laura Stark of Vanderbilt
University. Dr. Stark will present her research on the
history of IRBs: "The Past and Future of Human
Research Regulation: Principles, Procedures, and
the Changing Nature of Truth." Dr. Stark is an
assistant professor at Vanderbilt University's Center
for Medicine, Health, and Society, and an associate
editor of the journal History & Theory. Her talk will
be based on her book, Behind Closed Doors: IRBs and the Making of Ethical Research
(University of Chicago Press, 2011).
Dr. Cole Selected as a Fellow
Dr. Mark Cole, associate lecturer in the
History Department, was named a Fellow of
the Leo Baeck Institute's Postdoctoral
Seminar on German- and Central-European
Jewish History for 2015-16. Prof. Cole
recently traveled to Germany and Israel to
present various facets of his research on
the history of consumption in the Third
Reich. His research especially relates to
nutrition and the Nazi regime's manipulation of the food system in the 1930s and 40s to reward
Germans, while at the same time punishing so-called racial undesirables, and especially Jews.
His work on this important yet under-studied topic has garnered significant interest. Dr. Cole was
also invited by the International Institute of Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem to give a public
lecture in February at the world-renowned Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem.
New PI Summary Report from SPRS
Sponsored Programs and Research Services (SPRS) has developed a PI Summary Report for
all faculty who hold active grants. On about the 15th of each month, the report will be sent
directly to each PI's CSU email address under the subject heading "Monthly PI Summary
Report." The report will provide a snapshot for PIs to quickly review their balances and the time
remaining on their sponsored awards. The report will reflect expenditures charged to the account
through the date of the report listed at the top right-hand corner. The report will serve as a
useful tool to assist faculty in managing sponsored awards.
New Opportunities for NIH and NSF Funding
On February 2nd, 2016, President Barack Obama released the fiscal year
2017 budget. The President's budget proposes substantial increases in
investments in research, education, training, and infrastructure. Overall
federal funding for research and development will grow to $146 billion, an
increase of $8 billion (5.5%) over FY 2016 levels. The National Institutes
of Health (NIH) budget will increase by $1 billion (3.3%), and the National
Science Foundation (NSF) budget will increase by $400 million (5.2%).
The NIH budget increase will lead to more than 1,200 additional research
project grants in comparison with FY 2016.
This increase offers immediate opportunities for CSU researchers. CSU
currently holds 10 NIH grants, including five Academic Research
Enhancement Award (AREA, or R15) awards. These awards are aimed at:
(i) supporting meritorious research; (ii) exposing students to research; and
(iii) strengthening the research environment of institutions. Institutions must
receive less than $6 million per year in NIH support in four of the last
seven years to be eligible for AREA grants. Although CSU is significantly
strengthening its research program, the University does not yet receive more than $6 million per
year in NIH support, and therefore CSU researchers are eligible to apply for AREA grants. The
NIH is continuing to make special efforts to stimulate research at institutions that have not been
major recipients of NIH support in the past. There are three R15 deadlines each year: February
25, June 25, and October 25. The Office of Research encourages all eligible CSU researchers to
apply.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Please share with us important news or updates on your research, scholarly, or creative
activities. Updates may be related to a paper that has been accepted for publication in a highimpact journal, a book you've just published, your work that will be exhibited at a prominent
institution, or other updates you wish to share with our office. Send details to j.yard@csuohio.edu
and d.j.simon@csuohio.edu.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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