From creating personalized maps of Alzheimer’s risk and designing next-generation cancer therapeutics to advancing AI-driven materials discovery and recovering nitrogen contaminants from water resources, the five projects that received this year’s Incentives for Large Grant Awards from the College of Letters and Science exemplify how UC Davis research is transforming science and society.
The Incentives for Large Grant Awards program provides faculty with up to $80,000 in support over two years to pursue large grants over $1 million. The program gives faculty members resources to conduct the preliminary research work necessary for large grant proposals from funding agencies.
The awardees were selected by the college’s Research Support Committee.
Learn more about the faculty members and their research projects:
Sheila David
Professor, Chemistry
Small molecule inhibitors for the base excision repair (BER) glycosylase MUTYH: New chemical biology tools and cancer chemotherapeutics
DNA dysfunction and damage is associated with both cancer and cancer treatment. The DNA repair pathways left intact in cancer cells have become potential targets for chemotherapeutics. With the Incentives for Large Grant Award, Shields and her laboratory will continue pioneering research on enzymes known as base excision repair, or BER, glycosylases, specifically one called MUTYH. Research has shown that suppression of MUTYH expression in certain cancer cell lines reduces cell proliferation and increases chemosensitivity. Shields and her colleagues will conduct further research to examine how MUTYH inhibitors function, validate their activity and identify the most potent candidates for further study.
Richard Huskey
Associate Professor, Communication
Co-Applicant: Emorie Beck
Associate Professor, Psychology
A personalized map of Alzheimer’s risk through smartphones, wearables and MRI
Roughly 7.4 million Americans are affected by Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, but disease-modifying treatments remain limited. Because of this, there’s a need to identify risk factors before symptoms emerge and three features of daily life have been recognized as modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline: social health, sleep and everyday cognitive function. With the Incentives for Large Grant Award, Huskey and Beck will further research that leverages biometric data that can be collected by smartphones, wearables and magnetic resonance imaging to understand Alzheimer’s and related dementia risks in mid-life adults. By connecting the fine-grained texture of daily life to brain organization, before symptoms appear, the work has the potential to identify who is at greatest risk and point to behaviors that are modifiable.
Mark Mascal
Professor, Chemistry
Co-Applicant: Dong Yu
Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Bridging the chemistry and physics of n-type organic semiconductors for advanced optoelectronics
Organic semiconductors hold great promise for affordable solar cells and a broad range of electronic applications. They drive advances in flexible, lightweight electronics, with established commercial impact in OLED displays and growing applications in solar energy harvesting, photodetectors and wearable devices. However, charge-conducting n-type organic semiconductors remain critically underdeveloped despite being indispensable for complementary materials. In collaboration, Mascal and Yu will use chemistry- and physics-based techniques to investigate structurally optimized n-type organic semiconductors to uncover the fundamental processes governing their performance. The research will feed back into the design of functionally optimized organic optoelectronics.
Valentin Taufour
Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Co-Applicant: Jesús Velázquez
Professor, Chemistry
Co-Applicant: Susan Kauzlarich
Distinguished Professor, Chemistry
Autonomous synthesis platform with high vapor pressure chemicals
AI-driven materials discovery now predicts new compounds far faster than they can be synthesized, tested and fed back into predictive models. To overcome this bottleneck, researchers use autonomous synthesis laboratories. In such laboratories, materials are often exposed to air while being transferred from station to station. This means that any material that reacts with oxygen, carbon dioxide and water can’t be integrated into the process. Taufour, Velázquez and Kauzlarich have an idea to get around that problem. Sealed silica ampoules are glass containers that act as synthesis environments for a variety of elements, but they currently require manual assembly, a slow and safety-intensive process. The researchers plan to develop a benchtop robotic system that will automate that process and fit within the autonomous synthesis platform.
Jesús Velázquez
Professor, Chemistry
Additively manufactured porous electrochemical reactors for sustainable nitrate remediation and nitrogen recovery
Nitrate contamination of groundwater and wastewater has become one of the most pressing environmental and water-security challenges facing California and agricultural regions throughout the United States. But nitrate is also an energy-dense nitrogen feedstock that can be converted into value-added products such as ammonia. Electrochemical nitrate reduction has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional nitrate-remediation technologies, enabling contaminant removal and chemical production. However, most existing systems don’t work well with naturally occurring environmental waters. In partnership with colleagues at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Velázquez and colleagues hope to establish scalable electrochemical nitrate-remediation systems capable of operating under realistic conditions. The systems will integrate architected porous materials, advanced manufacturing, electrochemical reactor engineering and mechanistic solid-state chemistry.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THESE STORIES
14 Faculty Receive Grants from College’s Regeneration Research Program
The program is designed to help faculty fill gaps created by the current constrained funding environment. Grant awards range from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on proposed needs and budget justification.
Behind the Funding
the college's Research Support Committee is charged with the decision-making behind the college’s internal awards/grants. In addition to the Dean’s Faculty Fellowships, they’re responsible for the L&S Unites Initiative, Incentives for Large Grants Initiative and the new Regeneration Program Grants.