On the backside of the cornea is a single layer of cells that plays an all-important role, maintaining just the right fluid balance to keep the cornea transparent so that light can enter the eye.

Until recently, it was believed this layer, called the corneal endothelium, is incapable of replacing its damaged cells. As more cells become damaged, the cornea becomes opaque, leading to loss of vision and, ultimately, to as many as 30,000 endothelium transplants a year in the United States alone.

A team of University researchers is exploring the possibility that stem cells on the outer edges of the cornea, given the right stimulation, can migrate into the endothelium to replace damaged cells. (Undifferentiated stem cells develop into specialized cells.) The work raises the possibility of restoring vision without the need for transplants.

The team is led by Amy Kiernan, associate professor of ophthalmology, and includes Jannick Rolland, the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering; Patrice Tankam, a senior scientist in the Center for Visual Science; Changsik Yoon, a graduate student in Rolland’s lab; Rebecca Rausch, a graduate student in Kiernan’s lab; and Holly Hindman, former associate professor of ophthalmology, now in private practice but still consulting on the project. They are supported with a $75,000 University Research Award. The URA program is designed to help researchers develop preliminary data or proof of concept needed to leverage larger federal or foundation awards to carry a promising project to completion.

There have been tantalizing clinical hints that the corneal endothelium may have regenerative capabilities, Kiernan says. For example, there have been cases in which endothelial transplants failed to engraft, but the cornea cleared up anyway, with regeneration of the endothelium occurring on its own.

“So it seems that if something is done that stimulates a progenitor or stem cell population, most likely those in the periphery of the cornea, there is some regenerative capacity in the endothelium – just based on clinical studies,” Kiernan says.

Her team will attempt to identify the potential stem cells that might be stimulated to migrate to the endothelium to repair damage. They will use mouse models from Kiernan’s lab in which adult stem cells can be permanently tagged with fluorescent biomarkers and tracked even after they differentiate into other cells.

The identification and tracking of those cells will be done by refining a novel imaging approach developed in Rolland’s lab. Called Gabor domain optical coherence microscopy, the technology allows rapid, noninvasive imaging of cellular structures beneath the surface of the skin or within the human eye – in greater detail than traditional imaging with optical coherence tomography.

“Think of it as a high-definition, volumetric imaging,” Rolland says. “But we also want to know what kind of cells we are looking at, so we are integrating fluorescence imaging with the high-definition volumetric microscopy so we can do both.”

The team represents a combination of pertinent expertise: cell development and regeneration (Kiernan and Rausch), imaging (Rolland, Tankam, and Yoon), and the biological basis for corneal and ocular surface diseases in humans (Hindman).

The University Research Award funding is helping support graduate students and technicians working on the project, and the cost of mice and supplies.

“Pilot funding like this is so important, especially with NIH grants shrinking,” Kiernan says.

“It’s really helpful to be able to bridge this kind of interdisciplinary effort,” says Rolland. “You need to work together a little bit to understand the challenges involved and what you need to do to secure preliminary data, to show we have a pathway.

“It takes time to get data, so even a small grant that provides a bridge for a year or two can make a huge difference.”

The Request for Proposal and application are now available here.

In addition to the typical University of Rochester faculty membership, an application may be submitted by a University faculty member (as the first-named, lead Investigator) for a collaboration with faculty outside of the University, as long as matching funds can be guaranteed from the U.S. institutions in which non-University of Rochester faculty members hold their primary appointments. International collaborations also may be entertained with the same criteria, some of which may be in-kind support, if demonstrated before the submission review.

The deadline for submission is March 20, 2017.   Questions and completed applications should be directed to Adele Coelho, faculty outreach coordinator in the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Research, at adele.coelho@rochester.edu.

A Medical Center study shows that when tumors are treated with radiotherapy, the benefits can be hijacked by the treatment’s counteraction to also trigger inflammation and dampen the body’s immune response.

Published by the journal Oncotarget, the study suggests that radiotherapy (also known as radiation treatment) could be more effective if it was combined with a drug that would block a specific cell that is responsible for dulling the immune system. In mice, the research team experimented by delivering an immunotherapy two days prior to radiotherapy and saw significant benefits for many different types of cancer.

Led by Scott A. Gerber, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, and graduate student Kelli A. Connolly, the research fills an important gap in knowledge. Scientists already know that radiotherapy stimulates anti-tumor cells and helps to control cancer’s growth. What is less understood is why radiotherapy cannot cure cancer.

The answer may lie with how the immune system responds to radiotherapy when a tumor is present. The  researchers discovered that radiation increases the circulation of certain harmful inflammatory cells and changes the way the immune system rallies against cancer. In many patients, the circulating level of these cells (called monocytes) is already high prior to cancer treatment and sometimes indicates a poor prognosis.

Gerber believes that the abundance of these cells, which can be measured in a simple blood test, could identify patients who might benefit most from blocking them, allowing the immune system to fight the disease in combination with radiotherapy. Because these inflammatory cells express a unique protein on their surface, they are an easy target for medications, the study said.

A new study in the journal Cerebral Cortex challenges the hypothesis that nerve cells in the brains of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders do not reliably and consistently respond to external stimuli.

“Our findings show there is no measurable variation in how individuals with autism respond to repeated visual and tactile stimuli,” said John Foxe, chair of the Department of Neuroscience and senior author of the study.  “Consequently, the concept that the symptoms of autism may arise from unreliable brain activity in response to the senses is in all likelihood a scientific cul-de-sac.”

The original studies that formed the basis for this hypothesis involved functional MRI experiments that measure changes in the blood oxygen levels in the brain.  While fluctuations in blood flow are important indicators of brain activity, these measures do not precisely correlate to the more rapid electrical activity that occurs in the brain when nerve cells are stimulated.

The new study involved 20 individuals diagnosed with autism and 20 individuals who served as healthy controls.  The participants were fitted with a dense array of electrodes on the surface of their scalp to record brain electrical activity and were then exposed to repeated visual stimuli.  No matter how the researchers measured the variability of the responses, brain responses in autism were as stable as those of the controls. To make sure that this wasn’t just the case in the visual system, the team also evaluated tactile inputs – repeated touches to the wrists of participants – and, once again, measures of brainwave responses provided  no evidence of increased response variability in the individuals with autism. Read more here.

Medical Center neurologist Gretchen Birbeck, who has been chosen to serve on the Advisory Board of the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center, which supports basic, clinical, and applied medical research and training for U.S. and foreign investigators working in the developing world. Birbeck, the Edward A. and Alma Vollertsen Rykenboer Professor in Neurology, has spent the last 20-plus years studying the burden of neurological disorders and the effectiveness of health care delivery in sub-Saharan Africa.  She divides her time between Rochester and sites in Africa. Birbeck’s specific interest is epilepsy and seizure disorders – which are far more common in Africa due to higher rates of parasitic and viral infection and constitute a significant public health problem. She is also interested in creating scalable interventions to prevent seizures and provide better care to vulnerable populations on the continent.

Jack Paine has joined the Department of Political Science as an assistant professor after a yearlong appointment as a postdoctoral associate in the University’s Wallis Institute of Political Economy. Paine’s first major project examines the relationship between oil wealth and civil war from a game theory perspective. In a series of articles and papers he uses conflict bargaining models to explain why higher national-level oil wealth should decrease prospects for civil wars that aim to overthrow the government at the center—but also why oil-rich regions should be more likely to fight secessionist civil wars. His second major project examines historical causes of wars, including the long-term legacies of precolonial kingdoms, the domestic and international dimensions of colonial European settlers and decolonization wars, and the “colonial peace.” He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Center for Integrated Research Computing (CIRC) Winter Boot Camp is an opportunity to learn how to program or learn a new programming language. It is also an opportunity to pick up essential technical computing skills to help with research projects or course work.

The six-week program, January 24 through March 2, helps students, postdocs, research staff, and faculty learn new programming languages and sharpen their computing and data analytics skills. Classes are designed for beginners and cover basic topics to give enough direction to move on to self-learning tutorials or other more advanced coursework.

Each language or topic is an individual “module” that will take place during 1.5 hour lectures over 3 or 6 days. Each programming module is independent, and participants may sign up for one or more modules.

Classes will be taught in the VISTA Collaboratory on the first floor of Carlson Library. Click here for a list of courses and to register. Space is limited, so register early.

Want to see how your research can impact federal programs and regulations?  Want to discuss your ideas with the FDA? University students (undergraduate, professional, and graduate) are encouraged to participate in the 4^th annual “America’s Got Regulatory Science Talent” Competition.

The competition, involving individual students or teams of up to four, aims to promote student interest in the science of developing new tools, standards, and approaches to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of FDA-regulated products.

Entry forms are due by 5 p.m., January 31.

The competition itself will be held at Helen Wood Hall Auditorium from noon to 1:30 p.m.,Thursday, February 16, 2017.  The winning individual or team will visit the FDA in March or April.

Click here for information and instructions on how to apply.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have created the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute to encourage minority students and others with an interest in African-American, African, and African Diasporan Studies to pursue graduate degrees, especially PhDs, in the humanities.

The theme is The Global Black Experience in the 20th and 21st Centuries. The program offers a seven-week session for 10 rising seniors (juniors in spring 2017, entering their senior year in fall 2017, graduating in 2018). The application deadline is January 10, 2017. Click here for more information.

The Center for AIDS Research will host a new World AIDS Day webinar, “Getting to Zero in the Black Community in the U.S.: Preliminary Findings from the National Survey on HIV in the Black Community (NSHBC),” from 3 to 4:30 p.m. December 15 in the School of Nursing Auditorium (Helen Wood Hall 1w304), followed by a panel discussion.

Panelists include:

• LaRon Nelson, assistant professor and the Dean’s Endowed Fellow in Health Disparities at the School of Nursing.
• Natalie Leblanc, postdoctoral associate in HIV prevention science at the School of Nursing.
• Reverend Weldon Thomas, senior pastor, New Bethel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
• Naimah Sierra, vice president, Community Services Division, Action for a Better Community.

Parking will be available in the Saunders Research Building parking lot (map). RSVP to Laura Enders (Laura_Enders@urmc.rochester.edu) to secure a parking pass. The event can also be viewed online here.

The goal of the NSHBC was to develop and administer a survey focused on the cultural, psychosocial, and structural factors that are driving the HIV epidemic among black individuals in the United States. By focusing solely and comprehensively on black individuals this survey allowed for a more nuanced understanding of the root causes of HIV within our target population. The new knowledge that will be created will better explain persistent disparities in the HIV epidemic in the U.S. and directly inform interventions and policy change.

The webinar, sponsored by the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research Community Education and Engagement Program, will feature speakers Bisola Ojikutu of Harvard University, Laura Bogart of RAND Corporation, and Alecia McGregor of Tufts University. Topics will include

• Review of survey data.
• Plans for the first few papers.
• Next steps.

The Center for Aids Research (CFAR) announces a new request for applications for focused, highly innovative research projects and pilot studies that use the CFAR Pharmacology Shared Resource to address key gaps in the understanding of HIV/AIDS pharmacology and therapeutics and that address the National Institutes of Health HIV/AIDS High Priority Research Topics.

Specific topic areas of interest include:

• HIV, antiviral pharmacology and drug development.
• HIV, antiviral pharmacology and drug interactions research.
• HIV pharmacology and cure.
• HIV pharmacology and HCV/HBV co-infection, tuberculosis, and end-organ/inflammation.

This is a collaborative application that should include PI’s and co-I’s from both the University of Rochester and University at Buffalo. Up to five awards will be made for a one-year period with maximum funding of $10,000 in direct costs for each award. Additional information and specific application requirements can be found here.

Applications are due no later than 5 p.m. on December 21, 2016.

The Research Help Desk now connects interested researchers with a Medical Center scientific writing, editing, and consultation service, offered by Constance Baldwin, professor of pediatrics.

She has a PhD in English, and has firsthand experience as a writer and editor in the educational, clinical, health services, and basic science research arenas.

Baldwin is available on a fee-for-service basis to help investigators and research trainees write grant proposals, research papers, and related documents. Contact Research Help.

A largely self-directed study group will meet weekly, starting 4 p.m., Wednesday, January 4, to prepare to take a clinical research certification exam.

Teleconferencing will be available. Sessions will run through mid-February. Study session review materials (major testing content areas) consist of provided presentation slide sets and reading assignments with additional resources.

Each session will begin with a facilitated review and continue with group study. If interested in participating, email SCORE@urmc.rochester.edu

Nina Kim, Microbiology and Immunology, “Specialized Pro-resolving Mediators (SPMs) as Potential Therapeutics for Asthma by Regulating Human B-cell Antibody Production.” 1 p.m., Dec. 14, 2016. K307 (3-6408). Advisor: Richard Phipps.

Dec. 15: “Getting to Zero in the Black Community in the U.S.: Preliminary Findings from the National Survey on HIV in the Black Community (NSHBC).” Webinar and panel discussion, 3 to 4:30 p.m. Helen Wood Hall 1w304. RSVP to Laura Enders (Laura_Enders@urmc.rochester.edu) to secure a parking pass. The event can also be viewed online here.

Dec. 16: AS&E workshop for new and junior faculty on applying for NSF grants. 9 to 11:30 a.m., December 16, Gamble Room, Rush Rhees Library. RSVP by December 13 to ECMRSVP@UR.Rochester.edu

Dec. 21: Deadline to apply for Center for AIDS Research funding for focused pilot and research projects using the CFAR Pharmacology Shared Resource to address key gaps in the understanding of HIV/AIDS pharmacology and therapeutics. Additional information and specific application requirements can be found here.

Dec. 30: Deadline to submit proposals for two Breast Cancer Coalition research grants, one a maximum of $25,000 for pre- and post-doctoral trainee/fellows and the other $50,000 for faculty applicants. Click here for the full RFP.

Jan. 4: SCORE study group meets 4 to 6 p.m. to study for clinical research certification exam. If interested in participating, email SCORE@urmc.rochester.edu

Jan. 10: Deadline to apply for Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute, a seven-week session for 10 rising seniors on the theme The Global Black Experience in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Click here for more information.

Jan. 31: Deadline to enter “America’s Got Regulatory Science Talent” competition, promoting student interest in the science of developing new tools, standards, and approaches to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of FDA-regulated products. Click here for information and instructions on how to apply.