The breadth and depth of University of Rochester research is reflected in projects that five of its researchers will pursue as recipients of the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Dan Bergstralh, an assistant professor of biology, will use his CAREER award to support his research on the molecular mechanisms that determine how cells “decide” the direction of division, using advanced microscopy and data from the genome-editing tool CRISPR.

Ranga Dias, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, will explore ternary and quaternary  compounds in his quest for materials that are superconducting not only at room temperature but lower pressures.

Kathryn Knowles, an assistant professor of chemistry, will further her research on mixed-metal oxide nanocrystals, which are ideal candidates for applications in alternative energy, and how the composition of nanocrystals affects their chemical behaviors.

Kathryn Mariner, the Wilmot Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Visual and Cultural Studies, will study how alternative networks of care are formed within local marginalized communities during times of social isolation and precarity.

Yuhao Zhu, an assistant professor of computer science, will design interacting software and hardware mechanisms to increase the performance and energy efficiency of increasingly smaller transistorized chips, which are clustered with a variety of hardware accelerators.

Read more here.

Empire Discovery Institute, which partners with research labs at the University of Rochester, the University at Buffalo, and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Deerfield Management Company, a healthcare investment firm, have established a research partnership to accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into new therapies.

Through a newly launched company, Empire-Deerfield Discovery & Development (ED³ ), Deerfield expects to invest up to $65 million over the next five years.

“The new investment by Deerfield will strengthen this unique partnership between research institutions in Rochester and Buffalo, help accelerate the process of bringing new drugs to market, and position Western New York and the Finger Lakes as a hub for life sciences research,” says Mark Taubman, CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Last year, EDI announced $4.5 million in funding for its first cohort of recipients under the Institute’s Medicines Discovery Award Program, which included University of Rochester research programs in wound healing and nonsense mutations. Read more here.

New research from the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience finds that children who were breastfed scored higher on neurocognitive tests. Researchers analyzed thousands of cognitive tests taken by nine- and ten-year-olds who were breastfed, according to their mothers, and compared those results to scores of children who were not.

“Our findings suggest that any amount of breastfeeding has a positive cognitive impact, even after just a few months,” says Daniel Adan Lopez, PhD candidate in epidemiology who is first author on the study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health. “That’s what’s exciting about these results. Hopefully from a policy standpoint, this can help improve the motivation to breastfeed.”

Researchers reviewed the test results of more than 9,000 nine- and ten-year-old participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.

“This supports the foundation of work already being done around lactation and breastfeeding and its impact on a child’s health,” says Ed Freedman, the principal investigator of the ABCD study in Rochester. “These are findings that would have not been possible without the ABCD Study and the expansive data set it provides.”

Read more here.

• Lynne Maquat, the J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Oncology and Pediatrics and founding director of the Center for RNA Biology, who has been awarded the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for her pivotal discoveries in the field of RNA biology. She shares the prize with fellow RNA biologist Joan Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale School of Medicine. The prize is administered by Harvard Medical School, and since its inception in 1987, 12 honorees have gone on to receive Nobel prizes. Maquat is best known for discovering a mechanism called nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) that acts as a quality control system in both health and disease.
• William Jones, the Charles F. Houghton Professor of Chemistry, who has been inducted into the 2021 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most highly regarded honors for artistic, academic, and scientific leaders who engage in advancing the public good. Houghton is being recognized for his research, which focuses on the synthesis, structure, and reactivity of carbon-element bonds, which has led to the discovery of new methods for converting hydrocarbons into chemicals found in everyday products.
• Rachel Haidu, an associate professor of art history and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, who is this year’s winner of the President’s Ferrari Humanities Research Award. Haidu’s project, “Authority, Originality, Neither: Art as Pedagogy in the Former East,” focuses on how changes or loss of politico-economic structures are reflected or manifested in concepts of originality and authority and how this influences the remaking of infrastructure. The award promotes and supports humanities research among tenured and tenure-track faculty across Arts, Sciences & Engineering who are affiliated with the University’s Humanities Center.
• Brian Marples, a professor of radiation oncology, who has been named the inaugural recipient of the recently established Dr. Sidney H. and Barbara L. Sobel Professorship in Radiation Oncology at the Wilmot Cancer Institute. Marples is an internationally renowned radiation biologist and nationally recognized educator whose research focuses on normal tissue toxicity. The professorship was made possible by a gift from Sidney Sobel ’73M (FLW) and his wife, Barbara.

Here are important links for researchers:

• The University’s COVID-19 Resource Center for important updates and guidance on working, teaching, and learning remotely
• University of Rochester Medical Center website for restrictions, resources, and news
• The University’s COVID-19 “Restart and Recovery” web page

PLEASE NOTE that the University’s COVID-19 Dashboard is updated daily and dashboard numbers may reflect additional cases confirmed later in the day. When a new case is known, the contact-tracing process begins immediately with the Monroe County Health Department, with confirmed exposures being contacted and required to quarantine. Remember:

If you feel like you’re experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, it’s best to report them through Dr. Chat Bot immediately. Even if you think your symptoms might be something else, like a cold, seasonal congestion, or allergies, it’s still important to tell University health professionals and contact tracers what you are experiencing—they always want to receive more, not less, information.

Common COVID-19 symptoms include:

• A temperature of 100 °F (37.8 °C) or higher
• Chills
• Muscle or body aches
• Severe fatigue
• Headache
• Congestion or runny nose
• Sore throat
• Loss of taste, smell, or appetite
• Cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing
• Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea