For nearly 60 years, the Center for Visual Science (CVS) has been a hub where optics, ophthalmology, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and other disciplines are transforming our understanding of vision and how we treat vision disorders.

More than 40 labs of faculty and trainees continue a tradition that began in 1963 when visual scientist Robert Boynton founded the center.

Since then, significant advances have been made, including research by David Williams, the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics and sixth director of CVS, that helped develop laser refractive correction surgeries commonly known as LASIK and also enabled researchers to look at single cells in a living eye and even observe the signals these nerve cells send to the brain.

Krystel Huxlin, associate director and co-director of training for CVS, and the James V. Aquavella professor and director of research in ophthalmology, specializes in visual recovery after stroke, and corneal wound healing. She and fellow vision scientist Wayne Knox are developing a non-surgical alternative to laser refractive correction.

New director Susana Marcos, who took the helm in July, is looking to bolster the Center’s global reputation by fostering multidisciplinary collaborations in vision science both internally at the University and internationally. She will also pursue strengthening the alumni network, recruiting talented students, and sourcing seed funding to develop a pilot program that would foster cross-disciplinary research. She aims to also develop a model that accelerates CVS research to industry. Learn more.

The lab of Edmund Lalor, associate professor of neuroscience and biomedical engineering, recently found a new clue into how the brain helps us focus our attention on a single speaker in a noisy crowd.

The brain is actually taking an extra step to understand the words coming from the speaker being listened to, and not taking that step with the other words swirling around the conversation. “Our findings suggest that the acoustics of both the attended story and the unattended or ignored story are processed similarly,” says Lalor. “But we found there was a clear distinction between what happened next in the brain.”

For this study, recently published in The Journal of Neuroscience, participants simultaneously listened to two stories, but were asked to focus their attention on only one. Using EEG brainwave recordings, the researchers found the story that participants were instructed to pay attention to was converted into linguistic units known as phonemes – units of sound that can distinguish one word from another – while the other story was not.

“That conversion is the first step towards understanding the attended story,” Lalor says. “Sounds need to be recognized as corresponding to specific linguistic categories like phonemes and syllables, so that we can ultimately determine what words are being spoken – even if they sound different — for example, spoken by people with different accents or different voice pitches.” Learn more.

Wilmot Cancer Institute researchers are a step closer to understanding the complex gene interactions that cause a cell to become malignant. In a new Cell Reports study, the group used network modeling to hone in on a set of such interactions that are critical to malignancy, and likely to be fertile ground for broad cancer therapies.

Discrete genetic mutations that can be targeted by drugs have only been identified for a small fraction of cancer types. But those mutations rely on a downstream network of non-mutated genes in order to cause cancer. Those downstream genes – and their intricate interactions – may be common across many cancers and could offer a giant leap forward in cancer therapy.

One of the lead authors of the study, Hartmut “Hucky” Land, deputy director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute and the Robert and Dorothy Markin Professor of Biomedical Genetics, has worked to identify common core features of cancers for over 10 years. His goal is to find cancers’ shared vulnerabilities and exploit them.

“Targeting non-mutated proteins that are essential to making cells cancerous is a broader approach that could be used in multiple cancers, but it’s hard to find these non-mutated, essential genes,” Land says.

That is why Land collaborated with Matthew McCall, a Wilmot Cancer Institute investigator, associate professor of biostatistics and computational biology, and co-lead author of the study. McCall developed a new network modeling method, called TopNet, that the group paired with genetic experiments in cells and mice to pinpoint functionally relevant gene networks. Learn more.

Xuwen Chen, associate professor of mathematics, has received a prominent Simons Foundation Faculty Fellowship in Mathematics for his work applying mathematical theory to the behavior of quantum particles.

Simons Fellows take research leaves from classroom teaching and administrative obligations to pursue collaborative research ventures that enhance creativity and provide intellectual stimulation. Chen will be on leave for the 2022-23 academic year to conduct research at Brown University.

Chen’s research focuses on the mathematical theory of microscopic quantum particles, which have individually “chaotic” behavior. By applying mathematical proofs, he studies how these individual quantum particles eventually give rise to macroscopic behaviors that govern gases or liquids in classical physics. He additionally studies how quantum particles may form their own laws, like the Bose-Einstein condensate, which are different from the laws of classical physics.

The Goergen Institute for Data Science (GIDS) trains bachelor’s and masters’ degree students who are interested in working on biomedical and/or clinical research projects.

To help match these students with School of Medicine and Dentistry researchers who have data analytics needs, a virtual Medical Research Forum will be conducted, hosted by GIDS, the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the Health Science Center for Computational Innovation.

Researchers interested in submitting a project are encouraged to complete this application form by end of business today. Ideal projects can come from any area of research or discipline but should have a large data-intensive component.

Researchers whose projects are selected to move forward will be asked to provide a Zoom recording of a 3-slide in 3-minutes presentation describing your project by Friday, January 28, 2022.

The recordings will be posted to a UR Box folder for students to review in advance. A question and answer session regarding your project will be conducted on Friday, February 4, 2022 from 11 a.m. to noon via Zoom.

The first 15 minutes will be only for PIs. Students will be involved from 11:15 a.m. to noon. This is a networking meeting of the investigators and the GIDS students. Students and investigators will have the opportunity to interact and to discuss the projects together over Zoom.

Questions about projects can be directed to Alex_Paciorkowski@urmc.rochester.edu and logistic/administrative questions to rachel_hillhouse@urmc.rochester.edu

In recent years, it has become clear that clinical research participation is more accessible to some populations relative to others.

Jonathan Jackson, a candidate for the Dean’s Professor of Health Equity Research and Director and Founder of the Office of Health Equity Research in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, will provide an overview of inequities and barriers for clinical trial recruitment during a special session of Public Health Grand Rounds.

The Zoom webinar will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, January 20.

Jackson will also describe current research in representation science, including a testable framework for future research, as well as what investigators and study teams can do to minimize barriers to research recruitment, engagement, and retention.

Register here. Contact Carolyn_Settle@URMC.Rochester.edu with questions.

Jackson is currently executive director of the Community Access, Recruitment, and Engagement (CARE) Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Jeffrey M. Lyness, senior associate dean for Academic Affairs, will provide an overview of different types of positions and career paths available to research faculty in the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The session, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, January 20, will be of most interest to faculty members currently holding research appointments and to faculty supervisors and principal investigators who supervise or mentor research-appointed faculty members.

Register here.

The University of Rochester Libraries has announced new open access agreements with several publishers. These agreements will allow Rochester-affiliated researchers to save money when publishing open access work by avoiding costly article processing fees (because they’re covered by the libraries).

Publishers participating in these agreements are the American Chemical Society, Microbiology Society, Public Library of Science, Rockefeller University Press, SCOAP3, MIT Press, and Punctum Books.

If you are interested in learning more about open access publishing, need assistance identifying a journal for a manuscript submission, or want to recommend a publisher for an open access agreement, contact a scholarly communication specialist or your librarian.

The Digital Health Seedling Award provides up to $25,000 to support research that advances the development, approval, adoption and use of innovative digital health tools, methods and approaches.

The one-year award from the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) is available to full-time faculty at the University who are studying digital health approaches, tools and data including utilizing sensors and mobile technologies, electronic medical records, data from registries and other real-world data and approaches to advance clinical research and address regulatory science needs. Apply by Monday, February 7, 2022.