A team of researchers, including Anne S. Meyer, an associate professor of biology, is developing bioplastics—environmentally friendly plastic materials engineered to degrade in ocean environments.

To create their ocean-degradable plastic, the team drew upon processes already found in nature. Their materials are based on a biopolymer called polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)—a polyester naturally made by bacteria. Because bacteria have been making this polymer for billions of years, other marine microbes have naturally evolved to break down PHB.

“We found that there’s a huge need for biodegradable materials and there is a range of lifespans that users required for their items,” says marine microbiologist Alyson Santoro at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a member of the team. The team spoke with regulators and nonprofits that deal with marine debris and found that some groups wanted a material that could disappear in a day, others wanted devices that would last a year, and yet others wanted to be able to trigger the degradation.

This is where Meyer and the members of her lab come in. They have developed first-of-their-kind bacterial 3D printers. This revolutionary 3D-bioprinting approach enables them to create engineered living bacterial cells that incorporate the PHB-degrading bacteria. The researchers’ 3D-printed living materials degrade their surrounding bioplastic structures. Strategically placing these bacteria in or on the plastic provides users with options for when and how quickly the biopolymer degrades. Learn more.

Chronic exposure to high levels of a flavoring chemical called diacetyl, found in many foods and beverages, can cause lung damage. Now, a Medical Center study suggests that even short-term exposures to this flavoring chemical can damage the lungs of mice when paired with a second insult, like the flu.

Diacetyl, which gives microwave popcorn its buttery flavor, was first linked to flavorings-related lung disease in the early 2000’s when a group of former microwave-popcorn factory workers came down with the illness. More recently, a similar lung disease has been seen among coffee roasters who inhale large concentrations of diacetyl, which is a natural byproduct of the coffee roasting process.

While those workers inhaled high levels of diacetyl over long periods of time, the Medical Center study published in the American Journal of Physiology – Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology set out to test whether low-level, short-term exposures to the same chemical could produce a similar effect.

“We found that a single exposure to diacetyl for short periods of time did not result in much lung damage,” says lead study author Matthew D. McGraw, assistant professor of pediatric pulmonology. “But when mice are exposed to another common environmental exposure, like flu, the double hit can cause airway disease similar to what we see with high-dose, long-term exposures to diacetyl.” Learn more.

Rochester faculty are leaders in their fields who are regularly recognized with regional, national, and international awards and honors for their professional contributions to research, scholarship, education, and community engagement. Recent awardees include:

• Cary Adams, an associate professor of studio art and of environmental humanities, has won two grants, one from the National Endowment for the Arts and the other from the NEA-funded Maine Arts Commission.
• Hussein Aluie, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, has been recognized with the 2021 Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES), an American Geophysical Union journal.
• Gerald Gamm, a professor of political science and of history, won the 2022 Best Journal Article Award from the State Politics and Policy Section of the American Political Science Association.
• Jiebo Luo, Albert Arendt Hopeman Professor of Engineering, has been invited to become a member of Academia Europaea, a pan-European academy of humanities, law, and science.
• Leila Nadir, an associate professor of environmental humanities and the director of Rochester’s Environmental Humanities Program, has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship to support work on her book project, Afghan Americana: An Intimate-Geopolitical Memoir.
• Shaun Nelms ’04W (MS), ’13W (EdD), a professor of educational leadership and the William & Sheila Konar Director of the Center for Urban Education Success at the Warner School of Education, was awarded the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2021 Director’s Community Leadership Award from the FBI’s Buffalo Field Office.
• Marc Porosoff, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, has been named a Scialog Fellow for Negative Emission Science.
• Lynda Powell, a professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science, received the 2022 Barbara Sinclair Legacy Award from the American Political Science Association’s Legislative Studies Section.
• Mizin Shin, an assistant professor of art, was named a Civitella Ranieri fellow. Shin also received an AHL–Andrew & Barbara Choi Family Foundation Project Grant for her solo exhibition “World Network Models.”
• Xi-Cheng Zhang, the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics, will receive the 2023 IRMMW-THz Society Exceptional Service Award.

Learn more about these awards.

The University has licensed InfoEd’s funding opportunity database SPIN, which provides investigators with the ability to locate funding.

SPIN includes thousands of opportunities from approximately 10,000 sponsors, including non-traditional ones. This database is available for all University faculty and staff.

If you would like to learn more, William DeCocco from InfoEd SPIN will present a virtual training webinar from 10-11:30 a.m., Friday, October 21. Email Crys Holm to register.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs will provide University researchers and technology developers an overview of SBIR and STTR programs, trends, funding opportunities and strategies for developing successful proposals at a workshop from 2:30-4 p.m. Friday, October 28 in the Ryan Case Method Room, 1-9576 (Medical Center).

Register by Friday, October 21. Learn more. For questions, contact: Karen Grabowski.

Join the pilot Mindful Professor Certificate program offered by the Mindful University Project. This program is rooted in research and practices that will offer participants a variety of tools to return to calm, be present with themselves and others, utilize mindful leadership skills, and learn what actions they can take to support students’ well-being.

The program will be offered in both the spring and fall of 2023 and is open to all full-time undergraduate and graduate professors in Arts, Sciences & Engineering, School of Nursing, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Simon Business School, and Warner School of Education. Learn more about the program and sign up online.

Having trouble recruiting participants for a clinical study? The University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) can help you determine if advertising your study on Facebook might help.

Katie Gardner, a research project coordinator for the Mt. Hope Family Center, worked with the UR CTSI to develop a Facebook advertising campaign for her research study. According to Gardner, the process was easy and Facebook advertising turned out to be their most successful recruiting method. Learn more.

The RADx-UP Coordination and Data Collection Center has created a data visualization guide that provides best practices to choose the right visualizations for your data and audiences.

It includes an overview of more than 40 types of charts, dashboards and infographics and guidance on how to develop each. Though originally created for RADx-UP, this guide may be helpful for any researcher looking to up their data visualization game. Learn more.