Our eyes are never at rest. Instead, they remain in motion, even between our voluntary gaze shifts, through fixational eye movements—small, continuous movements of the eye that we are not aware of making.

Scientists have long sought to understand how we humans can perceive the world as stable as our eyes are constantly moving. Past research has suggested that, in the intervals between voluntary gaze shifts, the human visual system builds a picture of a stable world by relying solely on sensory inputs from fixational eye movements. According to new research by a team at Rochester, however, there may be another contributing factor.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, the researchers—including Michele Rucci, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences and, and first author Zhetuo Zhao, a PhD student in Rucci’s lab—report that the visual system not only receives sensory inputs from fixational eye movements but also possesses knowledge of the motor behavior involved in those movements.

Find out the potential implications of this finding.

The library met a new NIH requirement with a new Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Service.

The new DMS Service is a joint effort between the River Campus Libraries (RCL) and the Edward G. Miner Libraries at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Led by Ehsan Moghadam, the data librarian for Miner Libraries, and Heather Owen, the data librarian for the RCL, the service has given Rochester’s researchers a multifaceted resource to help them create a data management and sharing plan (DMSP) as part of their grant proposals for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A DMSP outlines how a research team intends to manage, preserve, and share the scientific data associated with the proposed work. For these purposes, “scientific data” is any data that the scientific community considers to be of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings.

“Right now, we’re focused on NIH proposals, but we can help create plans for any funder,” says Owen of the service, which is still in its pilot stage. “We’re also here to help people manage their data in a way that ensures compliance with their plans and enables them to easily share their data at the end of the proposal process.”

Owen and Moghadam are currently focused on four kinds of support: online chat or email, DMSP review, consultations, and training. These services might involve advising on data management, organization, and documentation, choosing the right data repository, or assisting with University tools, including Figshare, LabArchives, and the DMPTool.

Daniel Castillo, head of scholarly communication and research initiatives for Miner Libraries, explains that researchers could do this independently, but using the library service puts them in a much better position to obtain the grants they’re competing for. “A lot of researchers just need a little extra guidance, and Ehsan and Heather have been doing a fantastic job,” says Castillo. “I’ve talked to many Medical Center faculty members on the side and gotten rave reviews.”

Learn why this resource is so needed.

The second annual AS&E Graduate Research Symposium on March 23 featured more than 70 student presenters from across disciplines, and close to 200 attendees stopped by to see posters of their work and celebrate the research being done by graduate students in Arts, Sciences & Engineering. Faculty and staff volunteers served as judges and four students were awarded $300 cash prizes for “best poster” in their discipline. The following students were this year’s winners:

Engineering and Mathematics: Tre DiPassio, electrical and computer engineering PhD, Interacting with Smart Audio Devices Using Induced Structural Vibrations

Humanities: Renee Jin, visual and cultural studies PhD, The Reproductive Future: “Space Babies” in Chinese Propaganda Posters 1962–1989

Social Sciences: Qinzhi Ruby Zeng, brain and cognitive sciences PhD, Adapting a Language Transformer Model to Capture Subjective Human Judgments of Narrative Creativity

Natural Sciences: Juan David Villada Morales, chemistry PhD, Asymmetric Synthesis of Cyclopropyl Pyruvate Pattern toward Ring Expansion Reaction

(Photo by Waldemar on Unsplash)

A common and widely used chemical may be fueling the rise of the world’s fastest growing brain condition–Parkinson’s disease.

For the past 100 years, trichloroethylene (TCE) has been used to decaffeinate coffee, degrease metal, and dry clean clothes. It contaminates the Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune, 15 toxic Superfund sites in Silicon Valley, and up to one-third of groundwater in the US. TCE causes cancer, is linked to miscarriages and congenital heart disease, and is associated with a 500 percent increased risk of Parkinson’s disease.

In a hypothesis paper in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, an international team of researchers—including Medical Center neurologists—postulates that TCE may be an invisible cause of Parkinson’s. They detail the widespread use of the chemical, the evidence linking the toxicant to Parkinson’s, and profile seven individuals, ranging from a former NBA basketball player to a Navy officer to a late US Senator, who developed Parkinson’s disease either after likely working with the chemical or being exposed to it in the environment.

Learn more about this “threat to public health.”

Electronic consent (or eConsent) is an alternative to traditional paper consent forms in research. eConsent may open up more flexibility to research teams, but often comes with a new set of challenges to navigate. This webinar from UR’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute will highlight real-world examples of eConsent, with several Rochester research teams who have used this technology discussing their experiences, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. The event takes place at 3 p.m. EDT via Zoom. Register online.

The University of Colorado’s DICEMethods.org Engagement Navigator includes an Education Hub and an Engagement Method Selection interactive tool to help researchers select and apply engagement methods in clinical research. In this presentation, Bethany M. Kwan from Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute will share an overview of participatory research, co-design, and engagement methods, provide a case example of engagement in research, and perform a demonstration of the DICEMethods.org tool. This virtual event, hosted by the Trial Innovation Network, is available to the University of Rochester community via the UR Clinical and Translational Science Institute at noon EDT on April 3. Register here.

This academic competition challenges doctoral students to describe their research to a global audience—within three minutes. Competition finalists will present on April 4 from 3:45 to 6 p.m. in the Class of ’62 Auditorium. A poster session and reception/awards ceremony will follow in the Flaum Atrium. More information here.

David Williams, creator of the Everyday Discrimination Scale, the original and recommended scale for measuring perceived racism, will deliver the keynote address for the Office of Health Equity Research Strategic Planning Retreat, in honor of National Minority Health Month.

Williams is the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The webinar begins at 9 a.m. EDT on April 10. Register here.

The Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor will deliver a talk titled “Precisely Practicing Medicine from 700 Trillion Points of Data.” A computer scientist and pediatrician, Butte will highlight his work integrating electronic health records data from over eight million patients across the entire University of California, and how analytics on this real-world data can lead to new evidence for drug efficacy, new savings from better medication choices, and new methods to teach intelligence to more precisely practice medicine. Mark Taubman, dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Thomas Mariani, the David H. Smith Professor in Pediatrics, will welcome and introduce Butte. The talk takes place Monday, April 10, 2:15–3:15 p.m., in the Class of ’62 Auditorium (G-9425).

The UR Clinical & Translational Science Institute is seeking applications for a special translational science pilot award with a focus on dissemination and implementation, clinical trials, health equity and ethics, or quantitative modeling to improve the translational process. Distinct from translational research, translational science is the field of investigation focused on understanding the scientific and operational principles underlying each step of the translational process, with the goal of developing generalizable principles to accelerate translational research. These pilot programs are designed to assess the strength of the projects and teams and create preliminary data for the UR CTSI’s Clinical and Translational Science Award renewal application. Submit letters of intent by Monday, April 10 at 5 p.m. Questions may be directed to Jane Tolbert.

Academic and community partners who completed or intend to complete UR Clinical & Translational Science Institute’s Introduction to Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) training, or who have demonstrated experience in CBPR, can apply for up to $15,000.

Applications should focus on pilot research that leads to UR CTSI pilot funding application or to independent external funding. Research teams who apply for this opportunity must consist of at least one University or Medical Center faculty member and at least one community partner from the greater Rochester area. Apply by Monday, April 24, 5 p.m.