WU wins $2.4M grant for research

By Amanda Phipps

phippsa@mytjnow.com

Patrick Owens Collaborating investigatorSkin cell replacement, cancer drugs and Alzheimer’s research are some topics students and professors will be able to research thanks to the INBRE II (The IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) Initiative. 

INBRE is a five-year grant to develop biomedical research capacity in states that have historically had low federal research  funding rates from  the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards, said chemistry, physics and geology department chair Patrick Owens.

Winthrop was one of four South Carolina undergraduate schools, along with the main research facilities USC-Columbia, Clemson University and MUSC, competitively selected to participate in the INBRE I grant awarded for 2005-2010.

Winthrop was awarded the INBRE I grant in 2005, in which 96 undergraduate students worked with 14 faculty members in INBRE-supported biomedical research, Owens said. 

In 2009, South Carolina proposed the renewal of the INBRE grant. This was a two-year process that included a state-wide competition for undergraduate school selection in 2008-2009, Owens said. South Carolina then submitted the proposal in July 2009 and the NIH visited the state in May 2010. 

On September 11, 2010, Winthrop received official notice that NIH awarded the $16 million INBRE II grant to the state. Winthrop was one of seven undergraduate universities that received money from the grant, along with the state’s three main research facilities, Owens said. Owens is the collaborating investigator with USC for the INBRE II program.

The grant will provide Winthrop with $2.4 million dollars over the five-year period, the highest amount given to any of the undergraduate institutions, Owens said. This year, the grant will supply Winthrop with $473,000 and the university will provide $160,000 in matching funds for undergraduate biomedical research.

“(A university) has to be able to sustain research with institutional support to receive the grant,” he said. 

Winthrop’s INBRE II program’s three objectives are to sustain five research projects previously supported by INBRE I, add five faculty-led research projects and increase the number of “students from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups matriculating into biomedical science graduate programs,” Owens said. 

The INBRE II grant will end June 30, 2015, but the state is planning for a 60-day no-cost extension from the NIH so the grant will allow a full summer of research in 2015, Owens said.

“It will allow us to continue building a summer undergraduate research program,” he said.

Since it is too early to tell if the INBRE grant will be renewable after 2015, Winthrop has started planning on how to sustain the level of faculty and student research that currently exists, dean of arts and sciences Debra Boyd said. 

“The most important thing is to have a plan to sustain student and faculty research,” she said. “We will need to expand beyond our current system of funds.” 

Winthrop will succeed in sustaining collaborative research, either through other grants or through other institutional means, Boyd said.

“INBRE I was enormously successful,” she said. “I believe we will exceed our goals with INBRE II.” 

Associate professor of biology Laura Glasscock and associate Professors of Chemistry Robin Lammi and Takita Sumter lead the INBRE II grant and act as liaisons between the researchers and the administration to provide them with equipment, supplies or student employees as needed, Sumter said.

“In addition to continued improvements in Winthrop’s research infrastructure, the INBRE II grant will also be used to initiate a science diversity initiative,” she said.

The university has hired Rachel Law as the Science Diversity Program Director, Sumter said. She will oversee the development of the university’s science diversity program.

Assistant professor of Chemistry Kathie Snyder will serve as the Faculty Coordinator for the diversity effort. Owens and Sumter will work with Snyder and Law to establish the diversity office’s efforts “in the overall program management, student recruitment, and student development efforts,” Sumter said. 

“We hope to provide our students, particularly those from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, with better support services and resources to (enter graduate programs),” she said. 

Sumter and the other leaders will also communicate Winthrop’s progresses, successes and problems to the state.

“South Carolina likes that our administration is so involved and supportive of the program,” she said. “We work to maintain that impression.” 

Professors who were part of the INBRE I grant will be institutionally supported to maintain their research during INBRE II, Sumter said. Professors who are new to the program or have had less than five years of support will be supported by the grant. 

“For the first year of the award, funds for research supplies totaling more than $160,000 have been distributed among the 11 faculty researchers,” Sumter said.

The grant, combined with institutional support, provides a $1,500/semester stipend for student researchers during the school year and a $3,000 stipend for the summer, Sumter said.

This grant allows for faculty and students to be involved with research they wouldn’t otherwise access, associate professor of chemistry, physics and geology Thomas Grattan said. 

“The INBRE grant is trying to expand biomedical research in South Carolina,” he said. 

Grattan was involved with INBRE I and will continue his work with four undergraduate students with institutionally-supported funds to provide research supplies and support student stipends, he said. They will continue research started under INBRE I on the synthesis and modification of cancer drug analogs. 

“Students get a chance to do cutting-edge research they wouldn’t normally see,” he said. 

Associate professor of biology Julian Smith III will work with two students in the spring and one in the summer in his INBRE II-supported research on skin cell replacement. The grant will provide money for materials and supplies as well as student stipends. 

“The grant also provides money to support a reduction in my regular teaching load, so I have time to supervise these students and help them conduct the research,” he said. “I regard helping students learn to do research as an important part of teaching.” 

Associate professor of chemistry, physics and biology James Hanna will work with several undergraduate students to develop new molecules that have “potential pharmaceutical interest,” he said. They will also work to find more efficient methods to prepare the compounds. 

“Our research would not go nearly as well without the INBRE II grant,” he said. “The funds allow me to purchase necessary chemicals and supplies, but more importantly, the undergraduate research assistants supported by the grant provide opportunities for our students to participate in significant, relevant research projects not only during the academic year, but also during the summer.”

Hanna collaborates with associate professor of chemistry, physics and geology Robin Lammi in the design and evaluation of inhibitors of an aggregation, or coming together, process of Amyloid-beta peptides. This research may play a role in future Alzheimer’s disease therapies, Hanna said. 

Lammi also helps lead the INBRE II grant. She said it creates opportunities. 

“Anytime you bring a group of people together with similar goals, there is a great potential for success,” she said. 

Biology professors Eric Birgbauer, Heather Evans-Anderson and Kristi Westover and chemistry faculty members Nick Grossoehme, Jason Hurlbert and Cliff Calloway will also participate in INBRE II-supported research.

Winthrop received the INBRE II grant, in part, based on its success with INBRE I, Boyd said.

“I am exceptionally grateful to the administration, faculty and students that make the INBRE program a success at Winthrop,” she said. “It is a team effort.”