UCR
Research and Economic Development Newsletter: Feb 13, 2014
Michael Pazzani
Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development
Back Issues of Newsletter: http://reserach.ucr.edu/vcr/newsletters.aspx
Grant Opportunity Search: http://pivot.cos.com
·
Springboard
Presentation – Wednesday, February 26 at noon
·
Dr.
Mark Silver’s NEH Workshop Materials & Hints
·
USDA:
Strengthening grants again
·
Distinguished
Speaker: Bozena Michniak-Kohn, Feb 24, Nanocarriers for Topical
Treatment of Psoriasis
Interested
in starting a company? Attend the Springboard Presentation – Wed, Feb 26
at noon:
Wednesday, February 26th
12:00 P.M. — 1:00 P.M. (light lunch will be
provided)
UCR - University Office Building
Conference Room 210
Springboard is a free program that is open
for enrollment to innovation companies in the Southern California region.
Springboard assists companies in proving their business model and developing a
compelling commercialization strategy. Steve Hoey, Director of Business
Creation and Development at CONNECT, will visit UCR to share with attendees the
benefits the Springboard program can have for a technology start-up.
About the Speaker:
Steve Hoey, Director - Business Creation
and Development
Steve’s responsibilities include managing
the Springboard Program and heading up CONNECT’s research on the innovation
economy. Steve is the editor of the CONNECT Innovation Report, The San Diego
Innovation Assets Report and the Southern California Nexus of Innovation White
Paper. He has conducted regional innovation ecosystem assessments for InSoCal
CONNECT and the State of Hawaii. Steve is a frequent speaker and writer on San
Diego’s innovation economy.
Steve previously worked as a research
assistant at the Harvard Business School, examining technological innovation in
the semiconductor industry and models of effective senior management
decision-making and action planning. Prior to joining CONNECT he served as a
senior engagement manager for Oliver Wyman in New York and Europe. While at
Oliver Wyman, he specialized in the financial services industry practice. Steve
holds a Ph.D. from UC San Diego and an M.B.A. from Oxford University where he
conducted research on emerging business model strategies in the biotech industry.
RSVP by Friday, February 21 using
the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LQVFF27 so we know how many pizzas to order. And we’ll
order one extra just in case you forget to RSVP
Dr. Mark Silver’s National Endowment for the
Humanities Workshop Materials & Hints
For those that were unable to attend or would like the
slides that were presented by Dr. Mark Silver (NEH Research Division) at the
February 5th National Endowment for the Humanities Workshop they are
available at http://research.ucr.edu/OrApps/VCR/Talks/20140207-NEH/default.aspx.
Helen Magid collected some Hints from the talk.
·
The
NEH will offer feedback for many proposals if they are provided a working draft
approximately 6 weeks before the final deadline. They do not read drafts for
Fellowship or Summer Stipend programs as those have a considerable number of
submissions. (Each funding opportunity has specific deadlines for feedback
responses.)
·
Applicants
can submit to more than NEH one program concurrently on the same topic.
This differs from other agencies such as NSF and NIH where duplication is
prohibited. If you have a strong application, this can improve your odds.
You can only accept one award if offered more than one.
·
The
NEH will provide panelist notes on proposals only if requested by the
applicant. These can help strengthen a proposal when revising and
resubmitting. You should always request these even if funded.
·
The
NEH encourages reapplication of proposals that are revised to take pane notes
into account. All review panels have 100% turnover so no panelist will
see a revised application and there is no need to mention that the application
is being resubmitted.
·
Letters
of recommendation, which have no page limit, are an excellent way to expand
proposal content beyond page limits in order to address the applicant’s
capability but also to emphasize the way in which the research or project is of
intellectual significance.
For a complete list of all upcoming NEH grants and
deadlines please visit, http://www.neh.gov/grants.
USDA: Strengthening grants again
In my last newsletter I reported on USDA grants
including the fact that UCR is eligible for strengthening grants.
(see http://reserach.ucr.edu/vcr/newsletters.aspx). Since then, I heard some
misinformation that I’d like to correct:
1.
UC
and UCR discourage USDA grants because they don’t pay the same overhead rate as
NSF. While UC and UCR require one to use the maximum allowable
overhead rate, the fact that USDA pays less should not discourage one from
applying. The direct costs, supporting graduate students, buying equipment are
important and allow research to be conducted that is published in top
journals. Since the mission is different, One can always apply to NSF on
a more fundamental grant and USDA on a focused topic.
2.
USDA
grants aren’t sought after by prestigious universities.
This isn’t true. In 2011, Cornell received $32.7M from USDA,
UC Davis, $28M, Pend State $22.3M, Maryland $15.2M, Rutgers 14.4 compared to UC
Riverside $4.8M. There is some room for strengthening UCR’s USDA funding
Universities eligible for strengthening grants can
apply for equipment grants and seed grants. There is a separate
pool of money for Standard Grants as well. Areas of interest include
·
Plant
Breeding for Agricultural Production
·
Plant
Growth and Development, Composition and Stress Tolerance
·
Photosynthetic
Efficiency and Nutrient Utilization in Agricultural Plants
·
Understanding
Plant-Associated Microorganisms and Plant-Microbe Interactions
·
Controlling
Weedy and Invasive Plants
·
Plant-Associated
Insects and Nematodes
·
Food
Safety, Nutrition, and Health
·
Renewable
Energy, Natural Resources, and Environment
See http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/download-application-package.html#download=true&oppNum=USDA-NIFA-AFRI-004412 for more details.
Randy Black has created a draft letter explaining
UCR’s Eligibility for strengthening which may be included with a letter of
intent. See below.
Statement of UC Riverside eligibility for USDA FASE
Foundational, Strengthening grants
UCR submits this application based on eligibility,
briefly being among “minority-serving degree-granting institutions that
previously had limited institutional success for receiving Federal funds.” p.
39 of NIFA AFRI FY 2014 Foundational Program RFA for Strengthening Grant
Eligibility (http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri.html).
Specifically, UCR
1) is a degree-granting “minority-serving institution”
defined per Part VIII H. an institution whose enrollment of a “combination of
minorities exceeds fifty percent of the total enrollment,” with “minority”
defined as “Alaskan Native, American Indian, Asian-American, African-American,
hispanic-American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander,” Part VIII H. p. 69.
Combined total minority enrollment is 6.6% African American, 35.7 Asian
American, 31.5% Chicano and Latino, and .5% Native American or 74.3 total. http://www.ucr.edu/about/facts.html
and
2) has “limited institutional success” per Part VIII
H. as “not among the most successful universities and colleges for receiving
Federal funds for science and engineering research.” UCR is not on the list of
successful institutions provided in the RFA, Table 1, p. 71.
Nanocarriers
for Topical Treatment of Psoriasis
B.
Michniak-Kohn
10am
Monday Feb 24
321 of the School of Medicine Research Building
1Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers - The State
University of NJ, Piscataway, NJ,
2 Center for Dermal Research, New Jersey Center for
Biomaterials, Rutgers - The State University of NJ, Piscataway, NJ
A tunable family of tyrosine-derived triblock
copolymers was synthesized with hydrophobic blocks composed of oligomers of
desaminotyrosyl tyrosine esters and diacids and poly(ethylene glycol) as
hydrophilic blocks. These triblock copolymers spontaneously self-assemble to
produce TyroSpheresTM that act as an effective sink for binding
paclitaxel (PTX). Release experiments were performed in Franz diffusion cells
to approximate skin application conditions in the presence and absence of
receptor fluid surfactants. Skin distribution analysis of the drug payload from
TyroSpheres™ was performed using 1) confocal laser scanning microscopy of Nile
Red (a fluorescent model compound with LogP similar to paclitaxel) in human
cadaver skin, 2) quantification of Nile Red (by fluorescence visualization) in
human cadaver skin, healthy human skin biopsies, and psoriatic human skin
biopsies, and 3) mass spectroscopy of paclitaxel. To determine whether drug or
drug / polymer was delivered into the skin, a polymer with a fluorescent moiety
attached to the polymer backbone was synthesized. TyroSpheres™ composed of this
new polymer were prepared and characterized and additional skin distribution
studies were performed.
TyroSpheres™ were found to be non-cytotoxic, provide
enhancement of drug solubility and stability, effectively encapsulate
therapeutically relevant amounts of PTX, a drug with anti-proliferative
activity, and release it in a rate-controlled manner. Skin distribution studies
using a fluorescent dye as a model compound confirm that: 1) TyroSpheresTM
deliver significantly higher amounts of the payload (8-fold) to psoriatic skin
compared to healthy skin in vitro, and 2) TyroSpheresTM
deliver their payload to the basal layer of the epidermis, the target layer for
treatment of psoriasis. Based on skin distribution data, as well as
dual-labeling skin distribution studies where payload and polymer were tagged
with separate fluorophores, we hypothesize that TyroSpheres™ reside on the skin
surface where they release drug in a controlled fashion. This drug partitions
into and diffuses through the stratum corneum and further partitions into and
diffuses through the epidermis until it reaches the basal layer where psoriasis
originates. In this system drug remains in the epidermis (topical delivery) due
to the increased hydrophilicity of the dermis that restricts significant
partitioning of hydrophobic drug thereby restricting drug access to the
relatively more hydrophobic epidermis. TyroSpheres™ are essential in this
topical delivery system as they provide stability for the drug and greatly
enhance solubility. This increase in solubility leads to an increased
concentration gradient which is the driving force enabling the delivery of the
drug. Additionally, TyroSpheres™ can be incorporated into a topically elegant
viscous formulation with no impact on homogeneity, release, or skin
distribution. These factors make our delivery system an excellent candidate for
the treatment of psoriasis, where topical drug delivery with limited systemic exposure
is required.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NIH (Grant # 5R01AR056079) for financial support of
this study.
Dr. Bozena B. Michniak-Kohn is a Professor in
Pharmaceutics at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, and Founder /Director of
the Center for Dermal Research CDR at Rutgers-The State University of New
Jersey, Piscataway, NJ. She is also the Director of the Laboratory for Drug
Delivery of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials (NJCBM). Her main research
focus is topical, transdermal and buccal drug delivery. Dr. Michniak-Kohn has
directed over 40 Ph.D. and Masters students, and 300+ undergraduates and the
work resulted in over 390 abstracts, 2 books, 34 book chapters, and over 120
papers. She is a reviewer for over a dozen pharmaceutical and drug delivery journals.
For this work she was awarded Fellow status of the American Association of
Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in 2008. Websites: www.centerfordermalresearch.org and www.michniaklab.org.
Here’s a neat bird from Trinidad.
Michael Pazzani
Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic
Development
Professor, Computer Science & Engineering
University of California, Riverside
200 University Office Building
Riverside, CA 92521
Assistant: Johanna Bowman