2006-07 Research Seed Grant Recipients

Dr. Linda Dahlgren, Assistant Professor, Large Animal Clinical Sciences

Dr. Dahlgren proposes to lay the groundwork necessary to establish an expertise in the application of stem cell technologies to tendon healing. AdvanceVT funding will support intensive training in flow cytometry and the validation of flow cytometry assays necessary to acquire preliminary data for federal funding. In addition, Dr. Dahlgren will utilize AdvanceVT funding to travel to Louisiana to establish a research collaboration in the field of stem cell biology, and to the NIH to establish a rapport with selected Program Directors and increase her understanding of the federal funding process.

Dr. Zhiliang Fan, Assistant Professor, Biological Systems Engineering

Dr. Fan’s research is focused on developing biocatalyst and biocatalytic strategies to economically convert abundant renewable resources into valuable products with a minimal impact on the environment. In this project, she proposed to develop a new high throughput selection method for extracellular enzyme improvement via evolutionary methods.

Dr. Lisa Kennedy, Assistant Professor, Geography

 Dr. Kennedy's research addresses the emerging field of paleotempestology, which aims to reconstruct past hurricanes from geological proxies found in coastal lagoons and wetlands. She will analyze sediment cores from several coastal lakes in the Dominican Republic to identify and date storm deposits, such as coarse sands, shells, and other materials, that are laid down on top of fine lagoonal sediment during major storm events. These sediments can provide high resolution records of prehistoric hurricane frequency and intensity, and thus increase our understanding of climate change and enhance predictions of future hurricane landfalls.

Dr. Tanya LeRoith, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Sciences

Dr. LeRoith's proposed research addresses characterization of the protective immune response to hepatitis E virus (HEV), an extremely understudied cause of hepatitis, especially in pregnant women. This research is important in understanding why pregnant women develop such severe disease with HEV infection, and will ultimately be important in optimizing vaccine development.

Dr. Jennifer Ryan, Assistant Professor, Mathematics

Dr. Ryan's proposed research will focus on effectively modeling shocks using the discontinuous Galerkin numerical method. This will be done by combining the polynomial based discontinuous Galerkin method with the wavelet-based multi-resolution analysis technique. The main application of this research will be in climate modeling.

Dr. Dorothea Tholl, Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Dr. Tholl proposes to explore the function of volatile compounds in plant defense against soil-borne pathogens and insect pests by employing plant molecular and genomics tools, root-volatile metabolite profiling, and olfactometer assays. The research allows a transfer of knowledge to agricultural applications such as the development of alternative pest controls.