Biology professors Adi Dubash (“Desmoplakin Harnesses Rho GTPase and p38 MAPK Signaling to Coordinate Cell Migration”), Linnea Freeman (“Sex Differences in Microgliosis: The Role of Gut Microbes”) and Alison Roark (“Interspecific communication between anemones and their algal symbionts”) each received competitive funding from the SC INBRE Developmental Research Program (DRP). Effective July 1, 2018, the awards will be applied to biomedical investigations conducted with undergraduate researchers on the Furman campus.
Connection With SCICU Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Program
Dr. Dubash’s 2018-19 SC INBRE-supported research is related to Furman student Jacqueline Bendrick’s work on “Desmoplakin Promotes Cell Migration via Coordinated Control of p38 MAPK and RhoGTPase Signaling“, which received 2017 funding in the SCICU Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Program. Bendrick presented the results of her 2017 research at the 2018 SCICU Research Symposium at Milliken & Company headquarters in Spartanburg on February 22, 2018. Highlights from the 2018 SCICU Research Symposium may be read here.
Among 14 South Carolina primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) eligible to submit applications, Freeman and Roark successfully competed for the two awards made during the 2018-19 award cycle. In addition, Dubash was renewed for a second year of funding following an initial award in July 2017.
Said John Wheeler, Associate Provost for Integrative Science and Principal Investigator of Furman’s INBRE program, “The SC INBRE DRP program has committed more than $730,000 in competitive research funding to Furman faculty since 2015. This is in addition to $1.3 million Furman will receive via the INBRE mechanism supporting undergraduate research access across all departments engaged in biomedical research between 2015 and 2020. The awards are a testament to the quality of professional scholarship conducted by Furman faculty and students contributing to the mission of the National Institutes of Health.”
SC INBRE is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the goal of increasing the biomedical research capacity of the state. The program office directly supports 13 network and four outreach institutions, and provides educational, workplace and career development, and hands-on research training.
For more information regarding Furman University research programs, please contact Furman’s News and Media Relations office at 864-294-3107 and vince.moore@furman.edu.
For more information on SCICU funding support for student research at its twenty member colleges and universities, please see scicu.org. The 2019 SCICU Research Symposium is scheduled for February 21, 2019 at the Milliken & Company RMC Campus Customer Center.
Funding opportunities are available for supporting SCICU student research. If you would like to support student and faculty research at SCICU’s twenty member colleges and universities, please contact Eddie Shannon, SCICU Executive Vice President, at 830-799-7122 or eddie@scicu.org.