Grants

NSF

With the support of the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Charles Henry of Colorado State University is developing innovative methods to create next-generation carbon-based sensors for chemical and biological detection. This project aims to make diagnostic testing faster, more affordable, and more accessible by using laser-induced graphene (LIG), a special form of carbon that can be patterned easily with lasers—to build high-performance sensors. These new sensors could be used to quickly detect diseases and improve healthcare, even in remote or resource-limited settings, as well as aiding in other applications ranging from environmental monitoring to food safety. The project will provide valuable hands-on research experience for students, support workforce development in advanced analytical chemistry, and include outreach activities to engage the broader community. By collaborating with industry and potentially international partners, the project seeks to broaden its impact and help bring cutting-edge sensor technology to real-world applications. As part of the project, we will also develop a learning kit that exposes K-12 students to microfluidics and project-based science. The goal of this research is to enhance the performance and versatility of laser-induced graphene (LIG) electrodes through precise surface modification using diazonium and click chemistry. The team will develop “clickable” LIG electrodes that can be robustly and selectively functionalized with biomolecules such as antibodies and DNA, improving sensor sensitivity and selectivity while minimizing interference from complex samples. The project will systematically compare these new electrodes to traditional carbon sensor technologies by using advanced electrochemical and spectroscopic methods to characterize their behavior and effectiveness in biosensing applications. Additionally, a novel, water-based method for incorporating these modified electrodes onto microfluidic device substrates will be developed, enabling their integration into capillary-flow driven microfluidic devices for advanced sensing applications. This approach addresses longstanding challenges in electrode fabrication and integration, with the potential to set new standards for scalable, reliable, and high-performance biological sensing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

FISHER SCIENTIFIC COMPANY LLC

Chemicals including Bio Chemicals and Gas Materials

NSF

With support from the Environmental Chemical Sciences (ECS) program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Vera Samburova at the Nevada System of Higher Education, Desert Research Institute, will investigate the chemistry of soil organic compounds that contribute to the formation of fire-induced soil water repellency. Wildfires are known to cause the formation of water-repellent soil layers, primarily due to the presence of hydrophobic organic compounds. These water-repellent layers alter post-fire hydrological processes, reduce water infiltration and thus increase the risk of flooding, landslides, and debris flows. Despite recognition of these effects, the specific chemistry of the organic compounds responsible for fire-induced soil water repellency remains poorly understood. The proposed study aims to address this critical knowledge gap by identifying the organic compounds that contribute to soil water repellency in post-fire environments. The experiments and resulting data will offer insights into the chemistry of soils affected by wildfires, help improve post-fire soil assessments, and support efforts to reduce hydrological consequences of soil water repellency. This research project will help train the next generation of graduate students, providing them with expertise in environmental chemical sciences and it will also help to predict and mitigate fire impacts on communities and the environment in the Unites States. This project will explore how water-repellent soil layers form after wildfires by combining two key approaches: controlled laboratory experiments with heating in ovens and a combustion chamber, and the analysis of soil samples collected from recent wildfires in the western United States. During laboratory experiments, common organic compounds found in litter and soil, such as resin acids, alkanols, humic and fulvic acids, terpenes, carbohydrates, and lignins, will be loaded onto test sand and heated to specific temperatures to simulate wildfire-induced heating. These experiments will investigate how selected organic compounds chemically transform during heating and how these changes contribute to soil water repellency, which will be measured using contact angle and water drop penetration time techniques. The goal is to better understand how heat from fires transforms soil organics into water-repellent substances and what chemical functional groups are responsible for this process. A variety of advanced chemical analysis techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry will be used to identify and quantify relevant compounds and functional groups. The laboratory-generated results will be compared with results for real post-fire soils and the obtained data will be of the essence for future modeling, prediction, and mitigation of fire-induced water repellency. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NCATS - National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

This is to award the contract to perform all the tasks listed here. Offeror is referred to contractor/subcontractor hereafter. NES100 is formulated by high pressure homogenization of MET and LENK to form nanoparticles, followed by spray drying to produce MET-LENK microparticles. The microparticle powder is then filled into a nasal device. The device will be filled with the MET-LENK to be fired into the nares by using a propellant gas or any other means. MET-LENK nasal powder will be contained in the device of interest. The offeror is to bring the candidates of devices for consideration. NES-100 drug products (Device with spray-dried powder MET-LENK), executed manufacturing batch records, and stability studies will be used in support of the IND application. NCATS will provide GMP grade API of LENK peptide powder and GMP/non-GMP grade of MET. NCATS will also provide the certificate of analysis, preliminary HPLC method, MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet), detailed formulation process, and some specification testing methods. The contractor/subcontractor will be responsible for providing all other consumable supplies, facilities and equipment to prepare nasal dosage form of NES-100 not listed here. All excipients are to be compendia grade (USP or NF) or FDA registered with Drug Master File.

NIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Project Summary All cells are covered with complex lipids, including carbohydrate-containing glycolipids. A subclass of glycolipids called glycosphingolipids (GSLs) are comprised of a sphingolipid of different structures and a glycan with more than 300 variations. Many GSLs contain a glycan extended from a lactose core. Despite the ubiquitous presence of GSLs in cell membranes and their critical roles in multi-cellular organisms, studies related to GSLs are limited. Among the major challenges are the limited access to structurally defined GSLs in sufficient quantities and the high prices due to complicated synthetic processes with poor scalabilities. The collaboration of Dr. Hai Yu and Dr. Xi Chen at UC Davis and IMCS has led to 400-fold cost reduction of key materials including sphingosines, lactosylsphingosine (LacβSph), and recombinant biosynthetic enzymes for synthesizing ganglio-series GSLs. By leveraging the established collaboration effort and extending this momentum to new targets, this proposal can exponentially increase the impact of the proposed and past advances. The first goal is to expand the inventory of commercially available recombinant glycosyltransferases and demonstrate their application in synthesizing 37 globo-/isoglobo- and lacto-/neolacto-series GSLs. The key glycosyltransferases will be initially expressed and improved by the UC Davis team. IMCS will leverage its automation systems to create large libraries of glycosyltransferase mutants with sequences based on the enzymes validated by the UC Davis team. The second goal is to optimize the preparative-scale synthesis of target GSLs and scale up manufacturing of two specific GSLs, Globo H and sialyl Lewis a, which are high value candidates for developing anti-cancer therapies. In addition, Gb3 with promising anti-bacteria properties will be produced readily from lyso-Gb3, an intermediate to produce Globo H. The success for large-scale production of complex GSLs is a requirement to lower costs of GSLs, and such low-priced GSLs are much needed for the broad research community and for industrial clients. The results from this project will provide the entire research community with affordable GSLs and the related reagents while expanding the understanding of recombinant glycosyltransferase engineering and their functionalities.

NSF

With the support of the Chemical Synthesis (SYN) program in the Division of Chemistry Professor Hans Renata of Rice University is studying the development of novel strategies to prepare complex terpenoids, which are natural, hydrocarbon-based small molecules. Owing to their structural complexity, synthesizing these molecules with purely chemical means remains a challenging endeavor. The proposed research will combine the use of enzymes, which are nature’s catalysts for chemical reactions, with modern chemical transformations to provide efficient access to many topologically complex terpenoids. This investigation will provide new knowledge in chemical reactivity and new insights in synthetic strategy development that will inform the synthesis design of other topologically-challenging molecules. Trainees working on this project will be exposed to cutting edge techniques in contemporary chemical synthesis and biocatalysis to prepare them for future careers in the chemical industry. In conjunction, Professor Renata will organize outreach efforts and scientific demonstrations to high school students, and virtual lecture series by faculty members from primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). Research in the Renata lab focuses on the development of hybrid chemoenzymatic strategies in the synthesis of complex molecules, especially natural products. The goal of this project is to develop several hybrid synthetic approaches to complex terpenoids with various skeletal connectivities and topologies. Specifically, site-selective enzymatic oxidations with engineered P450 variants will be used in combination with modern methodologies in organic chemistry, such as radical cross-couplings, to provide rapid synthetic access to the proposed targets. Additionally, they will explore the use of enzymatically installed hydroxyl groups as a starting point to effect skeletal reorganization to prepare a diverse range of terpenoid frameworks. To complement the research activities, educational activities such as scientific demonstrations to promote interest in the STEM field from the local community, virtual lecture series and workshops on biocatalysis will be carried out. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

To hunt humans and transmit malaria parasites, the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae relies on its sense of smell to track volatile organic compounds emitted by the human body. Human body odor comprises a complex blend of hundreds of airborne chemicals derived from our primary metabolism released in skin odor and breath, as well as secondary metabolites produced by microbial communities living on our skin. Despite the important role of human body odor in driving malaria transmission, the specific components of human scent that blend together to modulate this process, as well as the relative contribution of the human skin microbiome towards human scent chemistry are not well understood. We have recently engineered and validated an expansive multi-choice system for Anopheles gambiae olfactory preference under naturalistic conditions in Zambia to rank the attractiveness of whole body scent samples derived from individual sleeping humans to mosquitoes using infrared motion vision. Leveraging this validated infrastructure and exposure-free assay with enhanced comparative power, we will recruit a cross-sectional human subjects cohort from the Macha region, Choma District, Southern Province, Zambia to identify volatile organic compounds in human scent signatures that are correlated with human attractiveness to Anopheles gambiae at high-resolution. In parallel, we will perform whole body microbiome profiling using metagenomics to characterize the contribution of the skin microbiome to human scent signatures. Using this approach, we will identify features of the human microbiome community and associated microbial metabolic pathways producing volatile organic compounds associated with modulating human attractiveness to this prolific disease vector. We will also harness conserved components of whole body odor, along with volatile organic compounds associated with high attractiveness that we have recently identified using whole body volatilomics, to reverse engineer super attractive synthetic chemical blends for Anopheles gambiae mimicking the scent signatures of highly attractive humans. These aims will fundamentally improve our understanding of chemosensory mechanisms modulating olfactory behavior in Anopheles gambiae that drive malaria transmission and influence heterogeneity in biting risk. From a translational perspective this research may assist to identify new biomarkers for personal risk of exposure to mosquito bites and develop novel synthetic formulations of attractants or repellents to combat this primary malaria vector in sub-Saharan Africa.

Klamath County

Chemult Community Well Feasibility Study

Chemung

Chemung County

Chemung

Chemung County

Chemung

Chemung County

Chemung

Economic Development

Chemung

Chemung County

Chemung

Chemung County Lifeguard Increases

Chemung

Chemung County-Village of Horseheads

Chemung

Economic Development

Chenango

Chenango County

Chenango

Chenango County

Chenango

Home Ownership

Chenango

Chenango County

Chenango

Chenango County

Chenango

Chenango County

Chenango

Chenango County

Chenango

Chenango County