USC Office of Research

The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to announce the results of the ASPIRE I, II and III internal funding competition.

A total of 197 proposals were submitted to the ASPIRE programs. The proposals were reviewed by faculty review committee that was appointed by the Vice President. While a large number of meritorious proposals were received, those that received the highest priority scores were selected for funding. Of the 197 proposals received a total of 66 were funded, for a total of $2,471,591, which represents a 34% funding rate.

ASPIRE-I (Advanced Support for Innovative Research Excellence-I) funding is provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research to encourage faculty to develop individual innovative research projects leading to the pursuit of external funding or to the promotion of scholarly activities. This program will have four tracks of funding

Track I funds are awarded to Junior Faculty (tenure-track Assistant Professors only) to encourage the development of research projects for further extramural funding or other scholarly pursuits.

Principal Investigator	Title	Department	College
Adlof, Suzanne	Dynamic Assessment of Word Learning as a Predictor of Reading Comprehension Outcomes	Communication Sciences & Disorders	Public Health, Arnold School of
Billings, Deborah	Group Outcomes, Pregnancy and Stress (the GROUPS Study)	Health Promotion, Education & Behavior	Public Health, Arnold School of
Browne, Teri	Disparities in Phosphate Binder Adherence Among Hemodialysis Patients: A Mixed Methods Study	Social Work	Social Work, College of
Chen, Hexin	Proteomic analysis reveals an iron regulatory gene as a novel target for treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer	Biological Sciences	Arts and Sciences, College of
Frizzell, Norma	Protein Succination is associated with Neuropathology in Mitochondrial Disease	Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience	Medicine, School of
Huang, Xinyu	Development of Novel Thermo-Mechanical Testing Methodology for SiC Composite Claddings	Mechanical Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
Jabbarzadeh, Ehsan	Nanoengineering stem cell cardiac lineage commitment	Chemical Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
Kaczynski, Andrew	Building Youth Capacity for Healthy Community Design: University of South Carolina ASPIRE-I 2012 Research Grant Proposal (Track I)	Health Promotion, Education & Behavior	Public Health, Arnold School of
Kuenzli, Elisabeth	Indians, Identity, and Nation Building in Eastern Bolivia, through the Perspective of Provincial Archival Documentation	History	Arts and Sciences, College of
Montie, Eric	Using Passive Acoustics to Correlate Sound Production and Egg Release in Captive Populations of Soniferous Fishes: A Model to Study Spawning Behavior in the Wild	Science and Mathematics	USC Beaufort
Murphy, Elizabeth	Macrophgaes in High Fat Diet Enhanced Colorectal Cancer: Regulation by miRNA-155	Pathology & Microbiology	Medicine, School of
Pershin, Yuriy	Novel Approaches to Spin Noise Spectroscopy	Physics & Astronomy	Arts and Sciences, College of
Rajca, Andrew	Space, Memory, and Human Rights in the Postdictatorial Southern Cone	Languages, Literatures, and Cultures	Arts and Sciences, College of
Saleh, Navid	Heteroaggregation and deposition of chirally separated single-walled carbon nanotubes in heterogeneous aquatic systems	Civil & Environmental Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
Shervette, Virginia	Conservation Biogeography of Freshwater Fishes in Southeastern USA: Freshwater Fish Diversity and Evolution Using River-Oxbow Lake Systems in SC and GA as a Case Study	Biology & Geology	USC Aiken
Wang, Hui	Single-Molecule Spectroscopic Study of Dynamic Nanoscale DNA Bending Induced by Retroviral Nucleocapsid Proteins	Chemistry & Biochemistry	Arts and Sciences, College of
Xu, Peisheng	Dual Secured Nano-Sting for Targeted Colon Cancer Therapy	Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences	Pharmacy, SC College of
Yang, Jinkyu	Development of Novel Structural Materials Using Granular Phononic Crystals	Mechanical Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of

Track II funds are awarded to research faculty (non-tenure track, Assistant Professor level and above, but not for Post-Doctoral Fellows) to encourage the development of research projects for further extramural funding.

Principal Investigator	Title	Department	College
Alexeev, Oleg	Synthesis and Reactivity of Zeolite-Supported Rh Complexes	Chemical Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
DePratter, Chester	The Colonial Era Archaeology of the Savannah River Valley	Archaeology & Anthropology, SC Institute of	Arts and Sciences, College of
Lo, Pang-Kuo	Exploring the role of DNMT1 in HER2-mediated breast tumorigenesis and its therapeutic application	Biological Sciences	Arts and Sciences, College of
Malysz, John	EFFECT OF ACUTE ETHANOL EXPOSURE ON URINARY BLADDER SMOOTH MUSCLE FUNCTION: ROLE OF K+ ION CHANNELS	Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences	Pharmacy, SC College of
Schools, Gary	Intranucleolar bodies in stress response	Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences	Pharmacy, SC College of
Shapiro, Cheri	Dynamic Risk Factors for Youth Recidivism	Families in Society, Institute for	Social Work, College of
Singh, Narendra	Investigation of Resveratrol-regulated microRNAs and epigenetic modification in amelioration of lupus	Pathology & Microbiology	Medicine, School of
Williams, Edith	Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Travel Burden Survey (SLETBS): Baseline Data Among a South Carolina SLE Cohort	Epidemiology & Biostatistics	Public Health, Arnold School of

Track III funds are awarded as bridge funds to faculty (tenure-track, tenured or research faculty) who have not been able to renew their recent grants.

Principal Investigator	Title	Department	College
Lavigne, John	Hybrid and Polymer-Modified Boronate-Linked Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs)	Chemistry & Biochemistry	Arts and Sciences, College of
Reagan, Lawrence	Decreased CNS leptin activity in comorbid depression and obesity	Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience	Medicine, School of
Ziehl, Paul	Distributed Sensing for the Nuclear Infrastructure	Civil & Environmental Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of

Track IV funds are awarded as innovative and exploratory grants for Senior Faculty (Tenure-Track or Tenured Associate and Full Professors) to expand or re-focus their research.

Principal Investigator	Title	Department	College
Cobb, Charles	The Archaeology of Chickasaw Migrations and Colonial Alliances	Archaeology & Anthropology, SC Institute of	Arts and Sciences, College of
Felder, Michael	Identification of a Recessive Gene Causing Juvenile, Remitting Ataxia	Biological Sciences	Arts and Sciences, College of
Kelly, Kenneth	Landlords, Traders, and the 19th Century Illegal Slave Trade: Archaeologies of Entanglement along the Rio Pongo, Guinea, West Africa.	Anthropology	Arts and Sciences, College of
Knapp, Camelia	Full Waveform Elastic Inversion Code Development for Gas Hydrate Research	Earth and Ocean Sciences	Arts and Sciences, College of
Krizek, Beth	Long noncoding RNAs in Arabidopsis flower development	Biological Sciences	Arts and Sciences, College of
Mandal, Krishna	Novel Semiconductors for High Resolution Nuclear Detector	Electrical Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
Marton, Laszlo	Development of Virginia mallow to be a new multipurpose biomass crop	Biological Sciences	Arts and Sciences, College of
Omolo, Bernard	A Bayesian Hierarchical Model for Correlated Microarray Datasets	USC Upstate	USC Upstate
Petkov, Georgi	TRANSIENT RECEPTOR POTENTIAL MELASTATIN 4 CHANNEL: NOVEL PHARMACOLOGICAL TARGET FOR URINARY BLADDER DYSFUNCTION	Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences	Pharmacy, SC College of
Shaw, Timothy	Measurement of Oxygen Consumption in Beach Face Pore Waters	Chemistry & Biochemistry	Arts and Sciences, College of
Walsh, Kenneth	Application of ISFETs for Ion Channel Drug Discovery	Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience	Medicine, School of
Wang, Qian	TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS AS SCAFFOLDING MATERIALS TO ENHANCE BONE REGENERATION	Chemistry & Biochemistry	Arts and Sciences, College of
Weik, Terrance	Chickasaw African Transitions: Archaeo-Geophysical Survey at the Levi Colbert Prairie Homestead in Mississippi	Anthropology	Arts and Sciences, College of

ASPIRE-I (Innovation) Guidelines

ASPIRE-II (Advanced Support Program for Integration of Research Excellence-II) funding is provided by the Vice President's Office for Research to support research involving at least two or more Colleges/Schools. This call is aimed to promote interdisciplinary collaborations between at least 3 or more faculty members to develop preliminary data to apply for targeted Program Projects, Centers of Excellence Grants or similar mechanisms of extramural funding. The goal of this internal grant is to seed new or support existing collaborative interdisciplinary research that is nationally and internationally competitive and has a strong potential to be supported and sustained by external finding agencies.

Principal Investigator	Title	Department	College
Berger, Franklin	Program in Thymidylate Synthase Research	COBRE: Center for Colon Cancer Research	Arts and Sciences, College of
Booze, Rosemarie	Brain Inflammation: Diet-Induced Obesity and Novel Anti-Inflammatory Therapeutics	Psychology	Arts and Sciences, College of
Buell, Duncan	Ghosts of South Carolina College--A Critical Interactive for Engaging Students and Visitors in the History of USC's Horseshoe	Computer Science & Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
Chen, Donna	New Catalysts for Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells	Chemistry & Biochemistry	Arts and Sciences, College of
Decho, Alan	Revolutionizing Treatment of resistant-infections using engineered nanoparticles to inhibit bacterial cell-cell communication.	Environmental Health Sciences	Public Health, Arnold School of
Hebert, James	ASPIRE-II: Preparing for a Program Project Grant in Diet, Physical Activity, and Energy Balance to Address Large Racial Disparities in Colorectal Cancer Prevention and Control	Epidemiology & Biostatistics	Public Health, Arnold School of
Heyden, Andreas	Catalytic Conversion of Biomass-Derived Platform Molecules into High Octane Biofuels	Chemical Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
Hughes, Austin	Evolution of transcription factor regulatory networks	Biological Sciences	Arts and Sciences, College of
Ploehn, Harry	A Materials Toolbox Approach for Synthesis and Characterization of Polymer Nanocomposites	Chemical Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
Weist, Mark	Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Training and Intervention for Youth with Mood Disorders in Schools	Psychology	Arts and Sciences, College of
Wilson, Dawn	Gene and Environmental Influences on Obesity: Implications for Prevention	Psychology	Arts and Sciences, College of
Wilson, Marlene	Validating rodent models of PTSD for developing biomarkers of resilience, risk, & treatment	Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience	Medicine, School of

ASPIRE-II (Integration) Guidelines

ASPIRE-III (Advanced Support Program for Infrastrucure in Research Excellence-III) funding is provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research to develop infrastructure such as multi-user equipment and facilities with cutting edge-technology that is critical to the growth and competitiveness of USC's research portfolio. To pursue interdisciplinary research, it is critical that we have a state-of-the-art research infrastructure that can be used to sustain existing and develop new interdisciplinary Centers of Excellence. This internal grant is aimed at providing support for such ventures. Funds may also be used to complement extramural support for purchase of major equipment.

Principal Investigator	Title	Department	College
Broude, Eugenia	Confocal Microscope Upgrade for the Translational Cancer Therapeutics Shared Instrumentation Facility	Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences	Pharmacy, SC College of
Dawson, John	Purchase of Velos Pro Linear Ion Trap (LTQ) Mass Spectrometer - Department of chemistry and Biochemistry	Chemistry & Biochemistry	Arts and Sciences, College of
Dyer, Andrew	The Promotion of Transgenic and Controlled-Environment Greenhouse Research at USC Aiken	USC Aiken	USC Aiken
Ghoshroy, Soumitra	Acquisition of a Remotely Operable Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope for the University of South Carolina Electron Microscopy Center	Electron Microscopy Center	Arts and Sciences, College of
Kidane, Addis	HIGH TEMPERATURE HOT PRESSING FOR ADVANCED,AEROSPACE, NUCLEAR, BIOMEDICAL AND FUEL CELL MATERIAL PROCESSING	Mechanical Engineering	Engineering & Computing, College of
Lu, Kevin	Databases to Strengthen Interdisciplinary Research and Teaching Efforts for Faculty in Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences Department	Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences	Pharmacy, SC College of
Mousseau, Timothy	Proposed purchase of a SAM 940 Radiation Isotope Identifier (RIID)	Biological Sciences	Arts and Sciences, College of
Potts, Jay	Upgrade of Live Cell Imaging Capabilities in the USC Instrumentation Resource Facility	Cell Biology & Anatomy	Medicine, School of
Rorden, Christopher	MRI Simulator Shared Laboratory	Psychology	Arts and Sciences, College of

ASPIRE-III (Infrastructure) Guidelines

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