University of Michigan Coulter Translational Partnership Program Funds Six New Projects for 2008-2009
On March 26, 2008 the UM Coulter Translational Partnership Program hosted a day-long meeting with its Oversight Committee to make funding decisions for the 2008-2009 cycle. This year marks the third year of funding provided by a grant from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
A Call for Proposals went out in late 2007 and 13 proposed projects were reviewed at a proposal pre-review meeting in February 2008. Eight finalists were invited to make an oral presentation on their projects to the eight-member oversight committee in March and six were selected to receive funding.
"We are so pleased with the excellent proposals selected for funding this year," commented Mara Neal of the Coulter Foundation. "It really shows the high level of collaboration between the BME faculty and their clinical collaborators from the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan."
Funding for the new projects began April 1, 2008. A list of those projects is found below. Congratulations to all awardees!
2008 Current Funded Projects:
Charles Cain, PhD and William Roberts, MD
"Non-invasive Ultrasonic Prostate Tissue Ablation using Histotripsy in treatment of Prostate Cancer" Third year of funding- 2008 funding: $100,000; funding to date $350,000
James Grotberg, MD, PhD, and George Mychaliska, MD
"Development of an Artificial Placenta: Effect of Pumpless Arteriovenous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation on Fetal Circulation" Second year of funding- 2008 funding: $100,000; funding to date $200,000
Alan Hunt, PhD, Duane Newton, PhD, and Brandon McNaughton, PhD
"Rapid Identification and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Bacteria" $100,000
Michael Mayer, PhD and R. Scott Turner, MD, PhD
"Functional Screening of Small Molecules for Inhibiting the Ion Channel Activity of Beta-Amyloid Peptides" Third year of funding- 2008 funding: $150,000; funding to date $367,000
Shuichi Takayama, PhD, Robertson Davenport, MD, and Mark Meyerhoff, PhD
"Rapid Sensor-Based Method to Detect S-Nitrosohemoglobin Deficiency/Stability in Red Blood Cells" $100,000
IEEE Outstanding Paper Award
Drs. Zhen Xu and Charles Cain received the Outstanding Paper Award from the "IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society (UFFC)" at the International IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Ultrasound Symposium in New York City. The Outstanding Paper Award is presented to the authors of a paper published in the UFFC-S Transactions which exemplifies excellent technical contributions. IEEE UFFC transection is a prominent journal in the acoustic field. Drs. Xu and Cain's award winning paper was on an ultrasonic tissue fractionation technique for non-invasive surgery (Histotripsy), which has been funded by the NIH and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.