Governor Lincoln D. Chafee and the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC), an initiative implemented from within Commerce RI, today announced the six recipients of Rhode Island Collaborative Research Grants. The awards will provide $445,092 in support to projects, representing 15 scientists from small businesses, research universities and hospitals throughout Rhode Island.
"This is the ninth round of STAC grants, an important source of jobs and growth to our economy. They are aimed at collaborative research projects, and bring together the experts from the private sector and our hospitals with the great minds at work at our colleges, universities and medical institutions," Governor Chafee said. "I congratulate the grant recipients and look forward to learning more about the innovation and results the funding may yield."
The program is designed to advance research projects that are collaborative across institutions, well positioned to receive follow-on funding, and with significant technology development and commercialization potential.
Award recipients include academic and industry scientists pursuing research in medicine, cyber security, engineering, chemistry, and pharmaceutical sciences. The grant recipients are:
Antiviral and immunomodulatory effects of Inter-alpha inhibitors in Dengue infections ($70,092). • Carey Medin, University of Rhode Island • Yow-Pin Lim, ProThera Biologics, Inc.
Cyber security situational awareness with social-aware data integration ($75,000). • Lisa DiPippo, University of Rhode Island • William Matuszak, Adaptive Methods, Inc.
Next generation data storage systems for big data applications ($75,000). • Gang Xiao, Brown University • Qing Yang, University of Rhode Island
Development of a new molecular imaging platform: biosensor-enhanced Xenon-129 MRI ($75,000) • Brenton DeBoef, University of Rhode Island • Li-Qiong Wang, Brown University
Novel SiRNA delivery technology via biomimetic nanomaterial for treatment of joint arthritis ($75,000). • Qian Chen, RI Hospital • Wei Lu, University of Rhode Island • Yupeng Chen, RI Hospital • Richard Terek MD, RI Hospital
Development of an ultra-high speed infrared imaging system to image dynamic deformation and fracture in materials ($75,000). • Pradeep R. Guduru, Brown University • William R. Patterson, Brown University • Arun Shukla, University of Rhode Island
TOTAL AMOUNT OF AWARDS: $445,092
Today's grants are the ninth round of STAC. To date, STAC has invested $9.8 million in projects that have yielded a return of $36 million for continued research, new federal programs, infrastructure improvements, commercialization of new products and venture funding for new companies.