Mississippi EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program

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The Mississippi Research Infrastructure Improvement Program builds on successful previous investments and targets five areas:1)Nanostructured Silicate Systems with Designed Molecular and Supermolecular Architecture in Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Materials; 2) Computational Chemistry; 3) Integrating Molecular, Cellular and Organismal Responses of Bioregulatory Systems to Environmental Stressors; 4) Protein Structure and Localization; and 5) Computational Simulation and Information Technology. The Nanostructured Silicate Systems group involves chemists, physicists and polymer scientists/engineers. It will develop nanostructured silicate systems and "molecular silicas" to exploit the potential for the design of novel materials with macroscopic properties that are a direct consequence of the unique nanoscopic properties of the finely dispersed heterogeneous components. The Computational Chemistry research group will concentrate on fundamental problems of potential energy surfaces, geometry and structure of inclusion complexes, hydrogen bonding in ground and excited states, and ring strain while improving computational efficiencies of the methods employed. The research group involved with Integrating Molecular, Cellular and Organismal Responses to Stress will investigate the biochemical, physiological and behavioral responses of the bioregulatory systems of animals and plants brought about by chemical and other stressors, including delineation of changes in the proteome during stress responses. The Protein Structure and Localization group will investigate structures known to have important physiological roles and involves identifying the compartment(s), in which protein acts, including movement from one compartment to another that often regulates protein function. They will use relatively low-resolution tools in conjunction with computational methods to recognize domains and other elements of tertiary structure. The Computational Simulation and Information Technology group will provide high performance computing and information technology support to the other research areas. The research infrastructure improvement project includes researchers at the University of Mississippi (UM), the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), Jackson State University (JSU), Mississippi State University MSU), and Mississippi College (MC). Cross-cutting computational support will be provided by the Mississippi State University Engineering Research Center.In addition to the research effort, the Mississippi infrastructure improvement plan includes support for activities to strengthen the campus environment for research. This support includes faculty start-up funds, equipment, travel and stipends for undergraduate and graduate students. Staff development activities such as seminars and workshops, commercialization assistance, subscription services etc. will also be available to further strengthen the research environment. The Mississippi project also includes focused activities designed to increase the participation of women and members of other underrepresented groups in the activities of the award.