MBRS SCORE Program at Alabama A&M University

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alabama A&M University, a HBCU institution, encourages and expects the faculty to develop research programs in order to increase the number of minorities professionally engaged in research. Accordingly, the university seeks federal research support, in this case, NIH, to develop faculty expertise to conduct competitive biomedical research. This application to NIH/SCORE program includes ten faculty from the departments of biology, chemistry, physics and food science, all interested in different biomedical areas. The subprojects are 1) Nonlinear optical study of blood rheology (Dr. Curley); 2) Optimization of the production of a fertile hypoallergenic peanut plant using A. tumefaciens (Dr. Dodo); 3) Rapid identification of fungi from indoor environment using metabolite profile and antigen detection techniques (Drs. Jones and Okafor); 4) Induction of mutations in Drosophila germ cells by gaseous radiation (Dr. Kale); 5) Computational studies of GP41 from HIV-1 (Dr. Kim); 6) Optical and electrical manipulation of microogranisms using optical trapping and electrical pulses (Drs. Kukhtarev); 7) Two-photon spectroscopy of novel anticancer agents (Dr. Sarkisov); 8) Inactivation of gram negative bacterial biofilm and planktonic cells (Dr. Tadros); 9) Anticarcinogenic potential of phytic acid, isositol and green tea in human colon carcinoma cells (Dr. Vergese). We expect that by the end of the proposed four year program, the faculty with pilot projects will be able to successfully compete for a regular SCORE project and faculty with regular SCORE project will be able to do so for the R01 application.