INBRE: FURMAN U: FACULTY AND UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In addition to the individual research programs of our Target Faculty, Furman University has three primary subprojects as defined by our specific aims in the INBRE proposal. SUBPROJECT 1: Infrastructure Development and Research Capacity An important aim of the Furman University INBRE program is the development of infrastructure and core facilities to provide suitable resources and an appropriate environment for the most efficient and effective research program Furman can achieve as a liberal arts institution. Construction is currently in progress on the $60 million Townes Center for Science, with 75,000 square feet of new teaching and research space scheduled to become available in the summer of 2007. Furman was able to add an LC-MS instrument with joint University/NIH-BRIN funding in 2002 that is now heavily used by target faculty members Dr. Petty and Dr. Goess, the PI (Dr. John Wheeler), and Dr. Greg Springsteen, a Furman matching faculty member (see SUBPROJECT 2). A second critical equipment need was access to a flow cytometer in the Biology Department. Partial funding for this instrument was provided in YEAR 1, and the resulting instrument is now enjoying significant use by target faculty members Dr. Hestermann and Dr. Turgeon as well as other biological research faculty. A third major equipment acquisition will be the purchase of a circular dichroism spectrometer in YEAR 3 using partial INBRE funds. This acquisition will bolster the research efforts of Dr. Petty and also a recent tenure-track addition to the Chemistry Department, Dr. Karen Buchmuller, who begins her research program in the fall of 2007. A final aim of our INBRE program in the context of expanding Furman's research capacity is to provide a full-time scientist to oversee the daily operation, maintenance, and training of our high-value analytical equipment used by both the target faculty and other research faculty. Using 50% matching monies, a full-time staff scientist (Dr. Sandra Wheeler) has been employed on an academic year contract to manage these analytical operations over the first two years of the award. This position was strategically established to provide support during the most critical part of the year, when faculty members are less available for the considerable tasks associated with instrumentation maintenance and oversight. Dr. Wheeler has also served to assist target faculty in establishing new measurement capacities in their individual research programs as discussed in Section VI. SUBPROJECT 2: Faculty Development and New Target Faculty Positions A primary aim all INBRE activities is to assist and promote the development of the target faculty to a point where they mature into established independent investigators, at a minimum at the R15 level and for some faculty ultimately at the R01 level. Four target faculty were initially selected for participation in YEAR 1 of the INBRE award (Grisel, Hestermann, Petty and Turgeon), and since that time three of those faculty have been successful in competing for and receiving NIH R15 awards (Petty and Hestermann  YEAR 1; Grisel  YEAR 2). The fourth target faculty member, Dr. Turgeon, currently has an R15 application (resubmission from YEAR 1) pending, and we anticipate receiving her priority score within the next two months. As an additional part of its faculty development aims in the original proposal, Furman planned for an expansion position in the Psychology Department in the area of behavioral medicine in YEAR 2. The departure of one of our original target faculty (Dr. Moses Lee) prior to award made possible the addition of a second new target faculty member in the Chemistry Department in YEAR 2. The expansion position in behavioral medicine has been filled by Dr. Cinnamon Stetler (July 2006), and the replacement position in chemistry has been filled by Dr. Brian Goess (July 2006). The research plans and progress-to-date of these two new tenure-track additions is outlined in Section II of this report. In addition to the NIH-supported target faculty, Furman has made significant commitments to the development of other biomedical research faculty by establishing Furman INBRE Matching Fellowships. These pilot grants, awarded each summer to biomedical faculty showing promise of nationally competitive research activity, carry a summer stipend ($12,918), support for an undergraduate research student ($3,500) and a supplies budget ($3,000) to provide resources sufficient to help potential investigators obtain appropriate preliminary data for the submission of competitive NIH (or equivalent) research proposals. The two full INBRE matching awards from YEAR 1 each resulted in the submission of NIH grant proposals as noted in Section VI. Two awards were likewise made in YEAR 2 to junior faculty with similarly promising results as described in Section VI, and a call for proposals has been issued for a third year of matching fellowships for YEAR 3, with applications due in late February 2007. Finally, within the aim of the overall growth of our biomedical research faculty, Furman is committed to making significant efforts toward improving the distribution of underrepresented minorities among its faculty. An additional expansion position in neuroscience was added in July 2006, filled by Dr. Onarae Rice. Dr. Rice is a behavioral pharmacologist, and we anticipate he will substantively impact our effectiveness in attracting and retaining underrepresented student populations in the sciences in general and the rapidly emerging discipline of neuroscience in particular. SUBPROJECT 3: Student Development and Support Central to the overall aims of the South Carolina INBRE program is the development of a pipeline of promising new talent to carry forward the competitive research programs catalyzed by the INBRE funds. In YEAR 1, eleven undergraduate research students (7 women, 3 minority) were funded with NIH-INBRE resources to conduct full-time summer research with Furman target faculty. One additional minority student was funded from University INBRE matching funds to work with the Project Director, and two students (both women) were funded to work with each of two additional INBRE matching faculty (see SUBPROJECT 2). In YEAR 2, Furman was able to plan for the summer program more efficiently as a result of the additional lead time provided by the already-established award, and as a result the training of young scientists and involvement of students from underrepresented populations was even more successful than in the prior year. Given Furman's overall institutional demographics (approximately 12% minority enrollment institution-wide), a significant focus of the student training effort includes the participation of our target faculty in reaching out to faculty and students at each of South Carolina's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to promote active participation in our research programs. Students who apply to the summer program from off-campus are provided with a full 10-week summer research stipend ($3,500) and also with housing in on-campus furnished apartments provided by Furman matching funds.