Support for Enhancement Excellence in Research at UPR RP

描述（由申请人提供）：这项来自ubr - rp MBRS SCORE计划的竞争性更新申请旨在持续提高波多黎各-里奥彼德拉斯大学生物医学研究的质量和数量。认识到提高成就水平需要更大的生产力和更强调竞争性的研究资助，因此为这一资助周期确立了以下目标：1)通过参与有科学价值的研究项目和参与相关活动，提高教员在生物医学研究方面的竞争力（知识、技能和能力）。2)为符合条件的研究生、本科生和博士后提供更多参与生物医学研究的机会；3)加强里约彼德拉斯大学对生物医学研究的机构承诺。这些目标将通过以下方式实现：以每位研究者每年一次的速度增加竞争性资助申请的数量，将每位研究者每年的同行评审出版物数量从目前的平均3.8篇增加到4.4篇，将每个实验室每年的演讲数量从目前的平均8篇增加到10篇，并增加从事校园生物医学研究的研究者数量。这种对研究生产力的更多关注预计将导致参与生物医学研究的合格和富有成效的研究生和本科生人数的增加。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Competitive Renewal Application from the UPR-RP MBRS SCORE Program aims for continued growth in the quality and amount of biomedical research at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. Recognizing that raising the level of achievement entails greater productivity and more emphasis on competitive research funding, the following goals have been established for this funding cycle: 1) To enhance the biomedical research competitiveness of the faculty (knowledge, skills and capabilities) by their participation in scientifically meritorious research projects and by their involvement in associated activities. 2) To provide more opportunity for qualified graduate, undergraduate and postdoctoral students to participate in biomedical research; and 3) To strengthen the institutional commitment of UPR-Rio Piedras to biomedical research. These goals will be achieved by increasing the number of competitive grant applications at the rate of one per year per investigator, increasing the number of peer reviewed publications per year per investigator from the current average of 3.8 to 4.4, increasing the number of presentations per laboratory per year from the current average of 8 to 10, and augmenting the number of investigators engaged in biomedical research at the campus. This increased focus on research productivity is expected to result in an increase in the number of qualified and productive graduate and undergraduate students involved in biomedical research. This renewal contains 16 regular and 5 pilot projects from 7 investigators from the Biology Department, 12 from Chemistry and 2 from Mathematics. These projects aim to conduct competitive biomedical research on such topics as the role of DNA recombination and repair mechanism in learning and memory processes, the location of purinergic receptors and transducers within membrane microdomains on signalling events, the molecular aspects of organ regenerations, the functional role of lipid protein interactions in the conformational transitions of the nicotinic acetyl chlorine receptor, protein inactivation and aggregation during encapsulation and release, the physical factors that affect conformational stability of proteins, the role of mGluRs in drug addiction and which specific neural connections mediate drug-induced associative learning and addictive behavior, the trans-acting factors in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway related to HRP1 trans-acting factor, the mechanism of aspergillosis in human and sea fan infections, the role of E. Coli as a possible vector of gene transmission and the possibility of soil environments serving as a reservoir of pathogenic microorganisms, the photochemical transformation of mutagenic pollutants; the synthesis or development of novel guanosine analogues to create stable G-quadruplexes for the treatment of cancer, selective asymmetric reagents and catalysts for chiral drug synthesis, an enantioselective methodology for the synthesis of polypropionate antibiotics, new MRI contrast enhancing agents of DNA nanoarray chips for disease diagnosis; the discovery of novel fatty acids that could be used as the lipid component of a prodrug, natural products from octocorals for the treatment of tuberculosis, the development and use of theoretical chemical and mathematical models for the urine concentrating mechanism, simulation of the stable conformation of nanometer sized DNA, and models of genetic networks including error correction. These investigators will be supported by an administrative structure and technical personnel funded by this program.