2000 USB/BNL Seed Grant Winners

Wen-Tien Chen, Department of Medicine
& Subramanyam Swaminathan, Dept. of Biology, BNL
"Regulation of Tumor Angiogenesis by Membrane Proteases."

The long-term goal of this collaborative project is to understand the molecular mechanisms that control extracellular matrix degradation on the surface of endothelial cells during tumor angiogenesis. The specific aim of this seed grant project is to obtain primary data on x-ray crystallography of recombinant seprase at atomic resolution, which may lead to new approaches toward identifying potential inhibitor and substrate-binding molecules for cell surface seprase and its complexes as therapeutic agents in controlling angiogenesis of human cancer.

Patricia Coyle, Dept. of Neurology
& William Rooney, Dept. of Chemistry, BNL
"Blood Brain Barrier Permeability and the Menstrual Cycle."

The goal of this pilot study is to examine blood brain barrier permeability during the menstrual cycle. This study will involve control as well as women suffering from Multiple Sclerosis in order to attempt to document blood brain barrier impairment related to the menstrual cycle, and possible links to relapses of MS disease activity.

Robert Crease, Dept. of Philosophy, Historian, BNL
"Science Studies at Stony Brook - a Plan for Interdisciplinary Program."

The continuation of a project begun last year, the funding will be used on various activities designed to bolster the interest in the Science Study Forum. These include a faculty reading seminar in science studies, a visiting lecture series in science and ethics, a workshop of science studies, and the continuation of the technoscience research seminar series.

Axel Drees, Dept. of Physics
"Measurement of Low Mass Electron Pairs Using the PHENIX Detector at RHIC."

The focus of this project is the investigation of extending the scope of physics accessible at Brookhaven National Lab's RHIC by the measurement of low mass electron pairs. This could possibly lead to future upgrade possibilities of the PHENIX equipment.

David Ferguson, Director of CELT, Thomas Liao, Director of PEP
& Karl Swyler, Science Education Center, BNL
"A Pre-Service 7-12 Science Teacher Development Program: Summer Research Institute."

This project seeks to enhance the training of pre-service teachers by building on the academic priorities at Stony Brook and to improve the preparedness of future college students. Summer institute activities hope to achieve these goals by providing pre-service teachers with an inquiry-based research experience that they can take back to the classroom with them.

Arie Kaufman, Dept. of Computer Science
& Hong Ma, Dept. of Environmental Sciences, BNL
"Parallel Volume Terrain Modeling and Rendering with Applications to Long Island Beach Geomorphology"

The purpose of this project is to apply advanced parallel computing, terrain modeling, and rendering techniques to gain a spatiotemporal understanding of the geomorphic development of the Long Island coastline. This study will have important applications in protecting our regional socioeconomic activities and natural habitats from coastline erosion caused by storms and possible global warning.

William Lennarz, Dept. of Biochemistry
& Paul Freimuth, Dept. of Biology, BNL
"Recent Advances in Proteomics - Joint SB/BNL Symposium on Molecular Biology"

This grant will support the combined two-day symposium on Recent Advances in Proteomics. Topics covered include: DNA and protein chip technologies, protein-protein interactions and protein modifications, and structural and computational aspects of proteomics.

Andreas Mayr, Dept. of Chemistry
& Bruce Brunschwig, Dept. of Chemistry, BNL
"Metal-Carbon Multiple Bonds as Building Blocks for Molecular Materials"

This is a continuation of a project begun last year on the use of metal-carbon multiple bonds as functional and structural components in molecular materials. The development of molecular materials has become an active area of research, especially with regard to the potential to modify or even control the materials properties via the nature of molecular building blocks.

E. Troy Rasbury, Dept. of Geosciences
& Antonio Lanzirotti, Dept. of Applied Science, BNL
"Use of NSLS X-Ray Microprobe and FTIR Beam Lines to Evaluate the Distribution of Trace Elements and Organic Materials in Caliche Paleosols."

This project is a microbeam/trace element study of calcite from soils at micron resolution. This has implications for the determination of how areas contaminated with radioactive waste should be cleaned up and how where such waste should be stored.

Suzanne Scarlata, Dept. of Physiology
& Biophysics John Sutherland, Dept. of Biology, BNL
"Role of Lipid Membranes in the Initiation and Formation of Protein Synuclein Fibrils."

This project will study the processes involved in the binding of alpha-synucleins to membranes. Alpha-Synuclein is of particular interest as it has been found to be associated with Parkinson and Alzheimer Disease.

Wei Zhao, Dept. of Radiology, Barbara Jacak, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
& Paul O'Connor and Bo Yu, Instrumental Division, BNL
"Investigating the X-Ray Response of Photoconductors for Real-Time Flat-Panel Detectors in Medical Imaging."

This project will investigate the properties of liquid xenon and thick-deposition amorphous selenium in order to make improvements in photoconduction materials. This could result in minimizing the exposure to radiation during x-rays.

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