VCU Breakthroughs Fund provides grants to 10 more faculty-led projects that pursue transformative innovation

By Emily Komornik
Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation

Faculty-led research projects ranging from reducing chronic pain in sickle cell disease patients to optimizing Black maternal health and identifying gaps in Virginia secondary education curricula are among the 10 projects that have been awarded funding from the 2024 Virginia Commonwealth University Breakthroughs Fund.

Now in its third year, the VCU Breakthroughs Fund has supported more than 30 projects through investments totaling nearly $6 million. The fund helps transdisciplinary teams to design unique, creative and innovative large-scale approaches to confront the grand challenges identified in the One VCU Strategic Research Priorities Plan.

Upon award completion, project teams are expected to compete for external funding. Projects that received Breakthroughs awards in the program's first year are close to completion and are preparing external grant applications so that their important work can continue and expand.

The Breakthroughs submission, review and funding process is coordinated by VCU's Office of the VicePresident for Research and Innovation. Applications are reviewed by faculty members, subject matter experts and the SRPP Advisory Council, with their recommendations receiving final review and approval by P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., VCU's vice president for research and innovation.

"We are better when we're working together to address the grand challenges our society faces," Rao said. "The VCU Breakthroughs Fund encourages and inspires applicants to lean on their colleagues from other disciplines to tackle these issues in ways that are more creative, ways that think outside the box, working in unity to advance the research that lifts lives and breaks down the traditional barriers leading to transformative innovations and original solutions."

To qualify for funding, projects must have a diverse team of researchers, including faculty under-represented in their field, early-stage investigators, trainees and students, and multiple principal investigators from two or more schools/colleges across the university.

The 2024 grant recipients/PIs from the VCU Breakthroughs Fund and their research projects are:

• Saltanat Liebert, Ph.D., associate professor in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs; Gabriela Leon-Perez, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology in the College of Humanities and Sciences; and Daniel Morales, Ph.D., assistant professor of history in the College of Humanities and Sciences; for their project, "Leveraging Outliers: Insights of Positive Deviance in Immigrant Integration."
• M. Imad Damaj, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology; Nolan Wages, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics in the School of Population Health; A. Gordon Smith, M.D., professor of neurology in the School of Medicine; and David Turner, Ph.D., vice chair of research and associate professor of surgery in the School of Medicine; for their project, "The Role of Advanced Glycation End Products as a Risk Factor for Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy."
• Indika Arachchige, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry in the College of Humanities and Sciences; Ka Un Lao, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical chemistry in the College of Humanities and Sciences; and Umit Ozgur, Ph.D., professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering; for their project, "Direct-Gap Group IV Alloy Quantum Dots as Low-Cost and High-Efficiency Nanostructures for Generation-III Photovoltaics."
• Cristina Stanciu, Ph.D., associate professor of English in the College of Humanities and Sciences; Brian Daugherity, Ph.D., professor of history in the College of Humanities and Sciences; and Rachel Gomez, Ph.D., assistant professor of foundations of education in the School of Education; for their project "Race and Ethnicity in Virginia: Innovation in the Secondary Education Curriculum."
• Shruti Syal, assistant professor in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs; Lillian Lewis, Ph.D., assistant professor of art education in the School of the Arts; and Jennifer Ciminelli, assistant professor at the Center for Environmental Study at VCU Life Sciences; for their project, "The Urban Green Equity & Resilience Project (UGERP)."
• Babette Fuss, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology in the School of Medicine; Unsong Oh, M.D., associate professor of neurology in the School of Medicine; Yan Zhang, Ph.D., professor of medicinal chemistry in the School of Pharmacy; and Gregory Walsh, Ph.D., associate professor of biology in the College of Humanities and Sciences; for their project, "Lysophosphatidic Acid (LPA) Signaling in CNS Myelination and Myelin Repair."
• Elizabeth Krieger, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine; and Jason Reed, Ph.D., professor of physics in the College of Humanities and Sciences; for their project, "High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy: A New Method for Precise Telomere Measurement."
• Judith Voynow, M.D., professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine; and Douglas Sweet, Ph.D., department chair and professor of pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy; for their project, "Lipid Nanoparticle Delivery of Alpha 1 Antitrypsin (A1AT) mRNA to CF and COPD Macrophages Reverses Neutrophil Elastase-induced Macrophage Dysfunction."
• Susan Bodnar-Deren, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology in the College of Humanities and Sciences; Kristina Hood, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences; and Nancy Jallo, Ph.D., associate professor of family and community health in the School of Nursing; for their project, "Birth in Color Integrated Support Program: An Innovative Community-based Approach to Optimize Black Maternal Health."
• Aron Lichtman, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Medicine; Wally Smith, M.D., professor of internal medicine in the School of Medicine; and Priyam Das, Ph.D., assistant professor of biostatistics in the School of Population Health; for their project, "Targeting Monoacylglycerol Lipase to Reduce Chronic Pain in Sickle Cell Disease."

To learn more about the VCU Breakthroughs Fund, as well as additional internal funding opportunities under the One VCU Research Strategic Priorities Plan, visit the plan website.

To explore external funding that supports knowledge creation in and across all disciplines, visit the OVPRI funding page.

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