Seed Proposals

The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology recently held an open competition to seed new interdisciplinary research directions in engineering and the physical, social, life, and neurosciences. The competition brought many new ideas to the table and the Beckman Institute is pleased to announce that eight proposals have been selected to receive support for the period May 16, 2010 – May 15, 2012. The selected seed proposals cover a wide range of topics that involve 32 researchers from over 10 different departments.

The expectation is that the seed proposal research will be conducted at the Beckman Institute and within two years will lead to externally funded programs at the Beckman Institute.

Brief Descriptions of the Selected Seed Proposals:

Using Optical Brain Imaging Methods to Investigate Functional Changes in Adult Cochlear Implant Patients

  • Monica Fabiani, Psychology
  • Gabriele Gratton, Psychology
  • Michael Novak, Medicine, Carle
  • Bradley Sutton, Bioengineering

Cochlear implant surgery is increasingly being used by adults who are affected by profound hearing loss. The recovery of the hearing function after implantation varies widely, with some patients being extremely successful and others less so. This proposal will assess the reasons for the range of success rates; predict recover outcomes before surgery; and monitor the recovery of function not only behaviorally, but also within the cortex. Researchers plan to use a recently developed optical imaging method, the event-related optical signal (EROS, Gratton & Fabiani, 2009), to image the brain activity of cochlear implant patients while they perform auditory and visual tasks before and after surgery. Imaging data will be coupled with pre-surgical anatomical data and traditional clinical and laboratory behavioral assessments of patient auditory and speech function. Researchers expect this work will provide ground-breaking data not only for cochlear implantation but also for other potential prosthetic devices for the brain.

Real-time Measurement of the Nanoparticle Corona in Biological Systems

  • Catherine Murphy, Chemistry
  • Stephen Boppart, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Martin Gruebele, Chemistry 

Real-time imaging of events in living cells is still a new area of research and the addition of nanoparticle probes into cells will provide entirely new insight into how the cellular machinery possesses nanoparticles and how nanoparticles influence cellular functions. This research group will investigate how biomolecules adsorb to nanoparticle surfaces, from in vitro to within living cells. Fundamental understanding of these effects will enable control of nanoparticle surface chemistry in vivo, with the potential to use nanoparticles to control cell fate. The data obtained will serve as preliminary results for a large NIH proposal targeted toward nanotechnology-enabled biomedical targeting, imaging, detection, and potentially therapy.

Genomic Imaging of Breast Cancer

  • Stephen Boppart, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Benita Katzenellenbogen, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
  • Christine Weaver, Medical Genetics - COM
  • Ann Nardulli, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
  • Rohit Bhargava, Bioengineering
  • Sheng Zhong, Bioengineering
  • Jian Ma, Bioengineering

This research group plans to establish and exploit the continuum that they believe exists between genomic profiling, molecular diagnostics, and rapidly advancing technological innovations that they are making in biomedical imaging. Their goal is to combine imaging, genomics, cell biology, and bioinformatics in a synergistic way to integrate genomic analysis with imaging. The group expects the broader impact of this work will be profound, providing better delineation of the genomic progression leading to breast cancer. Their approach will include establishing image-based biomarkers of genomic changes for the different stages of breast cancer, especially the early stages. The expectation is that this could markedly improve the sensitivity and accuracy of the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Electrophysiological Signals to Predict Age-related Cognitive Decline

  • Kara Federmeier, Psychology
  • Suma Peter, Carle Hospital Gerontology
  • Joel Voss, Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Devarajan Manu, Carle Hospital Gerontology

This study will use brain electrophysiology and sophisticated measures of memory to differentiate healthy memory functioning from that in patients with mild cognitive impairment and early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and in doing so, improve the ability to identify and predict the onset of cognitive decline in humans. Three types of adult participants aged 60-75 years will be used in the study: those who currently have diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment and (early stage) Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as healthy individuals who may be at risk for developing these cognitive impairments. In the first year of the project, researchers will compare the three groups using cutting-edge memory assessments designed to be sensitive to the specific deficits associated with degenerative diseases that impact memory, as well as with noninvasive electrophysiological measures that can provide sensitive indices of disruptions to underlying neurophysiological processing. Then, beginning in the second year, researchers will track the individuals longitudinally, with behavioral and electrophysiology testing at regular intervals during each year for each participant. These tests will provide novel longitudinal data on cognitive and neural differences between healthy older adults and those with age-related cognitive impairments. Data from healthy individuals who convert to dementia during the course of the study will be used by researchers to identify cognitive and neural markers that predict this decline.

Ultrahigh Energy and Power Density Batteries

  • Paul Braun, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Shen Dillon, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Harley Johnson, Mechanical Science and Engineering
  • Nancy Sottos, Materials Science and Engineering

This proposal is focusing on the science and engineering of high energy and power density batteries, an area of national interest in transportation, consumer electronics, and the military. The group intends to demonstrate structurally optimized bicontinuous anode and cathode architectures which yield cells with energy and power densities significantly exceeding the targets of the DOE for electric transportation, and the DOD for man-portable power. Their electrode design is specifically based on novel microstructures that enable rapid charging and discharging as well as accommodate the large volume change of emerging high energy density battery chemistries.

Multimedia Searching via Cloud Computing

  • Thomas Huang, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Indranil Gupta, Computer Science

Digital cameras and the online community are major contributing factors that have led to an overwhelming increase in multimedia datasets. For example, Facebook has hosted 15 billion photos, with an increasing rate of 220 million new photos per week. To tackle this ever increasing amount of data, these researchers are building a new cloud computer paradigm for efficiently searching in large-scale, high-dimensional multimedia datasets. Their key ideas are an extension of existing cloud computing schemes, which inherit the merits of scalable storage and batch-oriented computation, but with the new ability to efficiently process high dimensional numerical data such as images or videos. This line of research considers the need for algorithmic and systematic design and aims to break down the gap between fast searching requirement and the burden of processing high dimensional multimedia features. The project will be carried out in close collaboration with the Illinois Cloud Computing Testbed team.

Multi-functional Aptamer-lipid Theranostic Anticancer Agents: A Novel Approach in Nanomedicine

  • Yi Lu, Chemistry
  • Jianjun Cheng, Materials Science and Engineering
  • William Helferich, Food Science and Human Nutrition

These researchers are developing a novel approach in nanomedicine for the preparation of theranostic against cancer in general and metastatic cancer in particular. The research is focused on advancing fundamental knowledge in stimuli response biomaterials and engineered interfaces by developing multiplexed responsive liposome technologies for targeting breast cancer via a multi-disciplinary collaboration in order to maximize translational potential to the clinic. A number of liposome-based systems with no active targeting capability have already been approved by the FDA for clinical use. However, it is now known that conventional liposomes have significant systemic side effects and sub-optimal antitumor activity. In addition, unsolved problems that limit efficacy remain, such as the need to improve in vivo targeting and to facilitate endosomal escape of the encapsulated drug. The project will address these needs by going beyond coating liposomes with targeting ligands. The researchers will combine state-of-the-art aptamer targeting technology with recent advances in the fundamental knowledge of membrane biophysics to develop multiplexed target-responsive liposome systems for effective controlled drug delivery and intracellular trafficking.

Next Generation Molecular Probes for Massively Multiplexed and Ultrasensitive Imaging

  • Rohit Bhargava, Bioengineering
  • Narayana Aluru, Mechanical Science and Engineering
  • Rashid Bashir, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Catherine Murphy, Chemistry
  • Prasanth Kannanganattu, Cell and Developmental Biology

This proposal will be working toward developing the next generation of molecular imaging probes for scientific discovery and biomedical applications by bringing together an interdisciplinary, cross-campus group. A major challenge in biological sciences today is to quantitatively and simultaneously image tens of molecular species at widely varying (millimolar to single molecule) concentrations. Currently, imaging methods lack either molecular sensitivity and selectivity (spectroscopy) or multiplexing capability (e.g. fluorescent proteins). In this proposal, the researchers lay the groundwork for making a new palette of probes by rational design based on a novel concept, a means for producing a multitude of probes to the scientific community and initial testing to prove the approach.