University Of New Mexico

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

This collaborative project is led by the University of New Mexico in collaboration with Navajo Technical University (NTU), New Mexico Tech (NMT), Central New Mexico Community College (CNMCC), and New Mexico State University (NMSU). The Research Infrastructure Optimization for New Mexico (RIO-NM) project seeks to create a more interconnected, inclusive, and innovative research environment. RIO-NM will link the existing research ecosystem in New Mexico with emerging research institutes (ERIs), including Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). The project focuses on two main areas of need at New Mexico’s ERIs: developing cyberinfrastructure and creation of research pathways. By addressing these needs, RIO-NM will stimulate innovation. In turn, this has potential to lead to economic growth in key sectors resulting in high-value employment opportunities for graduates from ERIs, particularly those from underrepresented groups in science and engineering, thus improving the standard of living in New Mexico. RIO-NM is dedicated to expanding participation in the scientific community across various individuals, institutions, and sectors. The RIO-NM team will focus on three key areas of interconnectivity between New Mexico’s ERIs and its broader research ecosystem: Digital, Human, and Institutional. To achieve this interconnection, RIO-NM will establish two specialized cores: 1) Cyberinfrastructure Core: Focusing on digital and institutional interconnections for ERIs and 2) Research Pathways Core: Connecting researchers, faculty, and students from ERIs with resources and programs statewide. Additionally, an Administrative Core will support overall cohesion and provide administrative assistance. To achieve ERI integration with the state's broader ecosystem, the Cores will employ three mechanisms: 1) Pilot Programs: Initial implementations to test concepts related to cyberinfrastructure and research pathways. 2) Pilot Results Workshops: Statewide workshops to discuss pilot outcomes and encourage adoption by other ERIs and 3) Seed Awards: Funding primarily ERIs for projects in cyberinfrastructure and research pathways. RIO-NM has initially identified four pilot programs, with two topics in the Cyberinfrastructure Core at Navajo Technical University (NTU) and New Mexico Tech (NMT), and two in the Research Pathways Core at Central New Mexico Community College (CNMCC), and New Mexico State University (NMSU). This project is funded by the NSF EPSCoR Collaborations for Optimizing Research Ecosystems (E-CORE) RII Program. The E-CORE RII program supports jurisdictions in building capacity in one or more targeted research infrastructure cores that underlie the jurisdiction’s research ecosystem. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2024-08

Project Summary Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) consume alcohol as an attempt to alleviate symptoms, which can increase the risk of developing a drinking problem. However, well-adapted coping responses to stress may protect against development of PTSD and mitigate subsequent alcohol use. Further, not only are women twice as likely as men to suffer from PTSD, but certain individuals may be more susceptible or resilient in adapting to stressful events. This suggests specific brain mechanisms that mediate sex differences in response to stress and also individual differences in coping responses may mitigate against lasting consequences of stress such as alcohol consumption. In this proposal, I will investigate how failure to engage in adaptive coping strategies to stress may be driven by hypofunctioning between corticolimbic regions specifically the prelimbic (PrL) cortex and the basolateral amygdala (BLA), and whether increases in endocannabinoid signaling can restore this maladaptive behavior. I utilize an animal model of stress exposure to the predator odor TMT, which produces distinct coping behaviors between male and female rats, as well as individual differences in subsequent increases in alcohol self-administration. Using this model, I will utilize a variety of chemogenetic, electrophysiological and optogenetic techniques to directly manipulate the PrLBLA circuit and examine its functional role in driving adaptive responses to stress and alcohol self-administration in male and female rats. Further, I will investigate the direct role of endocannabinoid signaling in modulating maladaptive versus adaptive coping responses and whether this signaling can act as a protective mechanism against later escalations in alcohol self-administration. The K99 portion of this proposal involves extensive training using chemogenetic and cell-specific molecular approaches and advanced electrophysiological techniques to probe both functional changes and in vivo neuroadaptive responses. This training will provide me with a stronger neuroscience foundation which will be critical to increase my competitiveness on the job market and will be important in my independent career. Uncovering the neural mechanisms that drive maladaptive coping behavior and subsequent alcohol self-administration within the K99 portion will provide future directions for the R00 phase. Studies within the R00 phase will specifically assess whether endocannabinoids can directly restore PrL hypofunctioning that leads to dysregulated neuroadaptations within the BLA and central amygdala (CeA) circuitry that drives behavioral outcomes to stress. Together, completion of these aims will establish corticolimbic circuitry and endocannabinoid mechanisms that drive coping strategies during predator odor stress and alcohol drinking. Additionally, studies in this application will further my long-term research goal which is to elucidate neurobiological mechanisms that underlie sex differences in comorbid alcohol use and PTSD.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

This award supports the convening of a two-day hybrid workshop on approaches to disability across biological, archaeological, and cultural subfields of anthropology, held in association with the 2025 meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropologists. It unites disabled and non-disabled scientists to mutually query the strengths and limitations of current frameworks on disability in anthropology, convening the first anthropology-wide, state-of-the-art conference on disability in anthropology. Anthropologists are particularly well positioned to leverage the range of scientific and experiential insights that expand the science of disability and the welfare of disabled people. Disability – typically defined as functional impairment (biomedical definition) or poor fit with social structures built for able-bodied individuals (disability studies definition) – affects nearly all people at one time or another. The conference organizers and participants specifically examine the variations of diagnosis, experience, and management of disabilities across individuals, social groups, contexts, and time periods with the aim of developing a closer understanding of this key component of human existence. The conference results in a number of tangible broader impacts, including: supporting disabled investigators with little or no prior NSF support; supporting students and faculty in EPSCoR jurisdictions and within minority-serving institutions; creating a white paper that describes how to run accessible conferences in anthropology; and broadly disseminating results to academic and non-academic audiences. The outcomes of the conference will be evaluated using a robust evaluation tool to drive targeted dissemination efforts and engagements in the social science of disability. The conference engages junior and senior scholars and seeks to build scientific and publishing and dissemination networks between scholars and to broaden the participation of scientists with disabilities. This project is supported by the Cultural Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, and Archaeology programs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Nontechnical Description Optics, the study of light, dates back millennia. From lenses in the ancient world to modern photonics, the control and manipulation of light has long fascinated humanity. Exploiting structures with dimensions on the order of the wavelength of light has been a long-held scientific aspiration. Nanoscale control of light will be crucial for developing next generation nanophotonic technologies. This project focuses on the composition and design of nanostructures of two-dimensional (2D) materials with complex geometries. The project will advance our fundamental understanding of light and lay the foundation for new ways to manipulate light at the nanoscale. The ultimate aim is to impact the development of the next generation of nanophotonic technologies. This project will contribute train graduate and undergraduate students in the intersection of materials science, nanotechnology, and physics. The project will engage students from underrepresented minority groups in New Mexico to broaden participation and attract individuals to STEM careers. Students undergo comprehensive training covering modeling, design, nanofabrication, and experimental characterization of photonic components. The computational aspect of the work will introduce students to advanced computational methods, thereby expanding their future career opportunities. Technical Description This research focuses on developing novel metasurfaces based on two-dimensional and layered materials and their heterostructures held together by van der Waals bonding forces. Leveraging these metasurfaces allows for the exciting possibility of scaling down the device significantly. This size reduction can be accomplished by incorporating resonant nanostructures, and these nanostructures facilitate the formation of highly localized optical fields, effectively enhancing the interactions between incident light and the nanostructure. Consequently, this enhancement significantly improves the device's sensitivity in detecting and responding to light signals. In this project, optical nanoantennas are designed out of nanostructured layered materials, and these nanoantennas are arranged into arrays to function as metasurface. This project seeks to explore the optical properties of van der Waals nanoantennas, specifically focusing on their nanoscale resonances, which are localized electromagnetic modes arising from the scattering of incident light by these nanostructures. Nanoantenna resonant responses, arising from electric and magnetic multipolar oscillations, are ideal for wave manipulation due to their diverse nanoscale modes and simple properties. The key novelty is to engineer multipolar resonances in nanoantennas based on layered materials to achieve desirable responses, control the directionality of scattered light, and narrow the linewidth of the resonances. This project is jointly funded by Office of Strategic Initiatives of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical sciences (MPS/OSI) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) promises to accelerate information processing far beyond classical limits, enabled by the differences in the foundamental natural laws of classical and quantum physics. Currently, state-of-the-art quantum devices are noisy, lack full error correction and fault tolerance, are limited to small prototype devices, and require very low operation temperatures for utilizing quantum effects and fragile quantum states. In that broader landscape, this program rests on a strategy for quantum computing using photonic components that can operate at room temperature. Quantum computing in general is expected to impact areas such as economic forecasting, high-precision climate change modeling, drug discovery, quantum chemistry, and discovery of novel technological materials. The technical activities under this project are accompanied by the economic/technology risk assessment that assists in prioritizing project tasks/risk mitigation and identifies techno-economic directions and opportunities for forging meaningful and lasting strategic economic and industrial partnerships. Academic partners participating in this project are minority-serving institutions, supporting learning communities for increasing equity, inclusiveness, and quantum workforce diversity, consistent with demographic goals of the National Quantum Initiative. A major technical goal of this project is to design a blueprint for building a full-stack programmable photonic Gaussian-boson-sampling (GBS) quantum computer, including hardware selection for quantum light sources (input), interferometer units (compute), and photo-detection (output), as well as algorithm development for the GBS quantum computing platform. The long-term goal for realizing fully error-corrected, scalable, fault-tolerant quantum advantage is assisted by a synergistic hybrid quantum-classical capability for increased programming versatility of the interferometer compute unit. Transformative high-impact use-cases realized with a photonic quantum computer are expected for problems with high-dimensional solution spaces. The goal of developing a full-stack GBS quantum information processing system is bound to advance many aspects of quantum photonics. New and better controllable quantum light sources are imperative for GBS, but are also critical for advancing quantum communication and quantum networking, a prerequisite for distributed quantum computing. The educational goals are to develop new teaching modules to facilitate adoption and adaptation at various educational levels into existing curricula, raising quantum awareness and literacy at 2-year and 4-year colleges, and increasing students' readiness for continued education in the graduate quantum science and engineering degree programs to be developed at the University of New Mexico, the lead institution. This project advances the objectives of Quantum Information Science and Engineering at NSF in response to the National Quantum Initiative Act for the continued leadership of the United States in QIS and its technology applications. This project is jointly funded by the NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Linguistic research seeks to uncover language universals-properties that characterize all human languages-as well as the reasons why languages differ. Across languages, demonstratives like "this/that" in English and "este/ese/aquel" in Spanish provide an excellent tool for advancing these aims because demonstratives exist in all languages and are used to manage attention, which is a general function of language. For example, when a speaker says "this book is heavy," the use of "this" draws attention to a particular book. At the same time, demonstratives vary across languages in number and meaning. This project focuses on one way that demonstratives are different across languages: addressee effects. When a speaker says something like "look at this book" or "look at that book," does she only focus on herself and the book when choosing to say this or that (e.g., this = near me, that = far from me)? Or does the person she’s talking to-her addressee-affect this choice? On possibility is that demonstrative usage is affected by how close the addressee is to the referent and whether the speaker and addressee are paying attention to the same referent. Given that demonstratives manage attention, addressee effects should be present in all languages. Yet previous research has found that this is not the case. These unexpected differences require greater examination. With this aim, this project investigates demonstrative use in three bilingual communities. The languages under study vary in the number of demonstratives that they use. Because of this wide variation, comparing across the languages advances scientific understanding of how inventory size-the number of demonstrative terms in a system-shapes demonstrative use. Participants complete a language dominance assessment and two experiments, one manipulating addressee location and the other addressee attention. Bilinguals complete the experiments in both their languages. Addressee location effects are predicted to occur mainly in languages with larger demonstrative inventories. In contrast, addressee attention effects may be more universal. Besides testing these predictions, the project's focus on bilingualism informs key understanding of how bilinguals' languages interact. For example, if addressee effects have been identified in one language but not the other, what happens among bilingual speakers? The three communities offer a unique testing ground for studying bilingualism because they represent distinct bilingual profiles. Comparing across different communities illuminates how language dominance predicts language interaction. The project also contributes to methodologies for studying bilingualism worldwide and serves as an intensive research training experience for students at the University of New Mexico, a minority and Hispanic serving institution. Finally, the project benefits communities by building capacity via workshops, language materials designed for educators, and by widely disseminating articles in newsletters that translate the research findings for the community at large. This project is jointly funded by the Linguistics Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

The growth of desert plants starts with rainfall, and yet the amount, variability and seasonality of rainfall is changing around the globe. As with many other ecosystems, to understand how changes in rainfall will affect drylands in the future requires long-term measurements and experiments. Continued funding for this Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) project will allow the PI to continue four long-term experiments in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico. Taken together, these four experiments assess how changes in rainfall amount, timing and variability will affect plant and soil biodiversity, plant productivity and storage of carbon. To date, long-term data from the first five years of this project show that plant species characteristic of the Chihuahuan Desert are gradually replacing the economically important Great Plains grassland at the study site as the climate gets warmer and dryer. In addition, a widespread native desert shrub, creosotebush, is invading these grassland communities, causing what some refer to as “desertification,” a process that further reduces the economic value of grassland ecosystems. This research addresses both the causes and consequences of these ongoing changes in plant communities that are driven by changes in climate. Because the work takes place in a national wildlife refuge, the research is directly applicable to refuge management decisions and actions. More broadly, grasslands cover >240 million hectares (33% of land area) in the US and they are commercially important for livestock, and provide many ecosystem services, including wildlife habitat, water resources, recreation, and carbon storage. Yet grasslands are increasingly vulnerable to global environmental change, especially changes in climate. This long-term research will continue to shed new light on the roles of air pollution (nitrogen deposition) and changes in the amount and seasonality of rainfall on these important grassland ecosystems. Public outreach and education on biodiversity and ecology will be important aspects of the project. Water is the most limiting resource in dryland ecosystems, followed by nitrogen availability. Continued funding of this LTREB project will allow the PI and his team to continue four long-term experiments in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, that together, assess how nitrogen availability coupled with changes in rainfall amount, timing and variability will affect plant and soil biodiversity, biomass production and carbon sequestration. One of these on-going experiments imposed a chronic severe drought in Chihuahuan Desert and Great Plains grassland for seven years after which the researchers have been assessing the ability of these ecosystems to recover once rainfall returns to normal. A second long-term experiment changes rainfall timing (less in summer, more in fall) but not amount in these two grasslands. Together, results from these two experiments thus far suggest that as Chihuahuan Desert grassland increases at the expense of Great Plains grassland, this ecosystem will become more vulnerable in a warmer, dryer climate. A third experiment manipulates nitrogen addition and winter (El Niño) rainfall in the area where Chihuahuan Desert and Great Plains grassland intersect. The fourth experiment alters nitrogen availability along with the size and frequency of summer rain events in Chihuahuan Desert grassland, which is most likely to experience future invasion by creosotebush. Support for these long-term experiments will fill important knowledge gaps regarding the effects of reordering among dominant species on ecosystem processes under multiple global change scenarios. This long-term research is conducted in dryland ecosystems, which cover ~45% of continental land area globally and have measurable impacts on the global C budget. Drylands are changing rapidly in response to droughts, air pollution, and increased rainfall variability. Community reordering may be key to advancing researchers' understanding of how different global change factors will affect dryland ecosystems in the southwestern United States and elsewhere. The PI and his team are committed to making their data publically available through the Environmental Data Initiative. The University of New Mexico is a certified Hispanic Serving Institution, and the lead investigators will continue mentoring minority undergraduate students in STEM careers as part of the project. Public outreach activities will be conducted through the Visitors Center at the headquarters of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Undergraduates supported on this project will be mentored as part of a summer undergraduate research experiences program (60% minority student participation). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

This doctoral dissertation research compares estimations of biological age-at-death with known (chronological) age at death. The study assesses if conditions in life (health and environment) impact aging rates, and whether differences in aging rates lead to discrepancies between chronological and biological age-at-death. The results obtained are applied to the development of a correction factor for biological age-at-death estimations. The study contributes to the improvement of forensic methods, forensic identifications, and the study of human populations in the past. This research fosters international collaborations and provides training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students at a Minority Serving Institution. The study collects data from soft (full-body and abdominal CT-scans), as well as hard (bone and teeth) tissues to estimate biological age-at-death. Data from CT-scans is analyzed with AI-based biological age models, followed by statistical analysis to identify patterns of aging rates. Biological age-at-death estimations based on soft and hard tissues are compared with known (chronological) age-at-death. Identified discrepancies between biological age-at-death estimations and known chronological age-at-death are analyzed in relation to social and environmental conditions (including geographic, cultural, and social variables). An age-at-death correction factor is developed by integrating the discrepancies between chronological and biological age-at-death, as well as health and environmental conditions. This project is jointly funded by the Biological Anthropology Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-07

This award is to support a program of Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico, which will fund 8 students to work in research laboratories each summer. The program serves the national interest in two key aspects of the NSF mission. First, the participating students contribute directly to ongoing research projects, thus promoting the progress of science. Second, and more importantly, this program will advance the national prosperity and welfare, through the training of young scientists, many of whom have not yet had opportunities to participate in cutting edge research. The program provides opportunities for participating students to develop skills in laboratory work, analysis, computation, electronics and machining that will serve them (and the nation) well, regardless of their ultimate choice of career. The primary goal of the program is to give 8 participating students an authentic summer research experience that will help each decide whether a research and/or academic career in physics or astronomy is right for him or her. The program features new approaches to student recruitment, and to the training of both students and mentors. As part of the recruitment effort, the principal investigator (PI) and co˗PI will visit colleges in the four corners states to increase awareness of these research opportunities and meet prospective students in person. On applying, students may express their level of interest in working with any of the 16 faculty mentors participating. Mentors will develop research plans each spring, in consultation with the PI and co-PI, managing expectations and providing progress benchmarks. Mentors have already identified specific skills that student researchers will acquire during the 10 week program. In addition, brief courses in electronics and machining will be offered to participants. Student participants will not only learn from mentors and graduate students, but also from their peers. The REU program benefits from synergy with an existing undergraduate research program in quantum science (QU˗REACH) that hosts approximately 10 New Mexico students each summer. The programs will share a Friday seminar series and group lunch that features talks from scientists and technologists in academia, industry, and the national labs (Sandia and Los Alamos), showcasing the variety of career paths in STEM fields. This project is jointly funded by the Division of Physics and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-07

PART 1: NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY Rock salts are one of the most commonly known structural types of materials, featuring the common salt (NaCl)'s atomic arrangement with cations and anions occupying the Na and Cl sites, respectively. Disordered rock salts, in which the Na and Cl sites are randomly occupied by different cation/anion elements, have been arising as a new research field for both fundamental materials science and battery materials development. A typical rock salt structure is subject to the site balance rule that constrains the ratio of cations to anions to 1:1, fundamentally limiting the synthesizable composition of disordered rock salts. The site balance rule also essentially poses a trade-off between theoretical capacity and charge compensation contribution, when the materials are used in Li-ion or Na-ion battery electrodes. The proposed study explores the chemistry of over-stoichiometric disordered rock salts (i.e., allows cation to anion ratios greater than 1:1) and aims to understand the relationship between over-stoichiometry, fundamental materials properties, and energy storage mechanisms. The materials development and the understanding of the structure-property relationship will contribute as a knowledge pool for building earth-abundant element-based Li-ion/Na-ion batteries without being strictly limited by compositional constraints, thus generating new material-level solutions for next-generation energy storage technologies. In parallel to the research activities, the project serves as an education platform that converts the research subjects to a series of student lab projects, course, and outreach materials. These educational activities aim to involve students from K-12, undergraduate, to graduate levels and local K-12 science educators, and to minimize the gap between fundamental physical science education and real-world materials science research. PART 2: TECHNICAL SUMMARY The objective of the proposal is to study the chemical space and understand the structure-property relationship of over-stoichiometric disordered rock salts with earth abundant transition metal-based compositions, as Li- and Na-ion battery cathode materials. In recent years, although a significant progress has been made in the development of disordered rock salt-based battery cathode materials, the composition, structure, and property of over-stoichiometric disordered rock salts remain as a significant knowledge gap. This project, supported by the Ceramics program in the Division of Materials Research, aims to develop a new series of over-stoichiometric Li(Na)-Ti-Mn(Fe)-O-F-based disordered rock salts as model materials, characterize their crystallographic properties, and understand the atomic coordination behavior by probing their electronic and vibrational structures. The project will further systematically evaluate the electrochemical properties of the developed materials as Li/Na-ion battery cathodes and correlate the parameters of the chemical space to with detailed electrochemical properties. Furthermore, the study will probe the energy storage mechanism of the over-stoichiometric disordered rock salts via a set of closely integrated approaches including X-ray crystallography, X-ray spectroscopy, resonance Raman spectroscopy, and near-field infrared spectroscopic imaging. These concerted efforts are expected to offer the materials research community a new chemical space for battery material exploration, enhance the knowledge of the relationship between electronic/vibration structures and cation over-stoichiometry, and ultimately lead to discovery of materials design strategies for building optimized over-stoichiometric battery cathode materials. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-07

Soil degradation affects 33% of Earth’s land surface and is exacerbated by climate change. Climate-driven soil degradation is an especially urgent problem in drylands, which have unique soil microbial communities that include surface biological soil crusts that reduce erosion. Drylands generate feedback to climate change because they account for ~⅓ of global soil organic carbon and make the largest contributions to interannual carbon fluxes of any terrestrial biome. Despite the importance of microbes to dryland soil health, little is known about how individual dryland soil microbes respond to climate change. The project aims to discover microbial solutions that promote soil health in hotter, drier climates. Research activities characterize the climate resistance of common dryland microbe species exposed to heat and drought, discover how to assemble communities of these species that maximally resist heat and drought, and seek use-inspired solutions that inoculate climate-ready microbes into soils of the Chihuahuan Desert, New Mexico, USA. Ecologists and microbiologists work collaboratively on activities that leverage prior NSF-funded infrastructure and biological collections. Synergistic broader impacts include an innovative program for high school teachers to bring contemporary research into underserved K-12 classrooms, a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience for a gateway majors course, summer REU students, a new community science photography project to raise public awareness of the ecological services of biocrusts, annual workshops for park personnel, volunteers, land managers, retirees, school teachers, and students with Joshua Tree National Park Association, and a schoolyard Data Jam with students from Nevada, Florida, New Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Climate change can accelerate soil degradation through changes to soil microbes. Vegetation-poor drylands are soil microbe-driven ecosystems with unique microbiomes that influence soil health. Ecologists and microbiologists work collaboratively on soil health solutions that leverage prior NSF-funded infrastructure and biological collections, including collaboration with Sevilleta LTER. The integration of knowledge in a hierarchical framework that spans the individual organism to the ecosystem has high potential to improve predictions (theory) and solutions (use-inspired applications) for improved soil health. At the individual-population level, lab experiments characterize heat and desiccation resistance and traits for 30 species of dryland Cyanobacteria and Fungi and molecular mechanisms of resistance. At the population-community level, greenhouse experiments test how heat and drought alter microbe interactions, and, in turn, how microbial composition affects resistance to heat and drought. At the community-ecosystem level, field research applies climate-ready microbial assemblages to reverse long-term soil degradation. This project builds the first comprehensive database on dryland microbe physiological resistance to heat and drought. Trait-based work seeks generalizable rules on microbial climate resistance, tests whether conservative traits confer greater stress-resistance than acquisitive traits, and evaluates the novel hypothesis that cross-domain assemblages composed of bacteria and fungi maximize the resistance of soil health to heat and drought. Altogether, research activities have high potential to generate novel predictions and solutions that maximize the resistance of drylands to soil degradation under climate change. Broader impacts span K12 classrooms to graduate training and build new collaboration with regional managers of soil health. This project is jointly funded by Integrative Ecological Physiology (IOS/IEP) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-07

This project concerns one of humanity’s greatest challenges – how to slow down, halt, or mitigate the continued loss of biodiversity on Earth. The world is losing much of its animal biodiversity, and populations of large-bodied mammals are declining at an alarming rate. Their decline has serious consequences because large mammals have important roles within ecosystems, which are not replicated by smaller-bodied animals. Not surprisingly, a major focus of conservation, biology, and wildlife management efforts today are geared towards developing an understanding of how this biodiversity loss may impact contemporary ecosystems, and what we can do about it. The consequences of biodiversity loss on ecosystem function can take decades or even centuries to manifest, and so this is where a paleontological, or longer time, perspective can help. The migration of humans into the Americas at the terminal Pleistocene (~13,000 years ago) led to the extinction of >150 species of the largest mammals on the continents, including mammoths, llamas, horses, camels, giant ground sloths, the cave lion, and saber-toothed cats. Examining the role of these extinct mammals, and what happened to the surviving mammals after their extinction, can help us understand what might happen following biodiversity extinction in the future. Thus, this project provides critical baseline information for conservation efforts, as well as insights into the functioning of modern mammal communities. Broader impacts of this work include educational and public outreach, student training, and contributions to scientific infrastructure from the identification and accessioning of fossil materials. The research team will quantify the ecological legacy of the terminal Pleistocene megafaunal extinction on mammal communities in the Edward’s Plateau region of Texas. Building on an unparalleled late Quaternary fossil record of extinct and surviving mammals compiled by the researchers, diet (through stable isotope analysis of preserved collagen in bones), morphology (through 2D and 3D imaging), and ecological interactions (through modeling and simulations) will be characterized at eight key time intervals spanning the past 20,000 years. The overall aim is to characterize the consequences of species extinction on communities, on earth systems, and on surviving animals. Further, the research team will quantify if and how communities recovered, and investigate whether these patterns were influenced by changing climates or by the acceleration and expansion of human impacts over the late Holocene. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-07

The focus of this award is the development of a plan for the coexistence at the South Pole of transmissions to and from large communications satellite constellations like Starlink with instruments in the Antarctic Dark Sector vulnerable to these transmissions. This builds on extensive and varied experience in understanding and mitigating interference in precision CMB instruments. The proposed work would also continue ongoing efforts in understanding harmful interference thresholds and developing reasonable and well-justified plans for the inevitable existence of RF transmissions at some level within the Dark Sector. Historically, these efforts have addressed situations as they arise, or after data is discovered to be contaminated. The emerging threat of interference from large satellite constellations is too complex and potentially devastating to scientific datasets to address in the same ad hoc way. The project consists of coordination with the SpaceX network (Starlink) on a plan of coexistence; development of a prototype Starlink terminal suitable for long-term installation, including a winterized remote user terminal; development of an improved RFI monitoring system capable of detecting Starlink transmissions, with visualization tools and integration into scientific data streams; analysis of current data sets from the Dark Sector to characterize and understand RFI issues, and development of standardized RFI susceptibility tests to determine vulnerability of future instruments. The primary focus for this project is instruments (such as CMB-S4) designed to measure the cosmic microwave background with very long integrations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2026 · 2024-07

Summary: A key question in neurobiology is how neural stem cells (NSCs) produce the vast diversity of neural subtypes required for precise control of behavior. The human cortex is generated from a specialized population of outer radial glia NSCs (oRGs) in the outer subventricular zone, which divide to produce intermediate neural progenitors (INPs) that themselves divide to produce 8-12 neurons. Drosophila Type II NSCs (T2 NSCs) divide in a similar pattern and generate INPs to produce most neural cells of the central complex (CX)— a conserved brain region across insect species involved in producing complex high-level behavior. Thus, T2 NSCs are a good model for investigating the genetic mechanisms of neural diversity adopted by neural progenitors across species. We previously discovered a series of transcription factors (TFs) and RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) that are sequentially expressed in T2 NSCs and INPs over developmental time. These are ideal candidates for specifying the identity of the CX lineages through combinatorial temporal patterning. Here, using an innate goal-directed behavior in flies— odor-guided food search—associated CX circuit, we will identify which temporally expressed TFs and RBPs play a role in specifying olfactory navigation circuitry and determine the role of these genes in specifying the number, morphology, and identity of each circuit element (Aim 1). Next, we will use genetic birthdating to determine the lineage and birthtime of each circuit element and to examine the link between birth timing and function in a single T2 NSC lineage—DL1 (Aim 2). Finally, our proposed training, mentoring, and science outreach activities through the Pueblo Brain Science program in New Mexico will target trainees at multiple levels and will improve science education awareness and promote diversity in neuroscience (Aim 3). While investigating mechanisms regulating neural diversity, our long-term goal is to make the neuroscience field diverse through training, mentoring, and promoting science education in resource-limited and historically neglected Pueblo communities. As many of the identified factors have human homologs, our results will identify conserved principles governing the development of CX and provide insights into the development of the human cortex.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2026 · 2024-04

Project Summary/Abstract This Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development application (K23) will provide protected time for Dr. Frank Schwebel to strengthen his trajectory as independent researcher at the University of New Mexico, Center on Alcohol, Substance use, And Addictions (UNM-CASAA). His goal is to develop expertise in mindfulness-based interventions, advanced quantitative methods, and interactive, personalized mHealth interventions to improve medication adherence and treatment outcomes among individuals struggling with opioid use disorder (OUD) and other substance use disorders. In order to develop expertise in these areas, the candidate proposes an innovative, mentored research study using text messages to deliver medication adherence reminders and mindfulness-based intervention content for individuals taking medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). OUD and opioid overdose have increased significantly over the past 20 years and are considered an epidemic. MOUD has proven to be an effective treatment option, however, medication adherence is a significant problem with most dropout occurring within one month of MOUD initiation. Mindfulness-based interventions show promise in helping decrease opioid use. This study builds on existing literature suggesting the effectiveness of medication reminders and supplements it by focusing on factors that might help decrease risk of opioid use (e.g., mindfulness, self-efficacy, craving, withdrawal symptoms) (consistent with NIDA FY 2021-2025 Strategic Plan Outline Goal 2). By conducting a microrandomized trial (MRT), the study takes an innovative approach to identify effective mindfulness-based intervention content and is a necessary step in creating a cutting-edge, just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) (consistent with NIDA Strategic Plan Action 2.1). This mentored study will offer the necessary training to help the candidate develop expertise to establish his own independent mHealth intervention program of research that specializes in using mindfulness-based interventions to treat OUD. With the guidance of his mentorship team, Dr. Schwebel’s training plan and mentored study are integrated and selected to promote the development of a comprehensive skillset in the following areas: 1) mindfulness-based interventions for OUD (Dr. Witkiewitz [UNM]), 2) integration of pharmacological and psychological treatments (Drs. Witkiewitz [UNM], Tofighi [NYU]), 3) advanced mHealth approaches and user-centered design (Drs. Pearson [UNM], Murphy [Harvard], Suffoletto [Stanford]), 4) advanced quantitative methods (Drs. Witkiewitz [UNM], Pearson [UNM], Murphy [Harvard]), and 5) professional development, dissemination, grantsmanship, and ethics (Drs. Witkiewitz [UNM], Pearson [UNM], Murphy [Harvard], Suffoletto [Stanford], Tofighi [NYU]). In addition to training at CASAA, Dr. Schwebel will visit Dr. Murphy’s lab at Harvard University and complete trainings at a variety of institutes across the country (e.g., mHealth Training Institute, Penn State Methodology Center). Through this training, Dr. Schwebel will be prepared to develop an independent research program.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2023-09

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Candidate: My long-term goals are to acquire a tenure-track faculty position at a research-intensive university that serves students who reflect the diversity of the United States. My research will utilize multi-modal neuroimaging techniques to better understand the neural correlates and developmental relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use in women and racial/ethnic minority groups. I have a strong background in using structural and functional neuroimaging techniques to study the threat-related neurocircuitry related to the development and maintenance of PTSD. In this application, I propose to extend my training by first learning the basic neural mechanisms that promote alcohol use and how trauma exposure may contribute to neurological vulnerabilities in women, making this group more prone to using alcohol. Furthermore, I will build off the training I am already receiving through my Diversity Supplement award to learn how to use complex longitudinal statistical models to analyze ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data. Ultimately, this additional training will give me the skills to produce high-impact publications and successful R01 submissions. Training: In addition to Dr. Jennifer Stevens, I have a mentoring team filled with experts in academic research who will provide the necessary training and guidance to accomplish this proposal. Dr. Julie Kable is an Associate Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Associate Director of the Emory Neurodevelopmental Exposure Clinic, Dr. Justine Welsh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Emory Healthcare Addiction Services and Medical Director of the Addiction Alliance of Georgia, and Dr. Nicole Nugent is an Associate Professor at Brown University. Outside of the mentoring team, we have identified workshops, seminars, and meetings to provide further technical training, presentation experience, responsible conduct in research, and the necessary skills (negotiations, tenure, laboratory management) to transition to independence. Research: PTSD and alcohol use disorder (AUD) are highly co-occurring disorders (PTSD+AUD). Women are twice as likely than men to develop PTSD, and women face more detrimental health effects from alcohol compared to men. A large body of work has examined the neural mechanisms that underlie each disorder, separately. However, very few studies have examined the neural substrates of co-occurring PTSD+AUD, and none have examined sex differences. My preliminary data shows sex differences in the striatum, a region important in reward-related behavior. This proposal aims to define sex differences in reward-related neurocircuitry that contribute to alcohol use behaviors in trauma-exposed women. By using EMA and functional neuroimaging techniques, I anticipate expanding our understanding of sex differences in reward- related neurocircuitry that promote alcohol use in trauma-exposed populations. The successful completion of this proposed project has the potential to inform the development of preventative interventions to inhibit the development of AUD in trauma-exposed women.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2023-09

Abstract Optical imaging enables fast and minimally invasive observation of biological processes within living cells and organisms. However, current state-of-the-art imaging instruments have limitations in acquisition speed, spatial resolution and light-penetration depth that restrict the types of biological questions that can be addressed. This is particularly problematic for biological samples that span several orders of magnitude in spatiotemporal scale. For example, cell-cell interactions within the tumor microenvironment and their response to treatment can occur over seconds to days and be heterogeneous throughout an entire tissue volume. Coupling these physiological outcomes to the underlying molecular mechanisms (and potential therapeutic targets) requires a transformation in not only the technologies we use, but also the combination of methods to cross the spatiotemporal scales from cells to tissues. Recent developments in emerging techniques like cleared-tissue-imaging coupled with lightsheet microscopy (LSM) has enabled researchers to probe deeper into the tissue without needing to section them. Illumination with lightsheet offers a much faster and less phototoxic alternative in comparison to point scanning microscopes. However, all LSM (including Lattice lightsheet) struggled with a number of fundamental limitations: (a) the maximum number of possible labels that can be imaged, (b) the size of the samples that they can handle, and, (c) poor spatial and temporal resolution. In order to fill these gaps my research program will engineer new optics that will not only improve the spatiotemporal resolution of the current state-of-the-art but also enable researchers to probe multiple simultaneous cellular phenotypes within the 3D architecture of the tissue microenvironment. By employing multiple scanning lightsheets we will develop a large volume hyperspectral LSM that will be able to unmix (segmentation and classification) 12+ fluorophores and image at 300 nm XYZ resolution to quantify the complex spatiotemporal interactions between various cell-types in tissue microenvironment. Additionally, we will develop a next generation LSM that will provide users a seamless transition from an organ/organism level imaging to 300 nm XYZ resolution. It will be proficient in identifying events-of-interest at lower resolution in large organs and intelligently adapt to high-resolution imaging, thus reducing imaging-time and generated-data burden. We will also design a new sample scanning strategy that will minimize light loss within the tissues. In order to prevent out-of-focus blur while imaging inside the tissue we will implement an autofocus routine that will enable users to carry out prolonged and unsupervised imaging of large specimens. Finally, we will develop a lattice lightsheet fluorescence microscope that will be able to perform fast, high-resolution multicolor imaging of live cells and spheroids. A configurable emission path will augment LSM with adaptive optics to counter sample induced aberrations. This will allow us to dynamically observe and quantify morphological phenotypes characteristic for highly metastatic cancer cells, which will be staged in organoids. I believe these have the potential to determine statistically significant patterns within the intact tissue that are bound to uncover novel biological questions.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2023-08

PROJECT SUMMARY Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is prevalent and costly, and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Effective pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for AUD exist, although many individuals do not receive medications and most are treated via mutual support group participation. Alcoholics Anonymous and other mutual support programs have been shown to be highly effective in supporting abstinence, and they are a tremendously valuable option for those interested in abstinence-based recovery. Yet, approximately 80% of individuals with AUD never seek treatment and not wanting to stop drinking is a common barrier to seeking treatment. AA and other mutual support programs are often abstinence-based, yet programs that focus on reductions in drinking have been shown to be as effective at reducing harms related to alcohol use. Recent studies in population-based and clinical samples indicate significant health benefit from drinking reductions, without total abstinence. Aligned with these findings, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has proposed a new operational definition of recovery defined as: remission from AUD, cessation of heavy drinking, and improvements in functioning and well-being. Expanding the definition of recovery to include non- abstinent outcomes could increase treatment seeking among those with AUD who are not willing to abstain but are willing to reduce drinking, and reduce the public health burden of untreated AUD. One program that has considerable promise for promoting AUD recovery is mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP). Efficacy of MBRP for reducing heavy drinking has been shown in several trials. Further, MBRP explicitly targets neurobiologically-informed domains of addiction: inhibitory control over behavioral responses (executive function); craving and cue reactivity (incentive salience); and negative affect (negative emotionality). MBRP may also be more effective than existing continuing care options in targeting broader health and life functioning. MBRP also has the potential to be broadly accessible via video conferencing. The goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of MBRP groups delivered via video conferencing in promoting whole- person recovery from AUD up to three years following an attempt to change or stop drinking via treatment or self-change, as compared to referral to online mutual support groups. This study will also examine how MBRP affects mechanisms of behavior change based on neurobiologically-informed addiction cycle domains. We will use an effectiveness-implementation design to prospectively test the effectiveness of MBRP, as well as identify barriers and facilitators of MBRP group participation to inform future implementation of MBRP continuing care. The ultimate goal of this work is to evaluate MBRP via video conferencing as a continuing care option that supports whole-person recovery and targets addiction cycle domains in supporting long-term recovery from AUD in communities nationwide, including a focus on underserved areas. Availability of effective, evidence- based continuing care interventions may reduce the public health burden of AUD.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2026 · 2023-05

PROJECT SUMMARY Exploring novel and unfamiliar foods, friend groups, and activities during adolescence critically shapes our preferences and personalities in adulthood. Conversely, for adolescents who engage in underage drinking, such novelty-seeking can be maladaptive and lead to the development of chronic alcohol use problems. Cross- sectional studies suggest that individuals become more strategic in their use of goal-directed exploration to optimize choice during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The core hypothesis of the proposed study is that the maturation of directed exploration is blunted or lagged in adolescents who experiment with alcohol and go on to develop increased alcohol use problems. Specifically, we will conduct an accelerated longitudinal fMRI study of N=135 participants (recruited at 13-21 years), merging clinical assays of alcohol use severity, computational modeling of novelty-driven exploration across multiple tasks, model-based decomposition of fMRI data at three longitudinal timepoints, and smartphone-based daily diary assessments to probe alcohol- and novelty-related decision making in vivo outside of the laboratory. In Aim 1 we will test the hypothesis that the normative maturation of novelty-driven exploration—i.e., expansion of strategic, goal- directed exploration to optimize choice—will be negatively modulated by increased alcohol use severity. Further, we will use longitudinal model-based fMRI to determine whether this expansion of directed exploration is driven by age-related increases in neural encoding of the latent value of exploring new options in frontoparietal (i.e., frontopolar cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and intraparietal lobule) and motivational (i.e., striatum, amygdala, and orbitofrontal cortex) neural circuits. In Aim 2 we will contrast novelty-driven exploration to maximize gains versus minimize losses, hypothesizing that the presence of potential punishments should decrease exploratory behavior as individuals are motivated to avoid potential losses. Differentiation between reward- and punishment-evoked neural responses is blunted in adolescents with alcohol use problems, therefore we hypothesize that differential gating of novelty exploration across gain versus loss contexts will be diminished in adolescents with higher alcohol use severity. Lastly, in Aim 3 we will use daily diary prompts delivered via smartphone to determine the ecological relevance of our laboratory- based decision making assays for predicting real-world alcohol- and novelty-directed behaviors. This triangulation of computational phenotyping, neuroimaging, and ecologically-situated assessments has not been performed in existing studies, and could identify a new novelty-driven exploration dimension to be considered in future iterations of the Addictions Neuroclinical Assessment framework. In line with the Katz Early Stage Investigator mechanism—this computational developmental science approach will represent an innovative advance that will launch the PI in a new research direction: leveraging his skills and expertise in adolescent neuroimaging to focus on the development of decision making neurocircuitry and risk for alcohol use problems in adolescence.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2026 · 2023-04

Project summary: Treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is characterized by common relapse, heterogeneity in findings, and many diverse interventions which show modest efficacy but fail to out perform each other. Research aiming to explain the existing heterogeneity has found many significant moderators of treatment effects but few of these have effect sizes large enough to indicate that they should be used in clinical practice for targeting treatments. New personalized medicine methods which use machine learning algorithms to create predictions of responses to AUD treatment which take into account multiple predictors show early promise. This research This research uses data from 11 randomized clinical trials, 6 of behavioral relapse prevention programs and 5 of pharmacological interventions to reduce heavy drinking, to develop and cross validate individual predictions of treatment effects on heavy drinking. We will also test the significance of individual differences for each intervention and provide predictive intervals for individuals describing their expected response to different interventions. The study also aims to test new approaches for combining data across multiple trials and for improving precision of predictions in order to make the use of the predicted individual treatment effects (PITEs) framework more useful in clinical practice. At the end of this study there will be published algorithms for comparing predictions of treatment effects for new individuals across multiple treatments, predictive intervals for those effects, and an assessment of internal and, where possible, external validation of those predictions. The work emphasizes replicability of results through cross-validation (which will itself be tested with simulations), a priori specification of predictive methods and covariates, and use of an expert panel to make theory and literature informed decisions. This research is designed to make personalized medicine for treatment of AUD usable in clinical practice through its integration of theory, clinical experience brought by the clinical advisory board, and clear communication of results to a clinical audience.

Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture · FY 2023-2024 · 2023-04

Volet: Bourses de doctorat en recherche; Domaine: Enjeux fondamentaux et finalités de la vie humaine; Objet: Santé mentale et société; Application: Structures et relations sociales; Application: Populations; Mots-clés: PHILOSOPHIE, PHENOMENOLOGIE, POSTSTRUCTURALISME, POUVOIR, SANTE MENTALE, MALADIE MENTALE

NIH Research Projects · FY 2024 · 2022-09

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders involve morphologic and neurobiological abnormalities in offspring subjected to prenatal alcohol exposure. Although not as well studied as high exposure, moderate prenatal alcohol exposure represents the most common and undetected form in humans. While learning and memory deficits have been well characterized at the behavioral level in humans with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and in animal models of moderate prenatal alcohol exposure, few studies have determined the circuit or systems level mechanisms. A complete understanding of the neural bases of memory deficits after moderate prenatal alcohol exposure is needed to ultimately identify treatments that may mitigate impacts later in life. In our previous work, we determined that rats with moderate prenatal alcohol exposure are significantly impaired in learning a task that requires the acquisition of an association between an object and its spatial location, called the object-place paired-associate task. Previous studies have demonstrated that disruption to the hippocampus impairs object-place associations. The hippocampal involvement in object-place learning and memory is critically dependent on synchronized rhythmic activity of hippocampal cell populations occurring at slow and fast frequencies. During active behavior, hippocampal cell activity can be organized by coupling between a slow rhythm called theta and a fast rhythm called gamma. During immobility, hippocampal neural activity is organized within a fast rhythm called a sharp wave-ripple. Theta-gamma coupling, and the expression of sharp wave-ripples, are thought to have a critical role in the encoding and consolidation of hippocampal dependent memories, respectively. Whether moderate prenatal alcohol exposure disrupts hippocampal theta-gamma coupling or characteristics of hippocampal sharp wave-ripples during performance of a learning and memory task has not been experimentally investigated. In two specific aims, we will test the hypotheses that impaired learning and memory after moderate prenatal alcohol exposure is associated with uncoupling of hippocampal theta-gamma rhythms and a disruption in the sharp wave-ripples characteristics and that these alterations to hippocampal rhythmic activity are associated with impairments in object-place learning and memory. The aims of this proposal will significantly advance our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of learning and memory deficits after moderate prenatal alcohol exposure.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2022-09

Project Summary This project describes a technology development effort that will generate three complementary methods for measuring Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) kinetic rates between membrane proteins. In Aim 1, we develop a new algorithmic approach for single-particle tracking analysis that generates trajectories from image/movie data. It is based on Bayesian inference strategy. We then extend this to extracting kinetic rates of PPIs from two color single particle tracking data. In Aim 2, we develop a ‘smart’ microscope that is capable of adapting illumination and frame rates when a PPI is imminent (particles diffuse close to each other), thereby reducing photobleaching, allowing long-term tracking with organic fluorophores and gaining a factor of 10 to 50 in imaging speed during an interaction. In Aim 3 we implement and demonstrate a ‘quantum imaging’ approach for making a quantum optimal estimation of the distance between two fluorophores of the same type. This method can estimate the distance between incoherent point sources with an uncertainty in the distance measurement near the limit of any possible measurement and substantially better than classical image-then-estimate approaches. In practice, it gives the benefits of two-color tracking using a simplified one-color labeling scheme. Direct detection of PPIs at the single molecule level in living cells is difficult because labeling must be done at densities low enough for single fluorescent labels to be identified and detected with diffraction limited optics. Since molecules must come into contact with each other to initiate a PPI, often through diffusion limited processes, the observed interactions can be temporally rare. The new methods proposed here will allow for other fluorophores, including organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, to be used to quantify PPIs. Our long-term goal is to provide a set of methods that can report on the dynamics of various types of PPIs. The rationale for the proposed Aims is that by providing these new methods, a wider range of PPIs can be studied on living cells, opening new doors for biomedical research. This technology development project is a collaboration between three investigators with complementary expertise. K. Lidke (PI) is an expert on single molecule imaging and microscopy development. F. Becerra (co-PI) is a world leader in the area of ultra-sensitive measurements of coherent states of light using optimized photon counting measurements with fast feedback. D. Lidke (co-I) has developed and applied innovative single molecule techniques to quantify PPI in living cells.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2022-09

PROJECT SUMMARY Social integration and social support have profound and long-lasting effects on health and mortality. With such advantages, it is surprising that individuals vary so much in their ability to access the health benefits of social ties. In order to design more effective intervention and prevention strategies involving social support, it is vital to understand the factors that affect individual engagement with social networks, as well as which features of social relationships contribute most reliably to health outcomes. Research of this kind is quite difficult with human subjects given that long and complex social experiences are often distilled into broad subjective and retrospective measures of social support. Non-human primates have emerged as tractable and appropriate model systems for investigating interactions between social processes and health. Primate social bonds yield similar health or survival benefits to those in humans, yet social behaviors can be directly observed and objectively quantified. Chimpanzees are particularly valuable comparative models because they are long-lived and socially-complex, share a close genetic relationship with humans, and exhibit important similarities in social aging trajectories. The Kibale Chimpanzee Project has collected a dense, longitudinal sample comprising >25 years of systematic, daily observations of wild chimpanzee social behavior paired with routine monitoring for urinary biomarkers of stress and physiological health. The currently proposed work capitalizes on the extraordinary capacity of this dataset to elucidate long-term interactions between stress response systems, social relationship maintenance, and aging. The overarching goal of this research is to elucidate the factors that affect unequal access to the health benefits of social ties. Our innovative approach centers on the perspective that the development of beneficial social support networks entails costly investments and the risk of stressful, health-compromising experiences. We hypothesize that both early development and aging shape individual sensitivity to relationship stress, which affects how individuals engage in their social environments. Aim 1 will evaluate how body size and trait glucocorticoid function, factors influenced by development, predict investment in and quality of social relationships. Aim 2 will evaluate how relationship quality attributes, such as the stability and equitability of bonds and the balance of positive and negative interactions, moderate the influence of social bonds on health and mortality. For Aim 3, we will integrate the results of Aims 1 and 2 into a comprehensive framework by addressing whether individual developmental traits interact with social relationship quality or act independently to shape health, and how these influences are modified by changes in sociality during aging. The planning phase of the research will involve necessary data preparation and development and validation of novel analytical tools for assessing trait glucocorticoid variation and the multidimensional properties of social bonds.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2026 · 2022-09

OVERALL SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have indicated a clear commitment to diversifying the national biomedical workforce. Yet, the recruitment, advancement, and retention of historically disadvantaged and underrepresented minority (URM) faculty remains a significant problem within academia. The NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) initiative aims to transform institutional culture by developing communities of biomedical researchers and supporting institutions that are committed to increasing diversity and inclusive excellence. The University of New Mexico (UNM) is a Hispanic Serving Institution, and a Carnegie Very High Research Activity institution. Thus, recruitment and retention of a diverse biomedical faculty workforce at UNM will align with the NIH mission and will promote inclusive excellence in a majority-minority state where diverse faculty representation will offer role models for female and URM trainees. Research suggests that systemic transformation of institutional culture requires the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty through evidence-based practices, as well as the education of all faculty and adminstrators in diversity, equity, and inclusion. The proposed UNM FIRST program will hire nine early career faculty across six departments in the UNM College of Arts and Sciences. The cohort will consist of two interdisciplinary clusters: neuroscience and data science. The central hypothesis is that this faculty cohort model will successfully hire and retain a diverse cohort of early career faculty and the changes implemented as part of the UNM FIRST program will support the enhancement of inclusive excellence practices across UNM. The long-term goal of the UNM FIRST program is to increase the diversity of the biomedical faculty workforce at NIH while building on recent progress toward inclusive excellence in our institutional culture. Our specific aims are: To recruit, promote, and retain a diverse cohort of biomedical faculty (AIM 1); and to systemically transform UNM institutional culture towards inclusive excellence (AIM 2). The UNM FIRST Leadership Team includes five female leaders at UNM with significant experience in NIH-funded research, faculty development, faculty hiring and promotion, and institutional policymaking. The UNM Leadership, including a new Institutional Innovation Implementation Board (I3 Board; the Senior Vice Provost, Vice President for Research, Associate Provost for Faculty Success, College of Arts & Sciences Dean, and the ADVANCE Director) that will be created to support the UNM FIRST program, will be poised to work closely with the UNM FIRST Leadership Team in its commitment to enhance diversity and inclusive excellence at UNM. The significance of the proposed UNM FIRST program is that a diverse cohort of NIH-funded biomedical faculty devoted to inclusive excellence will achieve success as faculty in the UNM College of Arts and Sciences, that UNM will become an institution where inclusive excellence is permanently established, and that UNM faculty, including UNM FIRST faculty, will train the next generation of diverse NIH-funded scientists.