HBC January 2023 News Bulletin

Call for HBC Research Seminar Speaker Nomination

The HBC would like to hold a Research Seminar in late March to early April of 2023. These seminars are designed to allow faculty members to invite colleagues and potential collaborators to present their science and possibly discuss future collaborations with KU faculty. If you would like to nominate a speaker to present at this spring’s Research Seminar, please send the name, department, and institution, of your nominee to Paula Hinman at phinman@ku.edu by February 13^th, 2023.

Higuchi Biosciences Center Participant Uses Fungi to Transform Ocean Plastic Waste

Berl Oakley, Irving S. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Higuchi Biosciences participant, recently published results from a research project that successfully transformed ocean polyethylene plastic waste into usable ingredients for the drug industry. His lab collaborated with several researchers from the University of Southern California. For more information, see the KU Today article “Using Fungi, Researchers Convert Ocean Plastic Into Ingredients for Drug Industry,” also featured on the HBC News webpage.

J.R. & Inez Jay Fund Call For Proposals

Proposal applications for the 2023 J.R. & Inez Jay Fund are currently being accepted. Prior to submission to HBC, please use KUCR Pre-Award Services (kucrpremgmt@lists.ku.edu) to help with the proposal preparation. When contacting KUCR Pre-Award Services, you must indicate that this proposal is through HBC.

New this year; priority will be given to proposals needing additional data to address weaknesses perceived by reviewers on external grant applications that were scored. When submitting this type of application, take note of the following:

• The external review summary statement must be provided as an appendix to the Jay application.
• The application must detail how the external review critique will be addressed.
• The budget for applications addressing prior external review can be up to $60K. This amount may be divided into smaller amounts for multiple awards, depending on the needs justified in the application and the judgement of the review committee.

To obtain a copy of the proposal packet, contact Nicole Suchy at nsuchy@ku.edu. Please be sure to apply by the April 7, 2023, 5 pm deadline.

Travel expenses – mileage reimbursement

For 2023, the State of Kansas reimbursement rates for automobile mileage remains the same at $0.585/mile. However, the Internal Revenue Service has increased the federal mileage reimbursement to $0.655/mile. The new IRS rate was effective as of January 1, 2023. The State of Kansas rates will apply to all University of Kansas (UKANS) projects, and may also apply to Office of Research (KURES) awards from State of Kansas agencies. All other Office of Research (KURES) awards will use the federal mileage rate.

NIH Updates

• Reminder: The 2-day NIH Virtual Grants Conference will be held Wednesday February 1 to Thursday February 2, 2023, and registrations are currently open. For more details about the sessions, consult the conference agenda.
• As of January 1, 2023, the NIH changed the salary cap to $212,100 for Grants and Cooperative Agreements.

Recent Awards

Cory Berkland, Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, was awarded $3,005,839 by the Helmsley Charitable Trust for his project entitled: “Development of SAgA-T1D as Type 1 Diabetes Antigen Specific Immunotherapy.”

Dan Dixon, Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, was awarded $31,539 and 25,000 by the University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute for his projects entitled: “Drug Discovery Delivery and Experimental Therapeutics Component (D3ET)” and “In vivo model for assessment of intestinal adenoma-derived extracellular vesicles.”

Anthony Fehr, Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, was awarded $424,184 by the National Institutes of Health for his project entitled: “Identifying the targets of virus-induced PARPs during SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

Laird Forrest, Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, was awarded $160,182 by Kinimmune for his project entitled: “Development of a tumor-retentive immunostimulant as adjunct therapy for solid tumor cancers.”

Scott Lovell, Director, Protein Structure & X-Ray Crystallography Laboratory, was awarded $671,877 by Seattle Children's Hospital for the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease Project Renewal.

Kristi Neufeld, Frank B. Tyler Professor of Cancer Research, Department of Molecular Biosciences, was awarded $28,285 by the University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute for her Cancer Center Support Grant - Cancer Biology Program.

Christian Schoeneich, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, was awarded $310,000 by Novartis Pharma AG for his project entitled: “SubQ Application of Biologics - in vivo degradation in the SubQ space as impact factor for reduced bioavailability.”

Jingxin Wang, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, was awarded $25,000 by the University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute for his project entitled: “Down-regulation of Interferon Signaling by Splicing Modulators.”