The Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) and External Affairs, Partnerships and Economic Development (EAPED) at N.C. State University seeks to identify multidisciplinary faculty teams (led by NC State faculty) and transformative research concepts that align with the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) 2030 Strategy. With support from KIETS, an NC State – NNF liaison, Dr. Brian Hawkins, is leading the development and management of the Novo Nordisk Foundation relationship with NC State. This includes interactions with Novozymes and Novo Nordisk.
Among these three primary entities and other related entities, there is strong potential for additional research funding beyond what is already being enabled across several colleges. An expectation is for continued interaction and support of carbon capture research as well as biomanufacturing and sustainability related research. Dr. Hawkins supports the successful execution and development of three currently funded projects including Collaborative Crop Resilience Program (CCRP), Accelerated Innovation in Manufacturing in Biologics (AIM-Bio), and Biocatalyst Interactions with Gases (BIG) projects.
This is an important opportunity for NC State relative to developing the relationship with the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the next phase of the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) and AIM-Bio research program. A proposal is under consideration with NNF for an additional $7M in bridge funding to support the Collaborative Crop Resilience Program. NC State is currently exploring second generation project opportunities with AIM-Bio. The Biocatalyst Interactions with Gases (BIG) project is in its second year and progressing successfully. Support from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), College of Engineering, College of Textiles and the Office of Partnerships leverage KIETS support for the resources related to Dr. Hawkins’ appointment. Discussions are also underway with the Wilson College of Textiles about additional complementary support.
Comparative Medicine Institute Promoting Interdisciplinary Research Project
The NC State Comparative Medicine Institute’s (CMI) mission is to provide clinical and research opportunities to professional students, graduate students, clinical residents, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduates. The CMI fosters interactions between clinical and basic research groups within the university community by developing mechanisms that encourage and facilitate those collaborations. The CMI is composed of interdisciplinary teams of more than 170 faculty from 23 departments, representing 6 colleges and 4 universities.
Each year, led by CMI Co-Directors Professor Jorge Piedrahita and Ashley Brown, the CMI holds the “Think, Collaborate & Do” Ideation event. The goals of this initiative are to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations among research groups, provide seed funding to develop preliminary data that can be used to obtain extramural funding, provide graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with the opportunity to develop their own projects and get experience in grant writing and project management, and incentivize the development of larger collaborative groups that can be competitive for NIH program projects.
KIETS support is leveraged with funding from the CMI, Data Sciences Academy, Genetic and Genomics Academy, Office of University Interdisciplinary Research, Provost Office, Office of Research Innovation, Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, College of Engineering, College of Sciences, College of Textiles and College of Agriculture and Life Science. Projects selected for KIETS support in FY 2024-25 include the following:
- Enhancing Development of New Therapeutic Candidates for Neutrophilic Asthma through Experimental and Mathematical Modeling Approaches. PIs: Sarah Shelton (COE), Rosemary Bayless (CVM), Sharon Lubkin (COS).
- Machine Learning to the Rescue: Data-Driven Prediction of Radiotherapy-Induced Normal Tissue Injury in Canine Cancer Treatment. PIs: S. Mohammad Hosseinian (COE), Michael Nolan (CVM).
- Integrating Sequence, Structure, and Dynamics to Predict and Design Nucleic Acids. PIs: Xingcheng Lin (COS), Keith Weninger (COS), Yi Xiao (COS).
- Modeling Cellular Response to Fibrous Biomaterial Properties for Skin Tissue Engineering. PIs: Jessica Gluck (WCOT), Nathaniel Josephs (COS), Orlando Arguello-Miranda (CALS).
- Defining and Targeting Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in the Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Tumor Microenvironment. PIs: Sarah Shelton (COE), Shawn Gomez (COE/UNC).
- Cell Biology and Topology Meet to Inform Models of Cell Migration Fluidization. PIs: Jason Haugh (COE), Kevin Flores (COS).
For FY 2023-24, the PIs reported 4 publications generated, one invention disclosure, 29 faculty members engaged, 15 undergraduate students, 22 graduate students, three post docs, two K-12 teachers involved, 14 conference presentations generated, two companies PolyMed, Inc. & Cytosorbens/VetResQ partnered, and collaborations with UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University.