Several MSI PIs were recently awarded 2013 Minnesota Futures grants from the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR). The Minnesota Futures grant program supports interdisciplinary research projects with the goal of making them competitive for external funding. This year’s grants both involve research into cancer treatments. Complete descriptions of the projects can be found on the OVPR Research blog.
Associate Professor Christy Haynes (Chemistry), Professor John Bischof (Mechanical Engineering), Assistant Professor Chris Hogan (Mechanical Engineering), and Professor Michael Garwood (Center for Magnetic Resonance Research) are co-investigators on a project entitled “Maximizing Magnetic Relaxation and Heating in Nanoparticle Therapeutics.” The goal of this project is to contribute to the development of a treatment for cancer that uses ion oxide nanoparticles.
These four faculty members have all used MSI to support their research projects for several years. Professor Haynes performs investigations into the fundamentals of cellular-level mechanisms of the immune system. Professor Bischof is involved in a number of projects related to phase change in biological systems. Professor Hogan creates Brownian dynamics simulations of nanoparticle transport in aerosols. Professor Garwood develops novel frequency swept pulse sequences for magnetic resonance imaging.
Assistant Professor Benjamin Hackel (Chemical Engineering) is a co-investigator on a project entitled “Targeting Metastatic Breast Cancer With Dual Specificity.” The goal of this project is to develop breast cancer treatments that will significantly reduce the number of metastases.
Professor Hackel uses MSI in support of his work engineering high affinity binding proteins.