President’s Research Excellence Accelerator grants awarded

Nine interdisciplinary Ohio State research teams have been awarded up to $50,000 each in Accelerator grants through the President’s Research Excellence (PRE) program in the most recent cycle.

PRE Accelerator grants are reserved for small teams formed to pursue curiosity-driven, novel, high-risk and high-reward research. This year's grants address research in environment, life sciences and social change. 

Ohio State has invested nearly $5.3 million in 65 teams of Ohio State investigators through the PRE program since its inception in 2021.

January Accelerator Grant Recipients

Engineering crops that are resilient to climate change through regulation of cellular RNA metabolism

• Lead PI: Jyan-Chyun Jang (College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences)      
• Co-investigators: Venkat Gopalan (College of Arts and Sciences); Michael Kearse (College of Medicine)    
• Project description: The goal of the proposed work is to gain new insights into fundamental mechanisms pertaining to RNA turnover in plants, knowledge that is central to improving crop yield and fitness, which in turn is a critical advance necessary to establish global food security.

Leveraging in vivo recording of neuronal activity to understand developmental dynamics of behavioral flexibility in health and disease

• Lead PI: Laurence Coutellier (College of Arts and Sciences)           
• Co-investigators: Ashley Ingiosi and Jason Wester (College of Medicine)
• Project description: This project will use innovative in vivo recording tools in rodents to provide new insights on the developmental events occurring in the adolescent brain in health and disease. It will also position Ohio State at the forefront of some of the most innovative tools currently used in neuroscience.

A biochemical mechanism for nutrient competition within the human gut microbiota

• Lead PI: Darryl Wesener (College of Arts and Sciences)  
• Co-investigators: EmmanouilChatzakis (College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences); Arpad Somogyi (Enterprise for Research, Innovation, and Knowledge)
• Project description: Dietary polysaccharides (fiber) impact human gut microbiota structure and function. Understanding how bacteria compete or cooperate for nutrients will enable manipulation of the microbiota to improve human health. We discovered a metabolite class that we hypothesize prevents theft between bacteria.

Integrating field and laboratory studies for influenza virus zoonotic risk assessment

• Lead PI: Cody Warren (College of Veterinary Medicine)
• Co-investigators: Andrew Bowman (College of Veterinary Medicine); Mark Peeples (College of Medicine)
• Project description: There is an urgent need to identify influenza viruses of high risk for zoonosis. We describe an integrated approach that combines field surveillance and experimental virology to identify potential pandemic threats. Early detection will be essential for effective control and reducing disease risk.

Microbial metabolites stimulate the enteroendocrine cell pregnane X receptor to promote incretin hormone secretion

• Lead PI: Lihua Ye (College of Medicine)
• Co-investigators: Devin Peterson (College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences); Lufang Zhou (College of Medicine)
• Project description: The incretin hormones secreted from the enteroendocrine cells (EECs) are critical in regulating insulin secretion and metabolic homeostasis. The proposed project will test a novel mechanism by which gut microbiota stimulate EECs to promote incretin hormone release and alleviate diet-induced diabetes.

Deep Transfer Learning for Precise Human Surgical Margin Assessment using OCT Images from Canine

• Lead PI: Ping Zhang (College of Medicine)            
• Co-investigators: Joel Mayerson (College of Medicine); Laura Selmic (College of Veterinary Medicine)      
• Project description: Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is a life-threatening condition for humans, and incomplete surgical removal is a serious clinical problem. We will develop an AI tool that could be used to augment real-time OCT surgical margin assessment for clinicians, which will help cut down the recurrence of STS.

The role of retinal glial cells in neuroprotection after repetitive head injury

• Lead PI: Andrew Sas (College of Medicine)           
• Co-investigators: Stacey Choi and Nathan Doble (College of Optometry); Kris Martens (College of Medicine)
• Project description: This proposal will use a combination of patient based advanced ocular imaging to evaluate the presence of gliosis in patients with repetitive head injury combined with molecular exploration in a rat model of repetitive head injury the role of astrocyte and microglial activation in neuroprotection.

Analyzing Changes in Sports in Society and Adults’ Lives Since Pre-pandemic Times: Initial Piloting for The National Sports and Society Survey, Wave II

• Lead PI: Christopher Knoester (College of Arts and Sciences)
• Co-investigators: Dawn Anderson-Butcher and Samantha Bates (College of Social Work); Leann Lower-Hoppe (College of Education and Human Ecology)
• Project description: This proposal seeks to leverage landmark 2018-19 survey data from 3,993 US adults. We seek to conduct initial piloting that will re-engage original respondents, offer essential evidence of attrition and respondent characteristics for Wave II interviews, and allow for new research opportunities.

Interdisciplinary Investigation of the Quality-Of-Life (QoL) of Children  with Concussion- and Non-Concussion-Related  Binocular Vision, Accommodative, and Tracking (BVAT) Disorders and  Development of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) using Qualitative Inquiry