News

The University of Maryland has received a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to lead a multi-institutional research partnership that will aid in developing agricultural crop plants able to withstand drought conditions. The project will focus on the cellular activity and gene expression in guard cells in the canola plant (Brassica napus). Canola is an important oilseed crop grown for both human consumption and biodiesel production. June Kwak, associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics, will lead the research group.

Scientists at the University of Maryland and Tulane University have developed a computational model of a swimming fish that is the first to address the interaction of both internal and external forces on locomotion. The interdisciplinary research team simulated how the fish's flexible body bends, depending on both the forces from the fluid moving around it as well as the muscles inside. Understanding these interactions, even in fish, will help design medical prosthetics for humans that work with the body's natural mechanics, rather than against them. This research is published in the October 18, 2010 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A team of neuroscientists has discovered important new information in the search for an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the debilitating neurological disorder that afflicts more than 5.3 million Americans and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Hey-Kyoung Lee, associate professor in the University of Maryland Department of Biology, and her research team have shown that they may be able to eliminate debilitating side effects caused by a promising Alzheimer’s drug by stimulating the brain’s nicotine receptors.

A research team including University of Maryland chemistry and biochemistry Professor Lyle Isaacs and University of Massachusetts Amherst chemist Vincent Rotello has demonstrated that they can deliver a dormant toxin into a specific site such as a tumor for anti-cancer therapy, then chemically trigger the toxin to de-cloak and attack from within. It holds promise as a “complex and sophisticated” synthetic, therapeutic drug delivery system for living cells.

Distinguished University Professor Rita Colwell was named one of three new U.S. science envoys to the Muslim world by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the U.S. State Department on September 16, 2010. In this post, Dr. Colwell is charged with identifying new and building on existing opportunities for scientific partnership that will address global challenges, including water safety and public health, areas in which she has been a scientific leader for decades. Colwell, a renowned marine microbiologist, was the recipient of the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize, which is widely recognized as the world's premier award for water related research or policy work. As a U.S. science envoy, Colwell will travel to Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Colwell has worked in Bangladesh for more than 35 years to prevent the spread of cholera, and most recently to predict disease pandemics by tracking global climate changes.