GAP Award Winners 2009
| KATE CALVIN Awarded $40,000 |
Treating Cancer-Drug Side Effects Dr. Kate Calvin (working in the laboratory of Dr. Charles Ouimet) (College of Medicine) will manage a collaborative effort to develop a drug delivery method for treatment of spinal muscular atrophy and peripheral neuropathy. The goal is to deliver proteins that can restore the health of damaged nerve terminals, using a fragment of a neurotoxin, botulinum, as the carrier. |
| JAMES OLCESE Awarded $40,000 |
The Potential to Delay Premature Labor Dr. James Olcese (College of Medicine) has a promising approach for preventing pre-term labor. Olcese has some evidence that inhibiting melatonin uptake will prevent women from beginning labor. |
| CHUCK ZHANG Awarded $25,000 |
Buckypaper as a Non-Toxic Fire Retardant Drs. Chuck Zhang, Ben Wang, and Richard Liang (High Performance Materials Institute) have developed an innovative use for 'buckypaper', a thin sheet made from an aggregate of carbon nanotubes, as a fire- and smoke-shielding layer for flammable surfaces. The buckypaper skin may be applied to polymer surfaces either during the production process or afterward. |
| IAN WINGER Awarded $15,000 |
A Novel Solar Energy Collector FSU Physics research associate, Ian Winger (MARTECH) and graduate student Sean Barton (Physics) have developed the "Inflatable Solar Energy Collector", a device designed to maximize the amount of sunlight that is focused on an energy collector while reducing the cost of materials. Winger and Barton's energy collector when fully operational will heat a thermal fluid to 250 degrees Celsius, for power generation. |
| AMY SANG Awarded $40,000 |
A New Cancer Fighter The Sang Lab has developed and synthesized matrix metalloprotease inhibitors, proteins that may allow for major breakthroughs in the prevention of stroke and in the ability to control growth in certain cancer cells. |
| ALAN MARSHALL Awarded $40,000 |
Detecting Biomarkers of Disease on Cell Surfaces Alan Marshall, the Robert O. Lawton Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State and director of the Ion Cyclotron Resonance Program at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory; and scholar/scientist Mark Emmett and postdoctoral associate Huan He, both of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. This research group has invented a novel method for labeling and quantifying sphingolipids in cell cultures. GAP funding will be used to develop a test kit for possible commercial use as an adjunct to treatment of diseases such as cancer. |
| TYLER MCQUADE Awarded $40,000 |
A New Way to Produce Drugs The McQuade Lab has developed novel chemistry and process technologies for continuous, as opposed to batch, synthesis of several pharmaceuticals. The group will use GAP funding to further develop their techniques to manufacture one commercially important drug. The goal of the process is to drastically reduce the cost of drug manufacture while increasing the yield of the process. |