Six interdisciplinary Ohio State research teams have been awarded up to $300,000 each in Catalyst grants through the President's Research Excellence program in the most recent cycle.
Catalyst grants are awarded to medium or large teams of 3-5 investigators representing three or more distinct disciplinary perspectives that are formed to pursue high-impact research towards an identified national-leadership level or highly strategically significant proposal target. The program also provides Accelerator grants to smaller teams to pursue curiosity-driven, high-risk, high-reward, pilot-scale research towards an identified proposal target.
Ohio State has invested more than $10 million in 112 teams of investigators through the PRE program since its inception in 2021.
Engineering Eggshell Excellence: Gene Editing of OCX-32 to Advance Egg Quality and Economic Sustainability in the Poultry Industry
Lead PI: Kichoon Lee (Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences)
Co-investigators: Jinwoo Hwang (Engineering); Aradhya Gourapura (Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences)
Project description: This project will use CRISPR gene editing in Japanese quail to investigate the role of ovocalyxin-32 (OCX32) in eggshell defects, a major cause of egg loss and food safety concerns. Findings will reveal OCX32’s impact on shell structure and antimicrobial defense, guiding future genetic improvements.
Lightwave Electronics with 2D Ferroic Materials
Lead PI: Enam Chowdhury (Engineering)
Co-investigators: Roberto Myers (Engineering); Michael Chini, Chun Ning Lau and Jay Gupta (Arts and Sciences)
Project description: Lightwave electronics, resulting from attosecond materials response to light, ushers Peta-Hertz technology platform, a million times faster than state of the art. However, it faces daunting materials challenges which can be solved by giant nonlinear response from a 2D ferroic materials platform.
Assessing Radiation Exposure through Hair Melanin Analysis
Lead PI: Zachary Schultz (Arts and Sciences)
Co-investigators: Naduparambil Jacob (Medicine); Christin Burd (Arts and Sciences)
Project description:The project investigates ionizing radiation induced changes in different melanin pigments in mouse hair for rapid determination of radiation dose exposed. It will combine a mouse model with Raman spectroscopy, histopathology and artificial intelligence models to enable effective biodosimetry.
Wide Bandgap Oxides Tailored for Space Mission
Lead PI: Kaveh Ahadi (Engineering)
Co-investigators: Siddharth Rajan and Salva Salmani-Rezaie (Engineering)
Project description:The goal of the project is a new materials platform for a wide range of electronic devices which will outperform state-of-the-art in extreme environment of space.
Preventing Mass Atrocities
Lead PI: Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira (Arts and Sciences)
Co-investigators: Skyler Cranmer (Arts and Sciences); Dakota Rudesill (Law)
Project description:This project will use quantitative methods to forecast mass atrocities targeting specific groups as well as mass atrocities indiscriminately targeting civilians, including large-scale terror attacks.
Nationwide Corn Germplasm Evaluation for Enhanced Productivity, Quality, Marketability and Economic Viability in the US
Lead PI: Osler Ortez (Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences)
Co-investigators: Mohsen Shahrokhi, Alex Lindsey, Pierce Paul, Richard Minyo, Jason Hartschuh and Mathew Lowe (Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences)
Project description:The goal is to conduct the first-of-its-kind screening for genetic resistance to deoxynivalenol mycotoxin contamination in Nationwide corn germplasm for enhanced productivity, quality, marketability and economic viability, establishing Ohio State as a national leader for mycotoxin research in corn.