One KU awards fund 16 research projects across campuses, disciplines

Sixteen projects have been selected for funding through two One KU programs designed to support faculty members who are pivoting existing research to align with new funding priorities or developing collaborative research efforts that span the Lawrence/Edwards and Medical Center campuses. The Office of Research received nearly 100 proposals, which underwent peer review by KU faculty experts.

“I am thrilled by the remarkable response to this year’s One KU Collaborative Research Awards and One KU Research Pivot Awards by faculty eager to pursue new partnerships, explore innovative ideas and position their work for future impact,” said Shelley Hooks, vice chancellor for research. “Amid uncertainty in the federal funding landscape, this strong level of interest underscores the importance of seed funding opportunities that help researchers generate preliminary results, build collaborations and strengthen proposals for external support.”

The funded projects represent an investment by KU of nearly $1 million in its research enterprise and in the individuals and communities who will ultimately benefit from discoveries that emerge from this work. 

One KU Collaborative Research Awards

The One KU Collaborative Research Awards provide seed funding to launch or strengthen innovative, interdisciplinary research partnerships between KU Lawrence/Edwards and KU Medical Center investigators. These awards support projects in key research growth areas with strong potential for external funding. Funded teams are expected to generate preliminary data that establishes the feasibility of their research question or hypothesis and positions them to pursue competitive extramural grant opportunities at the conclusion of the award period.

Funded projects

1. Force-triggered Reset of Aptamer Sensors for Continuous Biomarker Monitoring
   
   • Dingran Chang, assistant professor, chemistry (KUL)
   • Bret Freudenthal, professor, biochemistry & molecular biology (KUMC)
      
2. Optimizing Machine Learning for Real-time fNIRS-based Prosthetic Control in Upper-limb Amputees 
   
   • Jordan Borrell, assistant professor, occupational therapy education (KUMC)
   • Jon Brumberg, professor, psychology (KUL)
      
3. Identification of PARP1 ADP-ribosylation Sites During Infection
   
   • Anthony Fehr, associate professor, molecular biosciences (KUL)
   • Michael Washburn, professor, cancer biology (KUMC)
      
4. Study the Adaptation of Neurovascular Coupling After Traumatic Brain Injury
   
   • David Guggenmos, research assistant professor, rehabilitation medicine (KUMC)
   • Xinmai Yang, professor, mechanical engineering (KUL)
      
5. Feasibility of Engagement of Music for Pulmonary Obstruction with Expiratory Restoration (EMPOWER) to Target Pulmonary Function in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
   
   • Deanna Hanson Abromeit, professor, music education & music therapy (KUL)
   • Jiwoong Choi, research assistant professor, internal medicine (KUMC)
      
6. A Clinically Grounded Multimodal Framework Integrating Explainable AI and Automated Analytic Techniques to Advance Personalized, Measurement-based Care for Progressive Communication Disorders in Neurodegenerative Diseases
   
   • Lindsey Heidrick, hearing & speech (KUMC)
   • Panying Rong, associate professor, speech-language-hearing: sciences & disorders (KUL)

One KU Research Pivot Awards

The One KU Research Pivot Awards are designed to help KU researchers explore and align novel ideas with new opportunities and build internal capacity to maintain research momentum when their usual sources of external funding in a topic area have become unavailable. The proposed research is expected to generate preliminary data or investigations to support competitive proposals for extramural research grant opportunities.

Funded projects

1. Extreme Heat as a Modifier of PFAS‑induced Hepatotoxicity in Metabolic Liver Disease
   
   • Udayan Apte, professor, pharmacology, toxicology & therapeutics (KUMC)
      
2. Can Artificial Intelligence Identify Drivers of Terrestrial Productivity, Soil Health and Carbon Accumulation?
   
   • James Bever, distinguished professor/senior scientist, ecology & evolutionary biology/Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research (KUL)
      
3. Research Pivot: From Soil Controls on Climate to AI-enhanced Discovery of Water Quality Drivers
   
   • Sharon Billings, distinguished professor/senior scientist, ecology & evolutionary biology/Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research (KUL)
      
4. Low-Energy, Electrochemical Lithium & Transition Metal Recovery from End-of-Life Lithium Ion Batteries
   
   • Kevin Leonard, professor, chemical & petroleum engineering (KUL)
      
5. Assessing the Water Supply Resilience of Kansas Reservoirs Under Changing Weather Patterns and Storage Capacity Loss
   
   • Qianqiu Longyang, assistant scientist, Kansas Geological Survey (KUL)
      
6. Rewriting Japanese Woodblock Printmaking: Gender, Labor, and an AI-Ready Cultural Database of the Yoshida Women
   
   • Akiko Takeyama, professor, women, gender & sexuality studies (KUL)
      
7. Antisense Oligotherapy Targeting the O-GlcNAc Transferase Metabolic Sensor in ADPKD
   
   • Pamela Tran, associate professor, cell biology & physiology (KUMC)
      
8. E-cadherin Peptides-based Ocular Drug Delivery and Therapeutics
   
   • Michael Wang, professor, pharmaceutical chemistry (KUL)
   • Stephen Ambrose, clinical assistant professor, ophthalmology (KUMC)
      
9. Precision Agriculture Enabling Irrigation Intelligence: A Field-Scale Data Platform to Enhance Decision-Making
   
   • Sam Zipper, assistant professor/assistant scientist, geology/Kansas Geological Survey (KUL)
      
10. Superlattice Potential Engineering of Robust Artificial Quantum Phases of Matter
    
    • Qunfei Zhou, assistant professor, physics & astronomy (KUL)