CIBBR NEWS ARCHIVE
Sequencing Variants
With NIH grant, UNH will help understand COVID-19 variants
As COVID variants march steadily through the Greek alphabet, UNH has received new funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue its genomic surveillance of COVID-19 variants in New Hampshire. The work could lead to better understanding of how specific variants increase transmissibility of the virus, evade the immune systems of those previously infected or increase severity of... 
Dedicated to Health Disparities Research
Nutrition researcher named a faculty fellow in a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute funded program
Nutrition researcher Maria Carlota Dao, an assistant professor at the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture and a New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station (NHAES) researcher, was recently selected as a faculty fellow with the Obesity Health Disparities Programs to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (OHD PRIDE) program at the University of Houston.... 
Repurposing Drug Compound Could Slow COVID Spread
Acts to inhibit “molecular scissors” that lets virus replicate
Krisztina Varga, associate Professor of Molecular, cellular and Biomedical Sciences. Photo by Jeremy Gasowski.
With the end of the pandemic seemingly nowhere in sight, scientists are still very focused on finding new or alternative drugs to treat and stop the spread of COVID-19. In a first-of-its-kind study, UNH researchers found that using an existing drug compound in a new way, known as drug... 
Innovation Inspiration
COVID response, Nature Groupie honored as Innovators of the Year
During the COVID pandemic, many of us embraced two new activities: Swabbing our noses to test for the virus and getting outdoors. UNHInnovation’s Innovator of the Year awards recently honored UNH faculty and staff who helped us do both. W. Kelley Thomas, professor and director of the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies, and UNH Police Chief Paul Dean were honored for their contributions to UNH’s... 
Boosting Biomanufacturing
UNH will lead $6M project to develop quality control sensors
Researchers in UNH’s Surface Enhanced Electrochemical Diagnostic Sensors (SEEDS) Lab have received an EPSCoR grant from the National Science Foundation for close to $6 million to lead a team in developing sensors to promote quality control in biomanufacturing — the production of important biomaterials used in medicine, food and even engineered human organs — a field that is becoming a significant... 
Ensuring a Healthier State
UNH receives grant to perform surveillance for COVID-19 variants in New Hampshire
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire will start genomic testing of positive cases of the COVID-19 virus to help monitor for any variants of concern that may be found in New Hampshire. UNH received a grant of $757,000 from the National Institutes of Health to perform the testing in UNH’s state-of-the-art lab, specifically designed to handle COVID-19 testing, and the Hubbard Center for... 
Brain Monitor
NIH grant funds neurotransmitter sensing platform
With a new R21 Trailblazer Award from the National Institutes of Health, assistant professors Edward Song (electrical and computer engineering) and Arturo Andrade (biological sciences) will conduct research that will contribute to our understanding of mental illness and brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. The grant, for nearly $580,000 over 3 years, will help Song and Andrade... 
Mapping Memory Lane
New research to study role of neural cilia in memory formation
UNH researchers have received an Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study tiny antenna-like projections on the surface of brain cells called neuronal primary cilia, in an effort to understand how they regulate hippocampus-dependent memory formation.
“Neuronal primary cilia are poorly understood cellular organelles in the brain,” says Xuanmao... 
Reactions in Action
New research could reshape how we design lifesaving drugs
Associate professor harish Vashisth
New UNH research has uncovered a novel way of studying protein interactions which may improve the efficacy of a class of drugs — called allosteric drugs — that treat diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological disorders. The research also has the potential to significantly cut time and cost of preliminary allosteric drug design by incorporating a... 
Excellence in Citations
Study ranks 41 UNH researchers in top 2 percent worldwide
A recent study published in PLOS Biology Journal lists 41 current and emeritus UNH researchers among the world's leading 100,000 researchers, in the top 2 percent. The study, led by John P.A. Ioannidis of Stanford University, ranked more than 6 million researchers in 22 disciplines and 176 subdisciplines researchers based on citation metrics from data from 2019. The UNH researchers — from the...