Research

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

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Mon, 01/27/2025 - 13:14

Assistant Professor Areen Alsaid says the growing suite of semi-autonomous technologies have the ability to make driving safer, more convenient and less stressful. But we’ll only fully realize these benefits if the learning curve doesn’t confuse drivers.

Assistant Professor Areen Alsaid (right), pictured here with doctoral student Shiva Rasouli, has been using a driving simulator to study how drivers respond to interactions between driver assist features. Photo by Julianne Lindsey

Planning for EV infrastructure is complicated. Here’s a better way to do it.

lblouin — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 13:45:53 +0000

Planning for EV infrastructure is complicated. Here’s a better way to do it. lblouin Wed, 01/22/2025 - 08:45

Electric vehicles still represent less than 1% of registered vehicles in the U.S. and comprised just over 8% of new U.S. vehicle sales in 2024. But government officials across the country are already planning for a future in which EVs are the go-to mode of private transportation — as evidenced by increasingly large public investments in EV charging infrastructure, like the $7.5 billion pledged under the Biden administration. When it comes to actually making a plan for building out that infrastructure, however, the devil is in a complex web of largely unknown details, says Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Jian Hu. Ideally, Hu says, you’d want to build a charging system that serves people’s needs for the next 10 years. The tricky part is that involves correctly anticipating a host of trendlines which are basically impossible to predict. “There are so many uncertainties,” Hu says. “We don’t know how fast the EV market will grow, which means we don’t know what the charging demand will be. Will the public want fast or slow charging? Will people charge at home or at work? During peak hours, or non-peak hours? Will utilities adopt dynamic pricing so it’s cheaper to charge at certain times of day? And how will this affect charging behavior? And what if there are new technologies that emerge? There are so many things we don’t know.”

Typically, when government agencies are planning for things like this, Hu says they might use what statisticians call a deterministic model. When you’re making this kind of model, you take account of what data you have, plug it into a formula that defines the relationship between the variables, and then you typically get a single answer, which then guides your plan of action. A simple retirement calculator, which takes your current age, retirement age, anticipated rate of return, the rate of inflation, and monthly savings target and tells you how much money you’ll have when you retire is a simple kind of deterministic model. But Hu argues that these kinds of prediction models aren’t the best tools when you’re dealing with complex situations with lots of uncertainty. “What if your rate of return on your investments isn’t the 7% you’ve put into that calculator? What if it is less and then you don’t have the money you expect when you retire? If you only use this kind of model, you’ll have this single prediction and you base everything on that. But you’re not preparing for a possible worst-case scenario.”

Because of this, statisticians often use different tools for forecasting complex, highly uncertain phenomena, like investment performance. One of the most popular is called stochastic modeling, which, instead of giving you just one answer, provides a range of results represented by thousands of different simulated scenarios in which the values and probabilities of the underlying variables are allowed to change. A popular type of stochastic model is a Monte Carlo simulation, which is used in financial planning. Unlike a simple retirement calculator, which assumes fixed values for things like the rate of inflation or a rate of return, a Monte Carlo analysis will run thousands of simulations in which all the variables you have in your model have different values and assigned probabilities. As a result, you get a much wider representation of possible outcomes, including best-case, worst-case and most likely scenarios. A Monte Carlo simulation might tell you, say, that in 98 percent of its simulated scenarios, which account for a wide range of possible economic conditions, your savings plans are going to get you to the end of your life with money in the bank. That might give you much more confidence in your investment strategy. You might even decide to take a more aggressive approach. Or, as Hu frames it, stochastic modeling gives us a much more complete way to understand risk.

Because stochastic models are so much better at helping us understand risk of uncertain events, Hu says they could be an excellent approach for planning EV infrastructure, given that reliable data on important details, like consumer charging preferences and future electricity demand, are sparse or lacking altogether. As part of a National Science Foundation-funded project, and in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, which is itself partnering with the Chicago Transit Authority, Hu will be creating novel approaches to stochastic modeling that he hopes can profoundly improve this planning process. To get just a little bit technical for a moment: Hu says one of the big challenges of stochastic modeling is coping with “distributional ambiguity,” which is where you’re lacking a lot of reliable information about the probability of key phenomena. Currently, one of the ways statisticians deal with this is a method called distributionally robust optimization, but Hu says DRO has a few limitations. One, it’s computationally intensive, which means as models get more complex, it becomes increasingly cumbersome and time consuming to run them and adapt them to new data. Second, DRO tends to hedge against worst-case scenarios and can therefore lead to overly conservative outcomes. Third, it's a machine learning-based process that is a “black box,” meaning it does not show how it arrives at its answers. It therefore might not be a great option for publicly funded agencies, who, in spending large sums of taxpayer dollars, could certainly benefit from transparent or interpretable models. Hu says his novel stochastic modeling strategy aims not only to improve on these limitations, but also provide more overall usability for public agencies, including models that can be more easily updated as better data emerge.

After developing the model, Hu is looking forward to a big field test toward the end of the project: helping the Chicago Transit Authority as it embarks on electrifying their massive fleet of public buses. Current electric bus battery technology generally provides a range of around 60 miles. But many of CTA’s current scheduled vehicle route blocks are much longer; nearly a third of weekday blocks are longer than 100 miles. CTA therefore envisions building out a bus-charging infrastructure that’s integrated with their garages and bus routes, which will also require enhancements to the local electric grid to accommodate the new electricity load. Figuring out where these grid modifications need to be made and the ideal placement for the charging stations in a way that harmonizes with the complex bus routes — which are likely to change in the future — is exactly the kind of complicated, ambiguous planning task Hu says his model can help with. Most importantly, it gives a government agency its best chance of spending limited public resources for EV charging as effectively as possible.

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Story by Lou Blouin

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

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Wed, 01/22/2025 - 13:40

Given a web of uncertainties, like future electricity price, consumer charging behavior and EV market growth, Associate Professor Jian Hu says a novel type of stochastic modeling can minimize the risks of public investments in EV infrastructure.

Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Jian Hu is testing a new approach to planning charging infrastructure with the Chicago Transit Authority. Photo by Annie Barker

The challenges with younger drivers and autonomous vehicles

lblouin — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:28:25 +0000

The challenges with younger drivers and autonomous vehicles lblouin Mon, 01/13/2025 - 10:28

Autonomous vehicles promise a future of almost unimaginable driver convenience. After all, who wouldn't want to be able to watch a movie during a tedious stop-and-go rush hour commute? But proponents of AVs think the technology’s even more meaningful impact will be in the realm of safety, given that more than 90% of traffic accidents are thought to be the result of human error. Indeed, we’re already seeing some of the safety benefits as semi-autonomous driver assist features, like lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring and emergency braking, become commonplace on newer vehicles. Even so, the next big developmental leap to so-called Level 3 vehicles, which are capable of doing all the driving for us in certain situations and are now starting to enter American and European markets, could introduce a whole new set of safety and driver behavior challenges, says Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Bochen Jia. That’s because Level 3 AVs still require full driver intervention when conditions are beyond the system’s capability — like when lane markers aren’t clearly marked or are obscured by weather; or in the event of system malfunction. That introduces a whole new type of driver experience, which the AV research community calls “takeover.” That’s the tricky liminal moment when a driver has to abruptly shift their focus from, say, watching their favorite Netflix series, to dealing with a potential road emergency.

Intuitively, takeover is a fraught, psychologically complex space, which is why Jia says a lot of research has been devoted to studying how drivers respond to this type of demand. For example, early research has indicated, somewhat counterintuitively, that the risk of driver fatigue actually increases when operating a Level 3 vehicle. It seems the mental task of constantly monitoring a vehicle doing the driving for us can actually be more draining than doing the driving ourselves. And in Jia’s lab, he’s been focusing on a neglected area of takeover research: younger, inexperienced drivers. From a research perspective, he says it’s a fascinating population. First, young people’s brains are still developing, particularly when it comes to attention resources and situational awareness, which can influence things like fatigue development and how well they respond to potentially hazardous situations, like takeover. In addition, younger people tend to, in general, be more trusting of technology, which could lead to less intense monitoring of the vehicle and undesirable takeover outcomes. Moreover, Jia says we might not be too far away from an era where young drivers’ only driving experience is on Level 3 vehicles. “That would mean they actually aren’t getting much experience doing actual driving, which could influence how well they respond to situations when the vehicle asks them to take over,” Jia says.

In focusing on younger drivers, Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Bochen Jia has been exploring a neglected area of AV research. Photo by Annie Barker

For one of his latest projects, Jia has been digging into the particular issue of fatigue onset in younger, novice drivers. For this study, he recruited both drivers under the age of 19 who had limited driving experience and middle-aged drivers who had years of experience. Using a high-fidelity driving simulator, both sets of participants engaged in extended periods of autonomous driving and were instructed to take control of the vehicle when the autonomous mode was not safe or had failed. During their driving experience, Jia then introduced several types of takeover events to see how drivers would react. By combining physiological measures and self-reported assessments collected periodically during their driving task, Jia then monitored each set of participants for fatigue onset. The results were pretty interesting: Novice young adult drivers developed both physical and mental fatigue earlier than their middle-aged counterparts during extended periods of autonomous driving. "This is somewhat surprising to people because they think young people naturally have more energy," Jia explains. "However, it appears that the mental demands of autonomous driving, or the tendency of younger drivers to be more engaged in non-driving tasks during autonomous operation, may accelerate the onset of fatigue in younger drivers." Moreover, the takeover outcomes for fatigued drivers were often far from desirable. “Essentially, we were looking at how often participants would fail to prevent a collision,” Jia says. “And it happened more frequently than we had hoped.”

Jia says the results point to a need for highly effective fatigue warning systems for Level 3 AVs that have special considerations for younger, inexperienced drivers. Interestingly, Jia envisions this system would be most effective if it wasn’t just part of the vehicle, but integrated with other readily available wellness monitoring technologies, like wearable fitness trackers that monitor heart rates and sleep quality. “I don't think you can have a system that’s confined to the car — that’s not enough,” Jia says. “It should be part of your life monitoring — an overall system — because they don’t suddenly become a different person when they get in the car. With all the personal data monitoring technologies we have nowadays, we could easily identify younger drivers, and we likely have a lot of the data we would need.”

Next up, Jia says he plans to continue his research on fatigue onset with a study that puts participants in real automated vehicles within a closed testbed, such as the Mcity test facility. In addition, he has a similar project that is studying differences in distraction levels between younger, novice drivers and middle-aged experienced drivers. He hopes both studies will provide critical insights into improving the safety and usability of autonomous vehicle systems for drivers of all experience levels.

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Story by Lou Blouin. Want to learn more about Jia's work on driver fatigue? You can read the full-text of his recent article on the subject in the “Journal of Safety Research,” which was co-authored by Jia's student Yourui Tong, ��-Dearborn Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Shan Bao, Tsinghua University Professor of Industrial Engineering Changxu Wu and ��-Dearborn Associate Professor of Psychology Nitya Sethuraman.

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

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Mon, 01/13/2025 - 15:22

Associate Professor Bochen Jia’s latest research is revealing some surprising things about how fatigue can impact younger, inexperienced drivers when they're operating semi-autonomous vehicles.

Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Bochen Jia (right) and graduate student Darlington Egeonu check out the driving simulator Jia used for his most recent project on driver fatigue. Photo by Annie Barker

‘Healing’ batteries with ultrasonics

lblouin — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 17:59:20 +0000

‘Healing’ batteries with ultrasonics lblouin Wed, 01/08/2025 - 12:59

High-capacity batteries have emerged as an essential building block of the clean energy future, but it likely won’t be today’s lithium-ion batteries alone that get us there. That’s because, as powerful and ubiquitous as they are, lithium-ion batteries have some major limitations. For starters, they are very heavy — a fundamental quality that curbs the range of today’s electric vehicles and basically rules them out as an option for powering commercial aircraft. The world’s growing demand for the minerals needed to manufacture lithium-ion batteries also requires ever expanding mining operations, which have environmental, climate and geopolitical consequences. And on the safety front, the liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion batteries are highly flammable, which is one reason why electric vehicle battery fires can be so catastrophic.

Because of these issues, researchers are developing new kinds of batteries, including solid-state batteries, which are lighter, can hold more energy for their weight and require fewer materials. They are also considered safer, since, as the name suggests, they don’t require a liquid electrolyte. But mechanical engineering postdoc research fellow Yaohong Xiao, who works with Associate Professor Lei Chen, says that last quality is both a blessing and a curse. Inside a typical lithium-ion battery, the liquid electrolyte is responsible for transferring charged particles back and forth between the cathode and anode sides of the battery, which is necessary both for charging and discharging. Because this electrolyte is a liquid, Xiao says it creates a nearly uniform interface between the two sides of the battery, since liquids naturally fill tiny nooks and crannies that might exist between the anode and cathode materials. In a solid-state battery, however, the electrolyte separating the anode and cathode sides is a strong, stiff, solid piece of material, and Xiao says that makes it more difficult to get really good contact between the two sides. “Essentially, you have solid on solid on solid,” Xiao explains. “Right after manufacturing, you might have no problem with this interface, but after a few cycles, or after the battery has experienced vibrations from being on the road, you start to get little voids in the interface so the electrolyte is no longer making perfect contact with both sides of the battery.” As a result, Xiao says a battery can develop zones of higher than usual current, which reduces its overall effectiveness.

Typically, Xiao says researchers have tried to solve this solid-state battery interface problem in a couple of different ways. First, they use pressure to basically squish all the components back together. Or they can use an “interlayer” material, which, kind of like double-sided tape, keeps the anode and cathode materials snug up against the solid electrolyte. But each approach has its limitations. Xiao says introducing interlayers to a process is typically expensive. That might not be a huge deal for experiments in a lab, but it would increase the already high costs of solid-state batteries when they’re being manufactured at scale. On the other hand, Xiao says using pressure to smooth out the interface is sort of like trying to squish two pieces of wood together. The rigidity of the lumber and any imperfections along the surfaces mean that pressure alone often isn’t enough to create perfect contact.

A couple years ago, Xiao began kicking around a sort of unconventional solution for this interface challenge. Xiao’s background is actually in metallurgy, not battery chemistry, and he saw this issue primarily as a question of how to get different metals to stick together. As it turns out, this is actually a pretty common problem in the metals universe, and one with a variety of well-established solutions. Specifically, Xiao was thinking that a technique called ultrasonic welding might be able to “heal” the voids in the interface, restoring uniform contact with the electrolyte. Ultrasonic healing, which is commonly deployed in a wide range of industries to weld pieces of plastic or thin pieces of metal together, uses high-frequency acoustic vibrations instead of high temperatures or solders to join materials together. The result is a highly uniform bond, but the process doesn’t use a whole lot of energy and can be done very quickly. Xiao worked with his postdoc colleague in Chen’s lab, XinXin Yao, who helped provide the theoretical feasibility for the welding concept, to set up an experiment, which revealed that ultrasonic welding could indeed nearly completely restore the uniformity of the electrolyte interface in as little as a minute. Moreover, the process required temperatures barely warmer than the water in your hot water heater and used about as much energy as an old-fashioned incandescent light bulb.

Xiao says the effectiveness of this metals-based approach came as a surprise to many of his colleagues, most of whom are experts in battery chemistry. Now, he’s hoping the results, which were recently published in “Advanced Energy Materials,” will help inspire other researchers to further explore the technique’s full potential. He says one possible application would be to use this as a tune-up strategy for eventual solid-state battery-powered EVs, which could come in for a quick ultrasonic healing treatment and get their optimal range back. And one other surprise finding from his experiment is that ultrasonic welding actually increased the conductivity of the electrolyte, albeit temporarily. That result was particularly intriguing to some colleagues at ��-Ann Arbor, who recently visited the newly established Battery Manufacturing and Testing Lab for a firsthand look. “They were very interested in this point,” Xiao says. “The conductivity would slowly recover after treatment, but they were thinking, what if we can fix that? What if we can figure out a way to not let it recover? So it’s very exciting to see this research already inspiring further work in this area.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

Mechanical Engineering

Off

Wed, 01/08/2025 - 17:58

Two mechanical engineering postdoc research fellows have discovered a novel way to solve a pesky challenge with next-generation solid-state batteries.

In Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Lei Chen's lab, postdoc research fellow Yaohong Xiao has been working on developing solid-state batteries, a safer, more energy dense alternative to today's lithium-ion batteries. Photo by Annie Barker

Office of Research update for January 2025

lblouin — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 14:35:21 +0000

Office of Research update for January 2025 lblouin Mon, 01/06/2025 - 09:35

External Awards Received

U-M Principal Investigator: Birhanu Eshete
Project Title: DeResistor: Detection Resilient Probing of Censorship Middleboxes
Sponsor: U.S. Department of State (through SRI International)
Award Amount: $299,002

Under the Internet Freedom Annual Program, Eshete will collaborate with SRI International in support of research and development activities that will enhance DeResistor prototyping, existing system performance evaluation, and system integration and software distribution. This research will support the U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace goals to protect the open, interoperable, secure and reliable Internet.

U-M Principal Investigator: Weidong Xiang
Project Title: Revitalize Auto Industry: Elevating Automotive Workforce Excellence through Cybersecurity and AI Innovation
Sponsor: National Security Agency (through Oakland University)
Award Amount: $249,130

Xiang’s team will collaborate with researchers at Oakland University to develop a tutorial on Cybersecurity in C-V2X in 5G/6G systems and present workshops on Physical and Network Layer Security in CAN and Security in Autonomous Driving and Navigation.

U-M Principal Investigator: Adam Sekuler
Project Title: Peace Through the Lens: Arab and Jewish American Film Initiative
Direct Sponsor: The Ravitz Foundation
Award Amount: $18,000

"Peace Through the Lens: Arab and Jewish American Film Initiative" is a transformative educational program set for Fall 2025. The goal of the program is to empower students through collaborative filmmaking with Arab American and Jewish American filmmakers, fostering mutual understanding, empathy and dialogue, while challenging stereotypes and contributing to peacebuilding efforts amidst historical and contemporary conflicts. Funding from this project will support filmmaker residencies and community events, aiming to enrich both students' educational experiences and community cohesion.

U-M Principal Investigator: Junaid Farooq
Project Title: 5G Hardware Encryption Cybersecurity Integration Evaluation
Direct Sponsor: Opex Systems, LLC
Total Sponsor Authorized Amount: $45,000.00

This project aims to assess the impact of hardware security module (HSM)-based encryption on the performance of real-time over-the-air communication in private 5G networks. With the perception that hardware encryption provides significantly enhanced security compared to software-based methods, this project seeks to evaluate the validity of this claim through a dual-pronged approach: theoretical analysis and practical implementation. By integrating HSMs into the encryption process, the project will measure the trade-offs between the increased security assurances and the potential performance implications, such as latency and throughput, in ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) scenarios. The outcomes will provide a comprehensive understanding of the feasibility and effectiveness of deploying HSM-based encryption in next-generation wireless networks, informing best practices for secure and efficient 5G communication systems.

Announcements

Call for Nominations: OVPR Research Faculty & Staff Awards

The Dearborn community is strongly encouraged to consider nominating ��-Dearborn staff and faculty for the annual OVPR Research Faculty & Staff Awards.

Research staff and faculty play a critical role in supporting and advancing university operations. OVPR is seeking nominations for its series of awards to recognize members of the U-M research community whose work helps advance knowledge, solve challenging problems, create new products and enhance quality of life.

Research Staff awards are open to all regular non-faculty staff members employed by any unit of the University of Michigan’s three campuses. Students, tenured/tenure track, clinical track and research track faculty are not eligible for these awards.

Learn more here and submit your nominations by Feb. 12.

To honor the scholarly work of research faculty, OVPR also encourages nominations for its Collegiate Research Professorship Award, Research Faculty Achievement Award and Research Faculty Recognition Award. The newly established Research Faculty Mentor Award has been created to recognize the outstanding research faculty who have demonstrated excellence in mentoring and celebrate the crucial role that mentorship plays in the professional and personal development of emerging researchers.

Learn more here and submit your nominations by Feb. 19.

NSF Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator Seeking Experts

The NSF Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator (R2I2) program is seeking experts from diverse sectors and disciplines to cover the wide range of scientific topics and partnerships represented in the R2I2 proposals. The R2I2 program supports collaborative, community-engaged initiatives to develop and implement scalable solutions to climate-related resilience challenges by translating recent research advancements in Earth system science into practical applications.

The program supports translation of existing earth systems science to practical solutions that address regional resilience challenges. Serving as a reviewer is a great way to help your community, better understand how NSF reviews proposals and get insight into NSF's new investments in translational research.

You can fill out the potential reviewer survey.

Research Events in January

IRB-HSBS, IRB On-the-Road Drop-In Session
- Elizabeth Molina, the ��-Dearborn Health and Services and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB-HSBS) liaison will be resuming the virtual “IRB On-the-Road” sessions once a month for any study team members who would like to have a one-on-one discussion about any questions they may have about the IRB process.
- Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
- Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
- Wednesday, March 19, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
- Wednesday, April 16, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
Responsible Conduct of Research for K Scholars, MICHR
- MICHR will offer the popular Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) for K Awardees this winter/spring. RCR4K is a seminar that is designed to meet the requirements of the NIH K-23, or any federal or non-federal career development grant. To ensure compliance with NIH regulations, these sessions will be held in-person at NCRC.
- The five-session (10-hour) seminar is mostly interactive, practice-based, and focused on addressing RCR issues (ethics, integrity, and regulatory matters) that have arisen in the course of your own funded research. It’s relevant, interactive, and includes mentoring from experienced faculty. Registration Required.
  - Session 1: History of research ethics & Human subjects research regulations; Wednesday, Jan. 15, 3-5 p.m.
  - Session 2: Research integrity: falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism; Wednesday, Feb. 19, 3-5 p.m.
  - Session 3: Authorship & Plagiarism; Wednesday, March 19, 3-5 p.m.
  - Session 4: Clinical Trial Design: The Support Trial; Wednesday, April 16, 3-5 p.m.
  - Session 5: Public Health Research & Research with data and specimens: Henrietta Lacks and the Common Rule debate; Wednesday, May 14, 3-5 p.m.
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Seminars
- The Ann Arbor Office of the Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering is hosting an NSF CAREER seminar series and has extended an invitation to interested Dearborn faculty to join. Registration is required; register for individual events using the links below.
- NSF CAREER: Broader Impacts with Impact - Thursday, Jan. 23, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- Resources for Education, Outreach, Diversity, and Evaluation - Thursday, Feb. 13, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF CAREER: Structuring your CAREER for Reviewers - Thursday, March 13, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF CAREER: How to Address Reviewer Feedback - Thursday, April 4, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Location TBD
- NSF CAREER: Project Description: The Research Plan - Thursday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF Panel TBD - Thursday, May 8, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Location TBD

Research Resource Highlight: AI Letter of Support Writer

Every month, the Office of Research features a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month we are featuring the �� Medical School’s AI Letter of Support Writer, an innovative tool that can quickly generate multiple versions of tailored letters, saving time and overcoming the challenge of starting from a blank page.

How it works: users begin by tailoring the suggested prompt template. Next, copy/paste the prompt into the platform to generate a draft letter of support. Users can submit the same prompt multiple times for different letter variations. The AI Letter of Support Writer uses U-M Maizey, which is part of the U-M generative AI toolset. Level-1 access and login are required.

Assistance or questions about the platform can be directed to ummsresearch@umich.edu.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

The Office of Research publishes a list of selected funding opportunities, organized by college, every month on our website under Announcements. Yearly grant calendars organized by subject area provided by Hanover Research are available there as well.

Use the updated U-M Research Commons to look up internal (to U-M) funding opportunities and Limited Submission opportunities open to Dearborn researchers.

Contact the ��-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.

Off

Mon, 01/06/2025 - 14:35

See which of your colleagues' work is getting funded, browse upcoming research events and find resources to support your work.

Campus Colleagues: Vessela Vassileva-Clarke

lblouin — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 13:34:17 +0000

Campus Colleagues: Vessela Vassileva-Clarke lblouin Wed, 12/18/2024 - 08:34

Chat with ��-Dearborn’s Director of Research Development Vessela Vassileva-Clarke about her life growing up in Bulgaria, and it’s not surprising to learn that she once dreamed of becoming a diplomat. Her parents were both staff in the Bulgarian military. She attended an English-language high school, where she learned not only English but French and exercised her deep interest in history any chance she got. Her childhood, adolescence and young adulthood overlapped a transformative period in Eastern Europe — a time when the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union and Iron Curtain collapsed, and Bulgaria strengthened relations with Western Europe and the U.S., events that would ultimately culminate in both EU and NATO membership. Above all, Vassileva-Clarke loved to travel and experience other cultures. Working as a foreign officer at a dynamic time in Bulgaria's history seemed like an exciting way to build a life around seeing the world.

In this month’s Campus Colleagues, we talk with Vassileva-Clarke about her initial career path, some unexpected life turns and how her work now helps drive the university’s growing research culture.

Speaking up landed her an embassy gig.

In college, Vassileva-Clarke dug into subjects that would put her on a diplomatic career track. As an undergraduate, she majored in economics with a concentration in military studies. For her master’s, she focused on international political relations and security issues. She excelled as a student, and toward the end of her master’s program, her no-nonsense style landed her an internship in the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. “Some students from political science were invited to participate in a meeting with the American ambassador in Bulgaria,” she recalls. “This was during NATO's intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and I guess I was the only one in the room who questioned some of the actions. I dared to tell the ambassador that what he was telling us was whitewashed. We knew there were bombs falling in Bulgaria by mistake.” Shortly after, the embassy's head of public relations reached out to Vassileva-Clarke to see if she wanted to intern at the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. “Sometimes, I guess putting a person on the spot pays off. They wanted people who could think for themselves and not take a story at face value,” she says.

Vassileva-Clarke flat out loved the internship. For one, she was amazed by just how much of the inner workings of the embassy she got to observe, and it taught her a lot about the nuances of diplomatic work. For example, one of her jobs was to compile summaries of important issues in the Bulgarian press for the U.S. ambassador. She said it was eye opening to see how her interpretations of events, which were informed by her perspective as a Bulgarian citizen and someone who had a global mindset, often differed dramatically from the interpretations of the U.S. Embassy staff. “Something the majority of Bulgarians considered super positive could be seen as something super negative,” she says. “It showed me how misunderstood a nation could be, or how wrongly a nation could interpret international events, if you only have the insights from within the nation, without understanding the rest of the world.”

In the U.S., life took an unexpected turn.

Another part of Vassileva-Clarke’s internship focused on strengthening economic ties between Bulgaria and the U.S., which encompassed both looking for business opportunities for American investors and taking Bulgarian businesspeople to the U.S. In the second phase of that project, she got a couldn’t-refuse offer to continue the internship in the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, D.C., where her life took an unexpected turn. She met her future husband, an American businessman, and as the two contemplated whether to build their life together in Bulgaria or in the U.S., they ultimately decided on the latter. She did initially try to help him learn Bulgarian, “but the reality was, since I already spoke English, I had many more opportunities to work in the U.S. than he would have had in Bulgaria,” she says.

Now rooted in the U.S. for the foreseeable future, Vassileva-Clarke briefly explored working at the U.S. State Department. But when she learned only citizens could work as foreign officers, she took a job as a project coordinator in engineering at Johns Hopkins University, where she quickly learned she had a strong interest in working with faculty on research projects. Within two years, she pivoted to a different position at Hopkins as a project manager at the cross-disciplinary Systems Institute, where she worked with engineers, data scientists, medical researchers, urban planners and international relations experts on major interdisciplinary research projects. “Hopkins was a dream come true,” she says. “I learned a lot. I was constantly working with smart people doing cool things. And we had so many international students and research scientists coming from other countries that, in some ways, it was bringing the world to me. I wasn’t a representative of a country, but I was helping countries work together.” Plus, she says, when you’re bringing together experts (and egos) from so many different disciplines, it pays to have a trained diplomat in the room. She jokes that her internship at the embassy in public relations “definitely paid off.”

The next twist: a move to Michigan.

While at Hopkins, Vassileva-Clarke dug deeper into her newfound passion for working with research teams by completing the university’s master’s in research administration program. The new degree turned out to be great preparation for her family’s next big life pivot. Her son was a talented hockey player, and the family decided to move from Maryland to Michigan so he could attend the Rolston Hockey Academy in Oak Park. She says it was pure luck that ��-Dearborn was looking to recruit for a new position in research development, a field that focuses on the intricacies of helping researchers secure resources for their work. Vassileva-Clarke says it was an exciting challenge. When it comes to research, Hopkins is basically the elite of the elite; research is something everyone “lives and breathes,” she says. ��-Dearborn had deep roots as an education-focused institution but had a more sporadic history of faculty research. The new leadership was trying to change that, and it would be Vassileva-Clarke’s role to help support the growing ranks of ambitious, talented, young faculty who had big research goals but who weren’t always experienced in securing funding. Vassileva-Clarke’s is a behind-the-scenes role, encompassing some really tangible things like networking events and grant writing workshops for faculty. But it’s also about building relationships with people in key positions in funding institutions, keeping up to date on their priorities, knowing all the little “back doors and peculiarities” of the different federal agencies, and nurturing mentor-mentee relationships between faculty, including with very experienced researchers on the Ann Arbor campus. “A lot of researchers have great ideas and they think funders will give them money just because their idea is great,” Vassileva-Clarke explains. “But the reality is they’ll only give you money if you help them do something they already want to do. So the trick is presenting your idea in a way that actually helps them. Grant writing is not academic writing. It’s a sales pitch.”

The work is clearly paying off. Just a few years ago, about 60% of ��-Dearborn’s research funding came from industry, with the remainder coming from federal and state agencies, as well as foundations. In the nearly five years that Vassileva-Clarke’s been here, that ratio has basically flipped, with the total dollar amount for research funding growing by approximately 50% compared to FY21. And beyond the numbers, she sees other promising signs that ��-Dearborn’s research culture is growing in all the right ways. There’s support from the leadership. There is an emphasis on hiring ambitious young faculty who have a strong interest in research. Faculty are strengthening ties to Ann Arbor — the largest public research institution in the U.S. The university is launching more graduate programs, which are essential to attracting students to power research labs. We’re even starting to recruit more post-docs. “The other thing I find very encouraging is I’m hearing more stories of senior faculty helping junior faculty,” she says. “I’ll be telling someone they should do this and this and this, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, yes, professor so-and-so already told me that.’ That’s a very good sign. That means building this research culture is happening already.”

She’s enjoying the path she chose.

Vassileva-Clarke loves her career. But she says she does occasionally think back to the thrills of working in an embassy and what it would have meant for her life had she followed that path. After she became a naturalized citizen, she did consider returning to that line of work. But she says it’s a hard life for families, and since she sincerely enjoyed what she was doing with researchers, she decided against it. “Of course, sometimes, I still think about how different my life could have been, but this is human nature, right?” she says. “When presented with two choices, no matter what we choose, one day we will wonder if the option we did not pick might have been better, more exciting, easier, more enjoyable — you name it. So, occasionally, I have nostalgic musings. But no regrets.”

###

Story by Lou Blouin

Off

Wed, 12/18/2024 - 13:33

��-Dearborn’s director of research development talks about what’s driving the university’s burgeoning research culture and why she almost became a diplomat.

Director of Research Development Vessela Vassileva-Clarke started at ��-Dearborn in 2020 and has been vital to growing the research enterprise at the university. Photo by Julianne Lindsey

Is pH the GPS of our cells?

lblouin — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 14:35:53 +0000

Is pH the GPS of our cells? lblouin Wed, 12/04/2024 - 09:35

Acids, which, technically speaking, are molecules that give off positively charged hydrogen ions when dissolved in water, play a role in some of the most important functions in our bodies. Your stomach contains something very close to hydrochloric acid — a highly acidic substance that helps your body dissolve food and nearly bottoms out the pH scale, scientists’ measure of acidity. Amino acids and fatty acids are, respectively, the building blocks of proteins and lipids, two of your body’s most essential complex molecules. The A in DNA? That stands for acid. But even with all that acids do for us, Associate Professor of Biology Kalyan Kondapalli thinks we may still be underestimating their power. With a new National Institutes of Health-funded project, he’s investigating whether pH may be functioning like a cellular GPS, helping our cells route important cargo within their borders to perform functions that are fundamental to our health.

Kondapalli’s latest work focuses on immune cells called macrophages, which he says are sort of the paramedics of the immune system. When a bacteria or virus enters your body, the macrophage is often the first to arrive. It engulfs the invader, enveloping the bacteria or virus inside the borders of its cell membrane, where it is packaged into a transport vesicle called a phagosome. This transport vesicle then begins a journey away from the outer edge of the cell toward the interior of the cell, where it eventually merges with a lysosome — an acidic organelle that dissolves the bacteria or virus into its component parts. After this process is complete, the bits and pieces are attached to the outside of the macrophage's membrane. Here, more specialized immune cells interpret these components of the virus or bacteria and start the process of manufacturing antibodies — kicking off a counterattack by the immune system that’s tailored to the specific disease.

This process is a classic showcase of the body’s use of acids to break things down. But Kondapalli says that when you start looking at the finer details of the phagosome’s journey within the cell, it’s not the only role that acids appear to be playing. One of the most peculiar things is that as the phagosome begins its journey of ferrying the bacteria or virus from the cell membrane to the interior part of the cell, the environment inside the phagosome gradually gets more acidic. What’s especially weird, Kondapalli says, is that the change in acidity doesn’t appear to be strictly associated with breaking things down. So what exactly is going on?

Kondapalli had encountered similar phenomena when he was doing his postdoc work at Johns Hopkins, where he studied a type of specialized protein that are found on endosomes — the class of subcellular transport vesicles of which phagosomes are one type. He says the proteins function sort of like a fine-tuning knob for controlling the pH within endosomes by constantly allowing more or less acid to leave the vesicle. Changes in how this protein behaves, or having too much or too little of the protein, is consequential across an array of organisms. In some plants, for example, fiddling with this knob, and hence fiddling with the acidity of the transport vesicles, can change the color of flowers. One of Kondapalli’s studies found that some people with autism didn’t have enough of these knobs, which meant that a transport vesicle responsible for disposing of excess neurotransmitters was failing to do so, leaving the brain flooded with chemicals. A significant number of people with glioblastoma, one of the most lethal forms of brain cancer, appeared to have too much of this knob. “With this cancer, one of the proteins that is supposed to be transported to the lysosome to be degraded instead gets delivered to the surface of the cell. And that cargo is a receptor that signals the cell to grow and divide. That can be a big factor in developing cancer,” Kondapalli says.

Kondapalli knew that this knob was associated with the regulation of pH within endosomes. And he also knew that irregularities with this knob often meant transport vesicles were struggling to deliver their cargo to the proper places. So he began formulating a bold hypothesis: What if pH was somehow regulating the directional movement of the transport vesicles? What if acid was functioning not just as a fundamental building block of something else or something that dissolves other things, but as a sort of GPS within the cell?

To test his hypothesis, Kondapalli first formulated a way to fiddle with the knob so he could manipulate the acidity of the endosomes and see what happened to their behavior under different conditions. Using a genetically engineered virus that triggered the endosomes to make more or less of these proteins, he could make the environment inside the endosome either more acidic or more alkaline. But then he needed some way to precisely measure how this influenced the endosomes’ directional movement. Assistant Professor of Physics Suvranta Tripathy, who specializes in experimental biophysics, still remembers Kondapalli’s very specific line of questioning on the day Tripathy was interviewing for his position at ��-Dearborn in 2020. “I was doing my presentation on my research, and I remember Kalyan said, basically, ‘Do you think you can solve this problem?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I think we can definitely do that,’” Tripathy recalls. “Then, of course, after formally joining ��-Dearborn, I sent him an email reminding him that he asked me this question and that’s how we started working on it.”

Kondapalli (second from left) and Tripathy (far left) have been collaborating on their phagosome transport research since 2020. Photo by Annie Barker

Tripathy, it turned out, was also very interested in how phagosomes move through the cell. He was particularly focused on two types of proteins located on the outside of the phagosome that function like motors, propelling the phagosome either toward or away from the center of the cell, depending on which type of motor protein was more abundant. He had been studying exactly how these motor proteins know where to go, and he found Kondapalli’s hypothesis that pH was potentially driving their directional movement to be surprising and exciting. On their first project, Tripathy used a 2018 Nobel-prize-winning technique called optical tweezers to track the movement of phagosomes within the macrophage, while Kondapalli manipulated the phagosomes’ pH using his genetic engineering process. To do this, Tripathy attached a tiny plastic bead to a bacteria, which was then engulfed by the macrophage and packaged, along with the bead, inside a phagosome. Using a tightly focused laser, Tripathy was then able to measure the mechanical parameters related to the movement of the bead inside the phagosome under different pH conditions as it traveled throughout the cell. The results confirmed Kondapalli’s general hypothesis. If the maturing phagosome never got acidic enough, it wouldn’t reach its intended meet-up point with the lysosome, the invader would not be dissolved and the rest of the immune system would never be alerted. pH, it seemed, was indeed linked to the directional movement of phagosome transport — and, fundamentally, to our health.

The results were exciting, but Kondapalli and Tripathy say they’re hoping their new NIH-funded project will reveal many more details of how exactly pH is regulating phagosome transport. Their general working hypothesis is that changes in acidity inside the phagosome drive changes in the kind of lipids that make up the phagosome’s membrane. These lipids then “recruit” corresponding motor proteins, which, again, come in two varieties — one that drives movement away from the center of the cell and one that drives movement toward it. So, stitching it all together: An increasingly acidic environment inside the phagosome means the phagosome’s membrane will contain more of a kind of lipid that attracts motor proteins that move the phagosome to the center of the cell. A more alkaline phagosome creates a cell membrane full of different kinds of lipids, which attract the other kind of motor protein and propel it in the other direction. And Tripathy says the process may be more complicated than that. For example, it appears that motor proteins may require a binding protein to attach to the lipid, and that binding protein can be pH-sensitive.

Kondapalli says if they can more thoroughly document this connection between pH and directional movement in phagosomes, it could have a variety of implications. On the practical side, it could provide a path to new types of therapeutics. He says the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and Legionnaires' disease, for example, have defenses that specifically disrupt the phagosome’s acidification process in an effort to keep from being destroyed. So if scientists could discover chemical pharmaceuticals that do what Kondapalli currently does with genetic engineering, we could also control acidity — countering the effects of the bacteria’s defenses and steering phagosomes to their proper destinations.

Bigger picture: Establishing this new role for pH would be a pretty big-deal revelation in the world of cell biology, given that acidity is generally thought to only perform certain kinds of functions in the body. Moreover, what would make this finding so interesting is macrophages aren’t the only type of cells that have transport systems. Many types of cells depend on similar endosomes to ferry cargo, so it’s entirely possible that pH is functioning as a GPS all over the body, though that would take more research to fully establish. Indeed, Kondapalli thinks there may still be other roles for pH that scientists have yet to explore. “If you think of the different organelles in the cell as rooms within the house, what’s really fascinating is that each room has a unique pH,” he explains. “You take mitochondria, where the cell’s energy is made, the pH is slightly alkaline. The lysosome is acidic, around 4.5 or 5. The nucleus is neutral, it’s around 7. The cytosol, the media in the cell, is also close to neutral. Why is this? We still don’t have the answer. So we may really just be scratching the surface with this new work. Acidification may be doing a lot more in the body than we ever thought.”

###

Story by Lou Blouin

Faculty and Staff

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Natural Sciences

Off

Wed, 12/04/2024 - 14:35

Scientists used to think acids in our bodies were mostly for building things up or breaking things down. But new research from ��-Dearborn faculty Kalyan Kondapalli and Suvranta Tripathy is pointing to a new fundamental role for pH in our cells.

Associate Professor of Biology Kalyan Kondapalli (far right) and Assistant Professor of Physics Suvranta Tripathy (far left) in the lab with undergraduate researcher Mariam Duhaini (second from left) and graduate student Lanqin Cao. Photo by Annie Barker

Office of Research update for December 2024

lblouin — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 14:19:15 +0000

Office of Research update for December 2024 lblouin Mon, 12/02/2024 - 09:19

External Awards Received

Principal Investigator: Hong Tae Kang
Project Title: Adhesive Bonded Joint in Electrical Vehicle Battery Packages
Sponsor: General Motors Company
Award Amount: $102,417

This project seeks to characterize durability of adhesive joints in EV battery pack applications. Kang will identify performance of adhesives under fatigue loading: mechanical, thermal and combination of mechanical and thermal. Adhesives can have significantly different coefficient of thermal expansion compared to the substrates which they connect. Hence, under thermal loading, adhesives can see significant stresses and under cyclic thermal loading they can fatigue. Among other engineering applications, this research can help develop fatigue CAE models of the adhesive.

Announcements

Winter Break Campus Closure Impact on Office of Research Services

As the holiday season approaches, this is a reminder that OR staff will not be available during the Winter Break. Please be aware of the following ��-Dearborn Office of Research closure dates and the potential impact on your proposal timelines — the closure dates do not count as work days in your lead time:

The ��-Dearborn Office of Research will be CLOSED from 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 until 8 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.

How will this affect proposal timelines? ��-Dearborn Office of Research work on proposals will be paused during the Chancellor's additional time off dates, and our staff will not be available during this time. Depending on the needs of the individual PIs and/or teams, the research development (RD) staff will work out specific arrangements with everyone who needs RD support around the holidays. To meet U-M's internal research administration (RA) deadlines, the following internal due dates will apply:

For proposals due to the sponsor between Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024 and Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, the RA staff must receive your final, ready-to-submit proposal by 12 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 20.

Research Events in December

Public Engagement Workshops and Community of Practice
- The Public Engagement and Research Impacts team is hosting a fall workshop series to support researchers in developing public engagement skills to translate their research, scholarship or creative practice for societal impact. Participants will learn about public engagement frameworks, explore how to communicate across disciplines and beyond academia, and gain tools for fostering effective and equitable partnerships.
Storytelling for Community Building: Dec. 6, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., virtual

The fall community of practice will focus on research communication – especially communication of research agendas and societal impacts to broad audiences. These dynamic and hands-on sessions will give participants an opportunity to apply new communication skills by drafting and revising a pitch for an explainer or op-ed piece.

Sticky Messaging and Audience Engagement, Dec. 11, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
IRB-HSBS, IRB On-the-Road Drop-In Session
- Elizabeth Molina, the ��-Dearborn Health and Services and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB-HSBS) liaison will be resuming the virtual “IRB On-the-Road” sessions once a month for any study team members who would like to have a one-on-one discussion about any questions they may have about the IRB process.
- Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
Communicating the Impacts of Your Research - Hanover Grants
- This webinar will focus on helping researchers articulate the significance and broader implications of their work, including an overview of research impacts, the importance of dissemination, and methods for communicating impact.
- Dec. 19, 2024, 12-12:45 p.m., virtual
- Registration required
Taubman Library Global Health Webinar Series - Webinar 5: Exploration of Global Data Sources for Sexual & Reproductive Health
- In recent years, examination and application of global and regional sexual and reproductive health (SRH) data by researchers, policymakers and learners has been increasingly viewed through multiple lenses. SRH is impacted by and impacts phenomena including, but not limited to, a global pandemic, ongoing conflict and displacement, climate change and national policy shifts. This introductory webinar is an opportunity to begin exploring open SRH data sources in a global context.
- Dec. 5, 2024, 9 a.m., virtual
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Seminars
- The Ann Arbor Office of the Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering is hosting an NSF CAREER seminar series and has extended an invitation to interested Dearborn faculty to join. Registration is required. Register for individual events using the links below.
- NSF CAREER: Broader Impacts with Impact - Thursday, Jan. 23, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms, 3rd Floor LEC
- Resources for Education, Outreach, Diversity and Evaluation - Thursday, Feb. 13, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms, 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF CAREER: Structuring your CAREER for Reviewers - Thursday, March 13, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms, 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF CAREER: How to Address Reviewer Feedback - Thursday, April 4, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Location TBD
- NSF CAREER: Project Description: The Research Plan - Thursday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms, 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF Panel TBD - Thursday, May 8, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Location TBD

Research Resource Highlight

Every month, the Office of Research features a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month we are featuring the OVPR Office of Research Development Proposal Library.

Reviewing successful grant proposals is crucial when writing your proposal to gain invaluable insights into what funding agencies prioritize and deem impactful. By examining these funded applications, you can identify key components such as structure, tone and specific language that resonate with reviewers. Additionally, it helps you understand the level of detail and types of evidence that are typically required to support your project’s feasibility and significance.

The Proposal Library is available to all U-M faculty and staff with grant proposal examples from major federal funding agencies and foundations. Make sure to add the library to your bookmarks. If you would like to contribute your proposal to the library, please email dbn-research@umich.edu.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

The Office of Research publishes a list of selected funding opportunities, organized by college, every month on our website under Announcements. In addition, yearly grant calendars organized by subject area provided by Hanover Research are available there as well.

Use the updated U-M Research Commons to look up internal (to U-M) funding opportunities and Limited Submission opportunities open to Dearborn researchers.

Contact the ��-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.

Office of Research

Off

Mon, 12/02/2024 - 14:18

View December’s research events, learn about opportunities to support your work and find out how the winter break will impact research services.

How organ-on-a-chip technology is changing research of human diseases

lblouin — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:25:26 +0000

How organ-on-a-chip technology is changing research of human diseases lblouin Mon, 11/04/2024 - 12:25

Those who study human disease, and those of us who benefit from treatments developed by their research, owe a great debt to mice. The tiny animals get many of the same diseases as us and have very similar genetics and biological processes, making them a useful stand-in for understanding what goes wrong in our bodies and how we might respond to novel therapies. But as a surrogate for humans, mice aren’t perfect, says Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Aditya Raghunandan, who started at ��-Dearborn in 2023. All you have to do, he says, is look at the thousands of human clinical trials for new treatments that showed promise in mice but failed to deliver similar results in humans. Experimenting on human cells in the lab offers a promising alternative, because researchers can theoretically study diseases more directly. But, like mice, this technique has limitations: Raghunandan says how cells behave, isolated from their neighbors and living in an artificial environment in the lab, isn’t necessarily how they behave in our bodies.

In his early days as a researcher, Raghunandan often speculated that there had to be a better way, and as luck would have it, his career intersected an era of bioengineering in which some transformative new methods were emerging. In the early 2000s, researchers from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University developed a novel technology they dubbed “organ-on-a-chip.” Like traditional cell culturing, the idea was to create an experimental environment for human cells in which researchers could subject them to all kinds of things — genetic engineering, toxins, new drugs, mechanical and chemical signals — and then see how they behave. But their technique promised several advantages. Traditional cell cultures typically contain just one or two cell types, living in some kind of media, but that environment isn’t particularly representative of how things work in our bodies. For one, Raghunandan says our cells don’t just float around statically in goo; they're constantly being subjected to things like fluid flow and mechanical forces, which greatly influence their health and regulate their function. Moreover, a key part of cell function is interacting with other cell types. If you’re just observing how one cell type reacts to something in a Petri dish, he says you’re only getting a small slice of the picture.

Organ-on-a-chip technology, which has been tweaked and improved in the decades since its invention, directly addresses these shortcomings. Raghunandan says you can sort of think of the difference between an organ-on-a-chip and a traditional static cell culture like the difference between a house and a studio apartment. In a traditional cell culture, there’s just one room and everything is just kind of thrown in that room. But with an organ-on-a-chip, you can put up to three or four different cell types in different rooms within the house. Just as walls divide the rooms of the house, membranes keep the cells where you want them, and by tweaking the porosity of the membranes, you can also facilitate different kinds of interactions between cell types. Most importantly, tiny microfluidic channels, smaller than the width of a human hair, function like hallways, connecting the rooms, allowing researchers to pump in fluids to mechanically and chemically stimulate the cells in very precise ways.

Organs-on-a-chip are small devices that can do big things. In Raghunandan's lab, he uses them to study the dynamics of fluid flow in the brain that contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

The setup much more closely resembles how things work in our bodies, Raghunandan says. For example, in his own lab, where he studies how fluid flow in the brain impacts protein aggregation, one of the factors linked to neural diseases like Alzheimer’s, he builds layered organs-on-a-chip that mimic the way that neural and blood vessel tissues are organized in our brains. “If we go from the bloodstream into your brain, the first barrier are endothelial cells. And then the next layer of cells are smooth muscle cells, then you have an empty compartment where you have fluid, and then you have astrocytes,” he explains. “So the brain is layered, and we can reproduce these compartments and membranes and fluid flow where everything can interact with each other.” You can breed a mouse to have a predisposition to develop a certain disease. But you can’t manipulate fluid flow in its brain in real time, he says. “I can do that just by turning a knob on a pump.”

Being able to manipulate fluid flow is extremely important for Raghunandan’s current research. During his recent postdoc at the University of Rochester, he worked with the teams of Mechanical Engineering Professor Douglas Kelley and Neuroscience Professor Maiken Nedergaard, where they discovered that the brain actually has a separate “plumbing system” that bypasses the blood-brain barrier and flushes away waste while we sleep — almost like an alternative lymph system that only exists within the brain. Raghunandan says about half of the waste is physically flushed away, the way your plumbing removes waste from your house. But the other half requires specialized enzymes that are secreted by specific brain cells, like smooth muscle cells, which chop up or digest waste proteins. What’s surprising, Raghunandan says, is that abnormal fluid flow can actually change these cells' behavior in ways that make them less effective. That is, fluid flow in the brain isn’t just a plumbing system. It’s a dynamic that, in itself, can directly change cells and how they function.

Raghunadan says the research teams made these initial discoveries using mice models. But to investigate the details of how abnormal brain fluid flow was impacting Alzheimer's patients — and potentially develop therapeutics — he knew he’d need a different platform. This led to a fruitful collaboration with University of Rochester Biomedical Engineering Professor James McGrath, who had developed a new organ-on-a-chip technology to study inflammation in the brain. Now, Raghunadan is adapting that technology in his own lab to expose brain cells to varying types of fluid flow and precisely measure the effects. That’s something he could never do in a static cell culture or with mice. Raghunandan and McGrath have also created their own custom organ-on-a-chip devices that are much faster to build. “With the original design, it took a long time to build them — maybe a couple days to build 10 devices, and not all of them were going to be successful,” Raghunandan says. “We’ve streamlined the design, so now you can put together the parts like Legos and it takes three minutes.” McGrath even started a company so other researchers can use the snap-together version in their work.

Raghunandan, who’s one of only two researchers that he’s aware of at ��-Dearborn currently using this technique, sees some big practical benefits if this technology is more widely adopted. First, he says you could test new drugs on human cells in an organ-on-a-chip device to get some preliminary indication of their efficacy before moving them to full-blown human clinical trials. Second, we could use organs-on-a-chip to do patient-specific modeling for drugs. “If you had a certain disease, we could biopsy your cells, build a ‘you-on-a-chip’ and then test a drug to see if it had the potential to be a useful therapy for you,” he says.

###

Story by Lou Blouin. Photos by Annie Barker.

Technology

Mechanical Engineering

Off

Mon, 11/04/2024 - 17:24

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Aditya Raghunandan explains how this technology offers a better platform than mice or traditional cell culturing for understanding the complex processes in our bodies.

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Aditya Raghunandan (right) talks with student researchers Sena Alenzi (center) and Michael Molloy in his bioengineering lab, where Raghunandan uses organ-on-a-chip technology to study Alzheimer's disease.

Office of Research update for November 2024

lblouin — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 13:17:06 +0000

Office of Research update for November 2024 lblouin Mon, 11/04/2024 - 08:17

External Awards Received

U-M Principal Investigator: Hafiz Malik
Project Title: PFI:RP: Reliable Electronic Device Authentication to Protect Supply Chain
Direct Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Amount: $1,000,000

Malik will develop advanced technology to reliably authenticate electronic components — such as Electronic Control Units (ECUs), Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS), and sensors, among others — in systems like autonomous vehicles, robots and smart infrastructure in order to create prototypes that verify the integrity of these devices throughout a vehicle's life. He will use unique digital signatures for each device to enhance data traceability and quickly identify faults, which protects transportation systems from cyber threats posed by counterfeit parts.

U-M Principal Investigator: John Chenoweth
Project Title: A More Complete Story of the River Raisin: Phase II of The River Raisin Archaeological Project
Direct Sponsor: National Park Service, Department of the Interior
Award Amount: $169,121
See full Reporter story

U-M Principal Investigator: Zhen Hu
Project Title: Hybrid Modeling for Streamflow Prediction and Machine Learning Model Deployment
Sponsor: Department of Defense via subcontract from Hottinger Bruel & Kjaer Solutions LLC
Award Amount: $254,999

The objective of this project is to develop machine learning models that integrate physics-based simulation with field observation, so that the accuracy of river discharge predictions can be improved. The improved prediction accuracy of river discharge can lead to more effective decision regarding flood mitigation and resource allocation. After the development of the method, the machine learning models will be deployed in real-world applications for testing and demonstration.

U-M Principal Investigator: Areen Alsaid
Project Title: Driver Distraction and Fatigue Mitigation Strategies
Direct Sponsor: MOBIS Technical Center
Award Amount: $58,999

The project will explore real-time mitigation strategies for distraction and fatigue during driving. By investigating innovative solutions — such as conversational agents that act as in-car co-pilots — and implementing subtle, subconscious strategies like adaptive lighting to enhance attention and focus, Alsaid will assess the effectiveness of these interventions and their impact on sustained driving performance over time.

Announcements

Holiday Office Closures — Impact on Timelines

As the holiday season approaches, please be aware of the following campus closure dates and the potential impact on proposal timelines — closure dates do not count in your lead time:

The ��-Dearborn Office of Research will be CLOSED:

from 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22 until 8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 2
from 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20 until 8 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 2

How will this affect proposals? ��-Dearborn Office of Research will pause work on proposals during the Chancellor's additional time off dates and our staff will not be available during this time. Therefore, the following internal due dates will apply:

For proposals due to the sponsor between Thursday, Nov. 28 and Thursday, Dec. 5, we must receive your final, ready-to-submit proposal by noon on Friday, Nov. 22.
For proposals due to the sponsor between Thursday, Dec. 26 and Wednesday, Jan. 8, we must receive your final, ready-to-submit proposal by noon on Friday, Dec. 20.

Please plan accordingly. Failure to meet the timelines provided by our office means we may be unable to provide support or services and your proposal may be at risk of not being submitted. Please email our office if you have any questions about timing and deadlines.

Internal Deadlines and Lead-time Reminder

Please review our pre-award timeline and services webpage to ensure you are providing sufficient lead time to receive the services and support you need. Late proposals obstruct our ability to provide services across campus and this can negatively impact your fellow faculty.

Although we request a minimum of 20 work days lead time, complicating factors such as those below create additional complexities and need additional days of lead time to prepare as follows:

cost sharing requirement – five days for college pre-approval
subcontracts to other institutions in your proposal – four days per subcontract
multiple investigators submitting senior personnel documents – three days
special sponsor forms required (e.g. DOE budget forms, Environmental Questionnaire, non-standard sponsor systems) – five days
Ann Arbor or Flint personnel included will need their unit review and approval – two days per department

Please help us to provide the best services possible by respecting our request for sufficient lead time and by following the timeline provided by your proposal specialists.

Research Events in November

Integrating Theoretical Frameworks into Grant Proposals - Hanover Grants
- The integration of theoretical frameworks into a grant narrative can strengthen the rationale and impact of your project. This session will dive into the importance of theoretical frameworks, the selection of the appropriate framework for your proposal, and the art of seamlessly weaving your framework into a proposal narrative.
- Nov. 21, noon; virtual
- Registration required
The Study’s Funded! Now What? Tips to Navigate Study Start-Up
- In this workshop, you will learn best practices in preparing for a new study before you submit an IRB application or for beginning a new phase of the research. You will get expert tips from an experienced coordinator that will help you save time, effort and money later in your study.
- Nov. 14, 10:00 a.m.-noon; virtual
- Registration required
How to Organize and Sustain Collaborative Research: Learning from the Program on Women’s Healthcare Effectiveness Research (PWHER)
- IRWG Director Dr. Melynda Price will lead a conversation with members of the Program on Women’s Healthcare Effectiveness Research (PWHER) at Michigan Medicine.
- This session will cover key questions such as: How did your group begin, and how do you sustain an intellectual community? If you have applied for grants, at what point did you know you were ready to take on collective research projects?
  - Nov. 8, 2-3:30 p.m.; 2239 Lane Hall
  - Registration Required
IRB-HSBS, IRB On-the-Road Drop-In Session
- Elizabeth Molina, the ��-Dearborn Health and Services and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB-HSBS) liaison will be resuming the virtual “IRB On-the-Road” sessions once a month for any study team members who would like to have a one-on-one discussion about any questions they may have about the IRB process.
- Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2-3:30 p.m.; virtual
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Seminars
- The Ann Arbor Office of the Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering is hosting an NSF CAREER seminar series and has extended an invitation to interested Dearborn faculty to join. Registration is required- register for individual events using the links below.
- NSF CAREER: Project Description Overview, Thursday, Nov. 21, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF CAREER: Broader Impacts with Impact, Thursday, Jan. 23, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- Resources for Education, Outreach, Diversity and Evaluation, Thursday, Feb. 13, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF CAREER: Structuring your CAREER for Reviewers, Thursday, March 13, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF CAREER: How to Address Reviewer Feedback, Thursday, April 4, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Location TBD
- NSF CAREER: Project Description: The Research Plan, Thursday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF Panel TBDx, Thursday, May 8, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Location TBD
Public Engagement Workshops and Community of Practice
- The Public Engagement and Research Impacts team is hosting a fall workshop series to support researchers in developing public engagement skills to translate their research, scholarship or creative practice for societal impact. Participants will learn about public engagement frameworks, explore how to communicate across disciplines and beyond academia, and gain tools for fostering effective and equitable partnerships.
Envisioning Impacts: Nov. 20, 10:00 a.m.-noon; Michigan Union, Pond Room
Storytelling for Community Building: Dec. 6, 10:00 a.m.- noon; virtual

Sticky Messaging and Audience Engagement, Dec. 11, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Research Resource Highlight

Every month, the Office of Research features a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month, we are featuring the Mobile Technologies Core, facilitated by the U-M Eisenberg Family Depression Center.

The Mobile Technologies Core provides investigators across the University of Michigan the support and guidance needed to utilize mobile technologies and digital mental health measures in their studies. Experienced faculty and staff offer hands-on consultative services to researchers throughout the University – regardless of specialty or research focus.

Services include:

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

Use the updated U-M Research Commons to look up internal (to U-M) funding opportunities and Limited Submission opportunities open to Dearborn researchers.

Contact the ��-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.