RETCC funds collaborative graduate student research projects

Since CLEAR's funding began in 2022, the Research Experience and Training Coordination Core (RETCC) has been working on a pilot program to fund collaborations between two or more CLEAR projects and cores. The RETCC is led by Dr. Donna Kashian and Dr. Michael Petriello. These projects are developed by CLEAR trainees which, in addition to providing seed funding for research, enable trainee career development in grantsmanship and budget development. These projects are expected to relate to CLEAR goals, but not overlap directly with current CLEAR aims. The pilots projects fund research up to $10,000 each. 

Two pilot projects were funded during AY 2022-2023. Annie Nguyen (Project 4) received pilot money to do a mini externship with Texas A&M Superfund group to learn how to utilize organ on a chip techniques for reproductive toxicity. Sydney Scofield also received a one year pilot to advance Project 4's BTEX mixture studies.

During AY 2023-2024, the RETCC accepted multiple applications for pilot grants and were awarded to CLEAR trainees Sarah Black (Project 1), Tierney Shaible (Project 4), Anthony Maxwell (Project 4), Qisen Wang (Project 2), Aditi Singh (Project 4), and Brendan O’Leary (Project 1). The pilot projects were presented at CLEAR's Annual Symposium, hosted of May16th of this year. You can watch a graphic recording, developed by Karina Branson, of the students' talks here:

The titles of this year’s pilots are:

Sarah Black: Are sick plants still chatty? Understanding how anthropogenic VOCs affect plant-to-plant communication as communal herbivory defense

Anthony Maxwell: Impact of prenatal benzene exposure on the immune response to respiratory viral infections in offspring; a focus on pulmonary macrophages

Brendan O’Leary: Assessment of VOC transport through neighborhoods along sewer corridors: use of phytoscreening and gas sampling

Tierney Shaible: Assessing effects of anthropogenic VOCs on common milkweed’s (Asclepias syriaca) insect communities and community interactions

Aditi Singh: Exploring the effects of maternal benzene exposure on placenta hematopoietic stem cells in vitro

Qisen Wang: Subsurface Volatile Organic Compound Exploration: Assessing Concentrations Across Soil Depths Using Sensor Technology