Nine Teams Granted Awards in 3rd Year of Scialog: Advancing BioImaging
Top row: Eszter Boros, Shiva Abbaszadeh, Shwetadwip Chowdhury, Heather M. Whitney, Dylan McCreedy, Fanny Chapelin. 2nd row: Seunghyun (Seu) Sim, Ruixuan Gao, Shawn Davidson, Yi-Chih Lin, Nick Galati, Lingyan Shi, Meghan Driscoll. 3rd row: Scott Cushing, Jing Liu, Lei Tian, Ryan J. McGorty, Rosario Porras-Aguilar, Divita Mathur.
Nine multidisciplinary research teams will receive a combined $1 million in funding from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, and the Walder Foundation in the third year of Scialog: Advancing BioImaging, an initiative aiming to catalyze advances in imaging technologies.
The 20 awards, for projects led by 19 early career researchers at institutions across the U.S., are for $50,000 each in direct costs.
“Scialog is built on collaborations, and we at RCSA think that we should practice what we preach, which is why we bring in funding partners,” said RCSA Senior Program Director Andrew Feig, who led the initiative. “Melding networks of people, whether it's from the foundation side or at the bench, is how we can push forward science together.”
Including the 2023 awards, RCSA and its funding partners have made 64 individual awards totaling more than $3.3 million through the three-year Scialog: Advancing BioImaging initiative.
Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by RCSA, the Scialog format supports research by stimulating intensive interdisciplinary conversation and community building around a scientific theme of global importance. Teams of two to three Fellows who have not previously collaborated compete for seed funding for high-risk, high-reward projects based on the ideas they develop at the conference.
Scialog: Advancing BioImaging, held May 18-21, 2023, in Tucson, Arizona, brought together 52 early career chemists, physicists, biologists, bioengineers, and medical imaging specialists to network and brainstorm ideas for research that could enhance the ability to study tissues at cellular or sub-cellular resolution and map biological processes within and throughout organisms.
Brad Smith, Director of Notre Dame University’s Integrated Imaging Facility, gave the keynote talk, “Smart Molecules for Imaging, Therapy and Health.” Smith, who served as a Facilitator at all three meetings of the initiative, is also a member of RCSA’s inaugural 1994 class of Cottrell Scholars.
Smith described new classes of long-wavelength fluorescent molecular probes his team has developed for various types of targeted and activatable bioimaging applications, deep-red fluorescent Squaraine-Rotaxanes that are useful for single molecule tracking studies, and a new class of sterically shielded, near-infrared fluorescent cyanine dyes for in vivo imaging and fluorescence guided surgery. He told participants about a collaboration with electrical engineers to use an implantable miniature wireless LED-based device as the light source and detector for in vivo optical imaging and phototherapy.
“This is the type of collaboration we're trying to encourage the people here at Scialog to think a little bit about,” he said. “People from very disparate areas bringing different skill sets together could come up with something transformative.”
Two days of breakout sessions followed, led by Smith and other Facilitators including: Maryellen Giger, University of Chicago; Matthew Kupinksa, University of Arizona; Ed McClesky, retired CZI Science Officer; Kyle Myers, Puente Solutions, LLC; and Brian Pogue, University of Wisconsin – Madison.
During their discussions, participants developed research ideas to bridge their different expertise, methods, and technologies in new ways. On the final day of the conference, teams pitched their proposals for collaborative projects.
The 2023 awards from the Advancing BioImaging initiative will support the projects of these researchers at their respective institutions:
Eszter Boros, Chemistry, University of Wisconsin - Madison 1
Shiva Abbaszadeh, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz 1
PETinIVIS: A Modular PET Insert to Enable Simultaneous Acquisition of Optical and PET Imaging Data in Small Animals
Shwetadwip Chowdhury, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin 2
Heather M. Whitney, Radiology, University of Chicago 3
Developing Multi-Angle Synthesized Ultrasound Tomography
Dylan McCreedy, Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station 1
Fanny Chapelin, Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego 1
Specific and Quantitative MRI Imaging for Longitudinal Cell Fate Tracking
Seunghyun (Seu) Sim, Chemistry, University of California, Irvine 1
Ruixuan Gao, Chemistry and Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago 3
Shawn Davidson, Medicine, Northwestern University 1
Quantitative, Spatially Resolved Analysis of Single-Cell and Single-Organelle Metabolism
Yi-Chih Lin, Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin 2
Nick Galati, Biology, Western Washington University 2
Lingyan Shi, Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego 2
Exploring the Mechano-Metabolic Landscape of a Beating Ciliary Array
Dylan McCreedy, Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station 2
Meghan Driscoll, Pharmacology, University of Minnesota Twin Cities 2
Sketch-Based Retrieval and Clustering of Neurons in Large Microscopy Data
Scott Cushing, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology 2
Jing Liu, Physics, Purdue University 2
Quantum-Enhanced Fluorescent Imaging with Entangled Photons
Lei Tian, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University 2
Ryan J. McGorty, Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego 2
3D Dynamics Quantification with Differential Dynamic Light-Field Microscopy
Rosario Porras-Aguilar, Physics & Optical Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte 1
Divita Mathur, Chemistry, Case Western Reserve University 1
Beam Shaping Metasurfaces Using DNA Alignment and Liquid Crystals
1 Funded by RCSA & Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation
2 Funded by CZI
3 Funded by Walder Foundation
RCSA will host three remaining Scialog conferences in 2023: Mitigating Zoonotic Threats in September, Molecular Basis of Cognition in October, and Negative Emissions Science in November. Two new Scialog initiatives have been announced to launch in 2024: Automating Chemical Laboratories and Early Science with the LSST.
About RCSA: Research Corporation for Science Advancement is a private foundation that funds basic research in the physical sciences (astronomy, chemistry, physics, and related fields) at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Since 1912, it has supported research independently proposed by college and university faculty members, convened conferences, and actively advocated for science advancement.
About CZI: The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 to help solve some of society’s toughest challenges — from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our communities. Through collaboration, providing resources and building technology, our mission is to help build a more inclusive, just and healthy future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.
About the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation: Research Corporation Technologies established the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation in 1998 to provide financial support for scientific research and educational programs at qualified nonprofit organizations.
About the Walder Foundation: The Walder Foundation was established by Joseph and Elizabeth Walder to address critical issues impacting our world. The Foundation’s five areas of focus — science innovation, environmental sustainability, the performing arts, migration and immigrant communities, and Jewish life — are an extension of the Walders’ lifelong passions, interests, and their personal and professional experiences.
