With California becoming more reliant on electric vehicles and hence emitting less tailpipe emissions, researchers are now considering other pollutants that vehicles may emit, such as those from the use of brakes or tires.
Hence, the AirUCI Institute won a $1.9 million grant from California Attorney General’s office to study the health impacts of non-tailpipe vehicle pollutants.
“This is becoming the hot area” for investigations, Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, co-director of AirUCI, told the Business Journal.
“Stepping on the brakes and tire wear—both put up small particles in the air. This will be most important in heavily trafficked neighborhoods.”
1000+ Awards
There’s plenty other hot areas of research taking place at the University of California, Irvine.
AirUCI’s new study is just one of more than 1,000 research projects ongoing at the school, UCI reports.
The studies run the gamut and include numerous esoteric subjects.
Ringing of the ears to “cartographers of the brain” to markers in children to determine their level of resilience from adverse events are all being researched.
The university recently announced it has received the most research funding in campus history: $592 million in grants and contracts for the fiscal year ended June 30, a 12% annual increase.
“This research funding milestone confirms UCI’s ascent among its Association of American Universities peers as a world-class research university,” UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman said in a statement.
“Despite the hurdles we have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UCI community continues to make a meaningful impact on regional economic development and to improve society through globally prominent research.”
During the past fiscal year, UCI investigators received 1,012 new awards, totaling nearly $275 million, 46% percent of the entire amount, with the remainder coming from renewed funding sources.
Health Focus
More than $340 million of all UCI research funding in fiscal 2020-21 was for biomedical and health sciences clinical work across campus.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which encompasses the National Institutes of Health, was the largest single source of research funding at UCI, accounting for $180 million.
The National Science Foundation provided another $50 million.
Gifts and grants from philanthropic foundations and charitable trusts totaled another $86 million.
Researchers at the university’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center—Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center—were one of last year’s biggest recipients of funds.
They brought in $55 million for basic, translational and clinical studies, a 24% bump from a year ago.
Likewise, UCI’s Center for Clinical Research conducted over 200 studies in 2020-21 and were awarded over $22 million in industry and federal funding, a 134% jump.
Their private company contracts include:
• $4.7 million from Newport Beach’s jCyte Inc. for the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute’s Phase 2 study of a stem cell-derived treatment for adults with retinitis pigmentosa.
• $4.2 million from Syneos Health Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNH) for a Phase 1 study evaluating the tolerability and safety profile of a new drug called ASP1951 in people with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
• $3.2 million from Covance for a Phase 1/2 dose escalation and expansion study of an antibody drug called MCLA-129 in individuals with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and other solid tumors.
Health Notables
• The National Institute on Aging awarded two grants totaling $5.7 million to the UCI Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders to advance research on neurodegenerative diseases.
Also known as UCI MIND, it is internationally recognized for its research accomplishments in age-related brain disorders, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
• The National Institutes of Health awarded $2 million to researchers in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering to develop a biologic implant for the spinal facet joint. This grant will be the first to focus on the treatment of facet joint degeneration, a highly prevalent contributor to back pain.
• Researchers led by Bernadette Boden-Albala, founding dean of UCI’s future School of Population and Public Health, inked a $2.9 million contract with the city of Santa Ana to create a representative sample of residents with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
John Wayne, Kids
• The state awarded a $2.3 million grant to study how adverse childhood experiences influences children’s neurodevelopment and to discover a marker to predict each child’s level of resilience. A team led by Dr. Tallie Baram, a Donald Bren Professor and director of UCI’s Conte Center, also includes researchers from Chapman University and Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
• A multidisciplinary team of UCI researchers and institutional partners received $750,000 from the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator to conduct a large-scale study to understand misinformation about money, banking and finance among marginalized American communities.
They’re partnering with the U.S. credit union system to pilot the Algorithmic Observatory, a community-driven forum for monitoring and countering misinformation. Starting with a regional approach in Southern California, their goal is to eventually expand the Algorithmic Observatory nationwide.
• A donation from the John Wayne Cancer Foundation has created the John Wayne Cancer Foundation Endowed Chair in Surgical Oncology and to also fund the UCI John Wayne Cancer Foundation Endowed Fellowship in Surgical Oncology.
The foundation, established by the family of the famous actor and OC resident, supports a nationwide network of John Wayne alumni fellows who are advancing research and treatment in a variety of surgical specialties.
UCI’s School of Medicine has an “amazing staff,” said Ethan Wayne, director of the foundation and the son of John Wayne.
• Researchers in the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences won a $1.5 million grant to foster greater interoperability among drinking water, stormwater and wastewater infrastructure.
• The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping could be called “cartographers of the brain” for its mapping the mechanisms underlying several common disorders such as “lazy eye.”
• The Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory was the first to discover how the brain creates memories of delicious smells.
They published a study in the journal Nature specific cells in the lateral entorhinal cortex of the medial temporal lobe, called fan cells, are required for the acquisition of new associative memories and that these cells are controlled by dopamine, a brain chemical known to be involved in our experience of pleasure or reward.
“These experiments were like a detective story for us, and we are excited about the results,” said lead researcher Kei Igarashi. “We never expected that dopamine is involved in the memory circuit. However, when the evidence accumulated, it gradually became clear that dopamine is involved.”
• The Center for the Study of Cannabis, which publishes the only academic peer-reviewed research journal on the subject, said three of its members received a $1.4 million grant from California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control for their project titled “Exploring Cannabis Policies and Practices That Influence Adolescent Use: Evolution of Local Cannabis Law, Products, Sales, and Marketing.”
• The Center for Korean Studies received $1.1 million from the Academy of Korean Studies, a division of the South Korean Ministry of Education, and the Korea Foundation so that UCI can develop programs, including a new faculty position in Korean art history.
Salmon, Tire Link
The funding for AirUCI’s vehicle emissions study came from $10 million worth of grants that stem from a 2016 settlement with Volkswagen over the automaker’s emissions cheating scandal.
AirUCI’s Finlayson-Pitts said only a few prior studies have looked at the issue of brakes and tires emitting pollutants.
A key recent study released a year ago showed that salmon in the Pacific Northwest were dying at a higher rate on streams that ran alongside roads.
“They tracked it down to tire particles,” Barbara said. “Tires have these compounds that are toxic to salmon. It’s an indicator that it’s something we should be thinking about.”
AirUCI, which is an acronym for Atmospheric Integrated Research at UCI, combines 30 faculty members from a variety of different professions.
“It’s a broad group that normally doesn’t pull together” for grants, said Finlayson-Pitts. “This grant lets us pull all together under one umbrella.”
Gaming Hub, Gaming Backers
Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler founded the Games + Learning + Society in 2005 while at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now both at University of California, Irvine’s Department of Informatics, the two professors have relaunched the center as an intersection of computer games, education and social activism.
GLS has been redesigned to allow students to take full advantage of UCI’s unique position in Southern California’s computer gaming ecosystem, according to Squire.
“UCI is in the heart of ‘Silicon Beach,’ which means students here have ready access to a host of game developers headquartered in Irvine and other close-by cities,” Squire said. “Our people get to meet, collaborate with and learn from developers at Blizzard, Activision and other firms both on the UCI campus and at the companies’ facilities—something that’s just not possible to this extent outside this region.”
Squire said another advantage for students in the center is the existing curriculum for UCI’s B.S. in game design & interactive media. Started in 2009, it’s the first such degree offered by a major public university.
OC’s gaming community also is stepping up, with funds for other causes.
Brian Fargo, founder and studio head of Newport Beach’s video game developer inXile Entertainment Inc., donated $1 million to help Dr. Hamid Djalilian develop a treatment for tinnitus, commonly described as “ringing in the ears,” which affects 50 million Americans.
“Anyone who has the condition knows the frustration of dealing with the general lack of hope for a cure. Coming to UCI was a real breath of fresh air in a world of pessimism,” said Fargo, who is a patient of Djalilian. “I spent years researching and traveling the world looking at different solutions. One of the things that was abundantly clear was the lack of money being put into solving this problem. That’s why I’ve decided to step up and help accelerate the doctor’s work.”
Billionaire Backers
Some of the country’s wealthier business execs (and their estates) have directed funds to University of California, Irvine researchers of late.
• June Ahn, an associate professor of education, was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct a study identifying factors that motivate youth that shape youngsters’ identity and spark their interest in pursuing careers in technology, media and related industries.
• UCI’s The School of Humanities was given a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to introduce humanities graduate students to a broad range of possible careers, including STEM fields that could employ their expertise.
• Chemistry professor Jennifer Prescher received $1.5 million from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to further the use of bioluminescent tools for noninvasive, real-time imaging of the changes that occur in intracellular metabolic pathways in immune cells as they activate.
• Arnold Ventures, founded by billionaires John and Laura Arnold in 2010, awarded a $1.1 million grant to fund research on an expansive examination of family engagement among incarcerated persons and correctional staff who are responsible for all aspects of family contact and engagement. The study is being led by Nancy Rodriguez, a UCI professor of criminology, law and society.
Last year, Arnold Ventures donated $2.7 million to study prison violence.
Search for a ‘Therapeutic Revolution’
Giving continues to pour into the University of California, Irvine, with one of its largest reported donations announced a few weeks ago.
The Falling Leaves Foundation last month donated $30 million for a 200,000-square-foot state of the art building to expand cross-disciplinary teaching and translational research achievements.
The foundation was begun by Dr. Adeline Yen Mah, who was chief anesthesiologist at West Anaheim Community Hospital, and her husband Robert Mah, a prestigious professor at UCLA with two species and a genus named after him for his research on anaerobic archaebacteria.
“The future of medicine is being advanced at an unbelievable rate,” Adeline Mah said. “Eventually, every disease will be treatable. We are at the dawn of a therapeutic revolution.”
Adeline Mah gained fame as the author of “Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter,” about growing in China during the Communist revolution. Blamed for her mother’s death, ignored by her rich father and unwanted by her Eurasian stepmother, the book, sometimes known as the “Asian Mommie Dearest,” became a best seller with more than 1 million copies sold.
