Tags: research

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Noted and quoted, September 2022

A new naming system for microbes, Greenland's zombie ice, a Finnish scholar on a American history, and tributes to a beloved campus colleague and friend lead Franklin College media mentions and experts During September: Greenland ‘zombie ice’ an ominous warning for future, new study finds – Tom Mote, Distinguished research Professor of geography and associate dean, quoted at Yahoo! News Jackson’s water crisis – A stark warning about…

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Correcting peers is key in small-group learning

Collaborative group work is increasingly prioritized across higher education, particularly in the life sciences and STEM-related fields. But how students communicate within these smaller groups is key to their success. New research from the University of Georgia suggests that students who understand what they do and do not know, and who are willing to ask for clarification and correct misinformation in the group, are more successful in…

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New therapy shows promise for stem cell stroke treatment

A new combination therapy developed at the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center (RBC) has shown promising results in models of ischemic stroke, or strokes caused by blood clots, significantly reducing disability within a three-month period. Building on more than a decade of work using pig models for stroke research and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem cells (iNSCs), Professor Franklin West and a research team…

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Cellular biology researcher uncovers humans’ natural weapon against malaria

Parasitologist Samarchith “Sam” Kurup has been awarded a five-year National Institutes of Health grant to study the natural immune response to the Plasmodium parasite in liver cells, with designs on uncovering how the human immune system naturally fights malaria in the liver stage will lead to an effective malaria vaccine. Our colleagues in the Office of research share the story: Malaria is one of the most studied parasitic…

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Leaky infrastructure driving antibiotic resistant pathogens in local waters

Could your old septic tank be driving a growth in antimicrobial resistant bacteria? It’s possible, say the authors of a University of Georgia study that identified aging sewer lines and septic systems as the primary drivers of antibiotic resistant bacteria contamination in their samples. This finding flips the script on the assumption that agriculture runoff or treated wastewater outflows are the main ways antibiotic resistant bacteria are…

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Researchers discover potential treatment for Chagas disease

Researchers from the University of Georgia have discovered a potential treatment for Chagas disease, marking the first medication with promise to successfully and safely target the parasitic infection in more than 50 years. Human clinical trials of the drug, an antiparasitic compound known as AN15368, will hopefully begin in the next few years. “I’m very optimistic,” said Rick Tarleton, corresponding author of the study and a UGA…

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Theatre faculty helped make this show go on

Over the summer, two faculty members from the University of Georgia department of theatre and film studies worked with the Aurora Theatre and Broadway Factor to bring Chris Anthony Ferrer’s debut play, “Swindlers,” to life. The play ran at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville in May and June. Julie Ray, associate professor and head of the department of theatre and film studies, and Ivan Ingermann, associate professor…

pictorial diagram of fern leaf parts and sections, with text on white
Genome evolution in the modern fern

Defying all expectations, a fern no larger than a dinner plate currently holds the title for highest chromosome count, with a whopping 720 pairs crammed into each of its nuclei. This penchant of ferns for hoarding DNA has stumped scientists, and the intractable size of their genomes has made it difficult to sequence, assemble and interpret them. Two new papers published in the journal Nature Plants are rewriting history with the first full-…

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Noted and Quoted, summer 2022

Broad coverage of big stories on race, health, climate change, weather safety, and history featured research findings and expertise of faculty from across the Franklin College over the summer. A sampling of ongoing, highly impactful scholarship from our colleagues: Black, Latino people more likely to remain masked during pandemic, polls show – research by Allison L. Skinner-Dorkenoo, assistant professor of psychology, reported at …

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UGA completes Phase 2 of STEM Research Complex

The University held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the second phase of the Interdisciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (I-STEM) Research Complex on Wednesday, Aug. 24. The 101,000-square-foot, $64 million I-STEM Research Building 2, which was funded by a combination of university and state funds, will support collaborative research in chemistry, engineering and other scientific disciplines. Paired with…

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Research profile: Mattia Pistone

Much like lava flows, Mattia Pistone began his interest in volcanology and petrology via an energetic and wandering path. It started in Pistone’s hometown of Pescara, Italy, when he began studying Latin literature and noting how the Romans used nature as a model for technology. The Romans are known as excellent engineers, but they were also early geologists. They knew that choosing the right rock for the right purpose could lead to longstanding…

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Next-generation nanophotonics devices and applications come into view

Densely-packed solar cells that fit on a car and efficiently transfer light to electricity; point-of care medical diagnostic tools; major advances in communication, sensing and imaging – all of these plus many more depend on interaction of light with the material world at a very small scale, also known as nanophotonics. What makes nanophotonics so interesting to scientists and so promising across a broad array of industry is the subject of a new…

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Lack of bouncy castle regulations leaves children vulnerable to wind-related weather events

A popular, easily rentable party feature could be putting tens of thousands of children at risk, according to new research from the University of Georgia. The study found at least 479 people were injured and 28 died worldwide in more than 130 bounce house accidents due to weather events since 2000. But the researchers caution that these estimates are likely an undercount. These injuries are on top of an estimated 10,000 ER visits in…

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Clay-Warner named OIBR director

The UGA Office of Research named Jody Clay-Warner the new director of the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research, effective Aug. 1. Clay-Warner, Meigs Professor of Sociology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, received a Ph.D. in sociology from Emory University and has been at UGA since 1998, where she previously served as director of the Criminal Justice Studies Program and as head of the department of sociology. She…

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Feminism may lead to better body image

Important new research from communication studies describing how mothers and daughters who follow feminist principles speak more positively about their bodies. Published in Body Image, the study found that feminist mothers and their daughters felt more positively about their bodies and less shame about how their bodies look than those who don’t ascribe to feminist ideals. Additionally, the paper showed that how mothers view and speak about…

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Women can live better with an improved diet

Women tend to live longer than men but typically have higher rates of illness. Now, new research from University of Georgia suggests these higher rates of illness can be improved by a better diet, one that is high in pigmented carotenoids such as yams, kale, spinach, watermelon, bell peppers, tomatoes, oranges and carrots. These bright-colored fruits and vegetables are particularly important in preventing visual and cognitive loss. “The idea is…

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Jamie Kreiner and the quiet forces of history

War. Politics. Changing technology. Plagues and famine and migration and outsized personalities. These are major forces that shape the world we live in, and many historians spend their careers studying them. Jamie Kreiner takes a different approach. A professor of history in the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences who specializes in the early Middle Ages, Kreiner looks for the quieter agents at work. “I like getting beneath…

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The origins of democracy in the Americas

New research from the UGA Laboratory of Archaeology, together with its partners in the Muscogee Nation, indicates that inhabitants of the Americas may have been practicing democratic-style collective governance at least a millennium before European contact. According to a new paper published in the journal American Antiquity, artifacts from the Cold Springs site in central Georgia indicate the presence of a “council house” on the site…

book cover graphic with text and spike of wheat
History professor's book unpacks the story of Black Sea grain

2019 Guggenheim Fellow Scott Nelson, Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Humanities in the department of history, published a timely new book this year recounting the story of how people have been growing wheat along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast since at least 2700 BC. Nelson's book Oceans of Grain (Basic Books, 2022) has met with widespread acclaim worldwide for both its insights on this global commodity as well as grain's…

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New Unscripted: Expedition to Antarctica

The new episode of our interview podcast Unscripted focuses on Patricia Yager, professor of marine sciences, and her recent experience co-leading a research expedition to the Amundsen Sea Polynya in western Antarctica. While many research projects on the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration were focused on sea level rise and the physical processes related to the melting, Yager served as co-chief scientist and lead P.I. on the project…

aerial photo of tulip fields, with roads and trees
Antifungal resistance: From “Big Chicken” to Big Tulip

The Genes to Genomes blog reports on recent research by UGA fungal biologists Michelle Momany and Marin Brewer, who reported in their findings that Aspergillus fumigatus isolated from clinical settings is resistant to agricultural fungicides. Infections have long been a deadly problem for hospital patients. Though modern medicine has an impressive array of antimicrobial drugs at its disposal, pathogens continue to evolve resistance,…

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UGA establishes School of Computing

Shortly after the close of the Spring semester, the University of Georgia gave the final approval to create the School of Computing, a new academic unit to be jointly administered by the Franklin College and the College of Engineering. In response to rising student enrollment and the growing role of computing in a range of fields, the University of Georgia has elevated its longstanding department of computer science to a School of Computing…

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Sarmiento receives Fulbright Global Scholar award

Fausto O. Sarmiento, professor of mountain science and director of the Neotropical Montology Collaboratory in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ geography department, has received a Fulbright U.S. Global Scholar award to Austria, Japan and Chile. The U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced that Sarmiento will research and lecture at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research of…

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UGA’s Tejas Reddy named 2022 Udall Scholar

Tejas Reddy’s focus on coastal ecosystems has earned him a 2022 Udall Scholarship. The University of Georgia undergraduate is one of 55 students across the nation being recognized for leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to the environment. A third-year Honors student from Rome, Georgia, Reddy is majoring in ecology in the Odum School of Ecology and biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The Udall…

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The complexity of mixed-race ancestry

Some people see themselves as part of a sole racial group, others identify with multiple groups Mixed-race ancestry, a widespread fact of the human population for centuries, does not uniquely translate to any specific racial identity. A new study authored by a University of Georgia sociologist describes the experiences, beliefs, and personal characteristics such as skin color that play a role in self-identification. While the current era…
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