Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Alison Weber of Bryn Mawr College, a women’s liberal arts institution in Pennsylvania, has received a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue her research on flight sensory systems. An assistant professor of biology, Dr. Weber teaches in the college’s neuroscience program and researches how animals gather the sensory information they need to move, make decisions, and survive in the world in the context of insect flight.
The Women’s Giving Circle at the University of Arkansas has awarded $125,000 in support of nine university projects that advance student success, health and wellness, the arts, civic engagement, and educational equity. Composed of University of Arkansas alumnae, the Women’s Giving Circle aims to advance scholarship and research, strengthen the well-being of women and children, and foster outreach across Arkansas.
A team of scholars from the department of materials science and engineering at the University of Central Florida received a $100,000 grant from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation to study the microenvironment of triple negative breast cancer and investigate the role age may play in the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Successfully identifying age-related biomarkers associated with breast cancer progression could provide the groundwork for age-specific health screenings and treatment strategies, leading to better outcomes for patients of all ages.
Elizabeth Lucas, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was awarded a $3.5 million grant to study post-traumatic stress disorder in women. Dr. Lucas’ project will explore how brain cells in the amygdala – the part of the brain that processes emotions – differ between men and women and how they fluctuate throughout the female reproductive cycle.