Research Insider August 2022
Office of Research, Scholarship, and Sponsored Programs
A New Name for a Merged Office
The Office of Research and Scholarship on the main campus and the Office of Sponsored Programs on the Health Science Center campus have merged administratively under the new name: Office of Research, Scholarship, and Sponsored Programs (ORSSP). Faculty, staff, and students on the main campus who would like to seek external funding should contact the ORSSP by calling 903-565-5858 or emailing research@uttyler.edu. Faculty, staff, and students on the Health Science Center campus should contact the ORSSP by calling 903-877-7392 or emailing grants@uthct.edu. ORSSP staff are located in Room 360 of Stewart Hall on the main campus and in Room 124 of the Biomedical Research Building at the Health Science Center campus.
Upcoming Workshops
The Office of Research, Scholarship, and Sponsored Programs has assembled a slate of workshops on topics including finding funding, proposal development, and grant management. Visit the ORSSP Faculty Development Workshops webpage to see a complete list of AY 22-23 workshops and registration links and to view videos and presentations from past workshops.
Upcoming Changes to Time and Effort Reporting on the Main Campus
Beginning September 1, 2022, the UT Tyler main campus will move to a quarterly time and effort certification process. Certifiers will receive an email from our time and effort electronic system, eCRT when certifications are due. Please contact Angela Nunez, if you have any questions.
Congratulations
The UT Tyler Health Science Center (The UT Health Science Center at Tyler) has been
awarded $997,120 from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)
for a project entitled DEFEAT (Delivering Education, Focused Navigation, and Equitable Access throughout East Texas). The project will be led by Paul McGaha, DO, MPH, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine
and Population Health in the School of Medicine as primary investigator, and Carlton Allen, MS as program manager. DEFEAT will focus on increasing access to breast cancer screenings
and education for uninsured and underserved women between 40 to 75 years of age, mostly
from rural populations. It aims to reach women from African American and Black populations
that have statistically shown greater incidence rates of breast cancer in the Northeast
Texas region. The three-year award will begin September 1, 2022 and end August 31,
2025.
The UT Tyler Health Science Center has also been awarded another CPRIT grant of $2,482,127
for a project led by Paul McGaha, DO, and managed by Carlton Allen, MS, entitled Screening to Optimize Prevention of CRC in East Texas (STOP CRC ET). This funding will allow the HSC’s CPRIT screening project to reach 38 counties in
the East Texas region by adding six more counties to the existing 32-county service
area. The funding will continue support for the program’s efforts to provide no cost
colorectal cancer screening for uninsured and underinsured East Texans. This award
will begin September 1, 2022 and end February 28, 2025.
The UT Tyler Health Science Center has been awarded a National Institutes of Health
R33 continuation grant of $440,243 for a project entitled Optimization of a Rabbit Retained Hemothorax Model for Evidence-Based Pharmacologic
Interventions. Steven Idell, MD, PhD, Galina Florova, PhD, and Andrey Komissarov, PhD, are the principal investigators for this research that will test new therapeutics
for hemothorax (blood that undergoes scarring in the space around the lung, causing
lung dysfunction and shortness of breath). The project period began August 15, 2020
and ends July 31, 2023 and has a total award of $881,243.
The UT Tyler School of Nursing has been awarded a Health Resources & Services Administration
(HRSA) Nurse Faculty Loan Program grant of $323,208. Jenifer Chilton, PhD, RN, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the School
of Nursing will serve as the project director for the program that began July 1, 2022
and will end June 30, 2023. The award supports the establishment and operation of
a loan fund at UT Tyler for making loans to eligible nursing students who indicate
their intent to become nursing faculty.
The UT Tyler Health Science Center received a $1 million Health 
Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant to help combat the opioid and drug
abuse crisis in Anderson and Cherokee counties. The funding will support the ANCHOR project, led by Harrison Ndetan, MD, PhD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Medicine.
ANCHOR seeks to build, strengthen, and sustain access to evidence-based and linguistically
tailored opioid and substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery services in
the community. The project will begin September 1, 2022 and end August 31, 2025.
The UT Tyler Health Science Center has been awarded a National Institutes of Health
R56 award of $370,700. Maolin Lu, PhD is the principal investigator for the project entitled Probing Conformational Dynamics of HIV-1 Env in Real Time and in situ during Virus
Entry which began August 1, 2022 and ends July 31, 2023. The research will enhance understanding
about how the HIV-1 virus enters host target cells and facilitate rational design
of interventions, such as vaccines and small molecule inhibitors, to block virus entry.
The UT Tyler Health Science Center received a one-year noncompeting continuation award
of $695,140 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for a project
entitled Innate Immune Response of LTBI+HIV+ Children. Raman (Krishna) Vankayalapati, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Center for Biomedical Research in the School of
Medicine is the principal investigator for the project that began September 14, 2020
and ends August 31, 2024. The project has a total federal award of $2,108,920.
The Fisch College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Outcomes
received a subaward from Kansas State University for $13,438 funded by the National
Science Foundation. Santosh Aryal, PhD, Associate Professor will serve as the UT Tyler principal investigator for the
project entitled, RAPID - Impact of Coronaviridae Lipid, Protein and RNA Interaction on Copper, Zinc,
and Their Derivatives Coated Personal Protective Equipment Surfaces and Viral Infectivity that began June 1, 2022 and ends December 31, 2022.
UT Tyler received a $50,000 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board,
as part of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to plan for development
or expansion of innovative programs and initiatives that accelerate student success
by positively impacting access, persistence, completion, and workforce transitions.
Colleen Swain, PhD, Associate Provost for Undergraduate and Online Education is the project director
and is leading a planning committee made up of faculty and staff that will develop
a comprehensive plan to guide UT Tyler in its efforts to increase student retention
and completion and improve student transitions into graduate studies or careers. The
project period began in July and ends September 30, 2022.
UT Tyler also received a $50,000 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board, as part of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to develop
innovative solutions to address critical teacher shortages that the COVID-19 pandemic
has exacerbated. Frank Dykes, Ed.D. Director of the School of Education, is the project director. He is leading
a planning team made up of faculty and staff that will help develop a comprehensive
plan to enhance or develop innovative teacher credentialing programs aimed at increasing
the number of certified teachers in East Texas and strengthening the educator training
pipeline. The project period began in August and ends September 30, 2022.
Zishu Cao, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Jasper Department of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering received a Rising STARs award of $150,000 from The University of Texas System. The STARs program was established by the Board of Regents to help recruit and retain highly qualified research faculty at UT System institutions.
Woohyoung Jeon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology in the School
of Health Professions received a $50,000 Rising STARs award from The University of
Texas System. STARs awards are funded from Permanent University Fund bond proceeds
and expenditures are limited to equipment, repair, and renovations.
Carlton Allen, MS, Program Director for Community Health in the Department of Public Health in
the School of Health Professions, received American Cancer Society’s Volunteer Staff
Partnership Award. For the past six years, Carlton and his team continue to find innovative
ways to educate and screen individuals in Northeast Texas and promote the (Cancer
Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)-funded Screening to Optimize Prevention of CRC in East Texas (STOP CRC ET) project. Over the project’s lifetime: 10,113 colorectal screenings have been completed
(8,314 FIT & 1,799 colonoscopies), educated over 1,600 health professionals, and provided
outreach to over 16,000 individuals using an inflatable colon to bring awareness to
the community on the importance of colorectal screenings.
Faculty Development Leave Program Awardees
The Faculty Development Leave awards in the form of release time are granted through a peer-reviewed, competitive process. Eight applications were received for faculty development leave to be taken in AY 22-23 and five were awarded for the Spring 2023 semester.
|
Awardee |
Position |
Department |
College/School |
|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Banta | Professor | Biology Department | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Mohammad Biswas | Associate Professor | Department of Mechanical Engineering | College of Engineering |
| X. Neil Dong | Professor | Department of Health and Kinesiology | School of Health Professions |
| Anett Jessop | Assistant Professor | Department of Literature and Languages | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Sooah Park | Associate Professor | School of Performing Arts | College of Arts and Sciences |
New Hires in the ORSSP
Jessica Hernandez, who goes by “Jess”, joined the ORSSP on the HSC campus in June as a Post Award Account
Analyst. She has extensive experience in management, administration, and bookkeeping.
She is a recent graduate of Western Governor’s University with a Bachelor of Science
in Accounting and is currently working on earning her MBA at Western Governor’s University.
Jess can be reached by email at Jessica.Hernandez@uthct.edu or by phone at 903-877-7755.
Angela Fazarro is a native Texan, raised in Austin. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree
in Accounting from Huston-Tillotson University, and a Master of Science degree in
Industrial Management from the University of Central Missouri. Angela joined the Office
of Research, Scholarship, and Sponsored Programs in mid-July as a Grants and Contracts
Specialist on the HSC campus where she provides pre-award services. Angela can be
reached by email at Angela.Fazarro@uthct.edu or by phone at 903-877-7910.
Staff Designated Certified Research Administrators
Dr. Carla Reichard and Kay Jenkins were designated Certified Research Administrators (CRAs) in June by the Research
Administrators Certification Council (RACC), an independent non-profit organization.
The designation certifies that an individual, through experience and testing, has
the fundamental knowledge necessary to be a professional research or sponsored programs
administrator. Dr. Reichard wears two crowns, one as a recently designated CRA, and
a second as a previously designated Certified Pre-Award Research Administrator (CPRA).
Carla, Kay, and Panda Powell, Director of ORSSP, who is also a CRA participate in
continuing education events to maintain their certifications.