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NSF funding secured for ‘Mobility Data for Communities: Uncovering Segregation, Climate Resilience and Economic Development from Cell-Phone Records’
“In this project, we plan to build a public mobility data platform for the Boston area that will help neighborhoods and communities use cellphone-generated data to address issues of social equity, racial and socioeconomic segregation, economic development and climate resilience.”
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Weng receives Grantham funding to engineer carbon sequestering plant roots
“This project aims to develop engineered plants that produce chemically inert sporopollenin in non-anther tissues for long-term carbon storage. By reconstituting sporopollenin biosynthesis and secretion in roots, inert polymers can be injected into soil. Progress includes identifying sporopollenin biosynthetic genes, developing analytical methods and exploring yeast expression systems. Future work will assess sporopollenin durability in soil and investigate sporopollenin co-polymers in plants. This scalable, self-repairable approach offers a biological solution for atmospheric carbon sequestration.”
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Wales will target ‘SHP-1 through a newfound metabolite-regulated cysteine activation site’
“This new project is focused on chemical manipulation and characterization of SHP-1 based on recent insights, gained in large part from the development of mass spectrometry approaches to map small molecule covalent interactions proteome-wide done in the Chouchani laboratory. My research group will apply hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry (MS) to investigate conformational changes of SHP-1 upon binding to itaconate and itaconate-mimetics to ascertain if SHP-1 activation leads to conformational rearrangement and then determine where those rearrangements take place within SHP-1. These HDX MS studies will provide solution-based measurements that will complement the X-ray crystallography studies of the same system.”
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Zheng receives Leadership for Inclusion and Diversity Award
Yi Zheng, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, received the 2024 Leadership for Inclusion and Diversity Award from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Asian American Pacific Islanders Commission. Zheng presented a speech at the 16th Annual Unity Dinner before Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg and State Auditor Diana DiZoglio. The award recognized Zheng “as an exceptional leader who has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to fostering inclusivity and diversity.”
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Weng receives Food Allergy Science Initiative funding to understand role of phytochemicals in allergies
“This project investigates the role of phytochemicals in food allergies, focusing on identifying plant secondary metabolites that influence allergic reactions and developing potential therapeutics for food allergies. Jing-Ke Weng’s lab aims to advance understanding of food allergy causes and mechanisms through interdisciplinary research on plant chemistry and its interaction with the human immune system, with the ultimate goal of creating new treatments for food allergies.”
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Weng receives USDA funding to explore cyclic peptide biosynthesis
“Plants offer an enormous chemodiversity that is essential for discovering new medicines, with 25% of all FDA-approved drugs coming from plants. However, the production of plant-derived natural products faces significant challenges. Our research [explores] the biosynthesis and bioengineering of lyciumins and moroidins, two classes of branched cyclic peptides with potential pharmaceutical applications. Lyciumins, inhibitors of the human angiotensin-converting enzyme, come from the Goji berry, while moroidins, derived from the Australian stinging tree, exhibit anti-mitotic activities suitable for cancer therapy. … We propose to advance our understanding of RiPP diversity and biosynthesis, supporting new strategies for their engineering and application in…
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Joshi, Nguyen receive patent for ‘therapeutic protein’-secreting bacteria
Associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology Neel S. Joshi, with student Peter Nguyen, received a patent for “Engineered bacteria that secrete therapeutic polypeptides, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the bacteria, methods for producing recombinant polypeptides and methods for using the bacteria for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.”
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Patent for network slicing policies
“Electrical and computer engineering assistant research professor Salvatore D’oro, assistant professor Francesco Restuccia and professor Tommaso Melodia were awarded a patent for ‘Methods for the Enforcement of Network Slicing Policies in Virtualized Cellular Networks.'”
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Müftü and Özdemir receive Army Research Laboratory grant
“Sinan Müftü, College of Engineering distinguished professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, and Ozan Özdemir, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, are leading a team that was awarded a $4.38 million grant from the Army Research Laboratory to advance wire-arc direct energy deposition for large-format metal additive manufacturing.”
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Ghoreishi receives funding to study AI in harsh environments
“Fatemeh Ghoreishi, assistant professor of civil engineering, received a $60,000 grant from the U.S. Army for ‘BRITE: Bayesian Inference and Preference Learning for Unknown and Time-Sensitive Environments’ to further [her] research on AI systems in unpredictable environments.”
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Abur receives NSF grant to integrate renewable energy into power grids
“Electrical and computer engineering professor Ali Abur was awarded a $350,000 grant from the NSF for ‘Robust Transient State Estimation for Three-Phase Power Systems.’ The project aims to facilitate the efficient integration of inverter-based renewable energy sources into future generation of power systems.”
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Daramola elected Scialog fellow in sustainable minerals, metals and materials initiative
“Chemical engineering assistant professor Damilola Daramola has been named a Fellow of the Scialog initiative on Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials. This interdisciplinary community of Fellows represents institutions across the United States and Canada and brings together expertise from fields including chemistry, materials science, geology, ecology, engineering, mining, computational science, physics and more. The community focuses on ensuring a sustainable future.”
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Needa Brown receives Women’s Health Innovation Grant
As part of Governor Maura Healey’s support of the Massachusetts Life Science Center’s Women’s Health Initiative, Needa Brown, assistant teaching professor of physics at Northeastern University, has received funding for her project “InCITE: A Biomaterial Platform to Overcome Barriers to Drug Delivery.”
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Whitford receives NIH grant to ‘enable translation’ across ribosomes
“This award will use theoretical models and high-performance computing to study the ribosome, a massive molecular assembly composed of hundreds of thousands of atoms. The ribosome is responsible for translating our genes into proteins, making its function central to all life. In this study, we will identify the molecular factors that control protein synthesis in bacteria and higher-level organisms. Insights into bacteria will aim to identify novel antibiotics, while the study of human ribosomes can shed light on a range of diseases, including metabolic diseases and forms of cancer.”
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Weng receives funding to identify small molecules involved in diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s
“The proposed research aims to develop a plant-based drug screening platform to identify small molecules that can disrupt protein and RNA aggregation associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The project will utilize the unique lyciumin peptide biosynthesis pathway in plants to generate a diverse library of cyclic peptides. These peptides will be screened in engineered tobacco BY-2 cells … to identify compounds that alleviate cellular toxicity and alter aggregation kinetics. … The established screening platform and identified compounds will be made available to the research community, potentially offering new tools and therapeutic strategies.”
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‘The Evolutionary Origin of Naturally Occurring Intermolecular Diels-Alderases From Morus alba’
“Biosynthetic enzymes evolutionarily gain novel functions, thereby expanding the structural diversity of natural products to the benefit of host organisms. Diels-Alderases (DAs), functionally unique enzymes catalysing [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions, have received considerable research interest. However, their evolutionary mechanisms remain obscure. Here, we investigate the evolutionary origins of the intermolecular DAs in the biosynthesis of Moraceae plant-derived Diels-Alder-type secondary metabolites. Our findings suggest that these DAs have evolved from an ancestor functioning as a flavin adenine dinucleotide-dependent oxidocyclase, which catalyses the oxidative cyclisation reactions of isoprenoid-substituted phenolic compounds.” Find the paper and authors list at the National Library of…
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Engineering professor wants to revolutionize wireless communication by manipulating ‘acoustic waves in solids’
Assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Siddhartha Ghosh has received two prestigious early career awards for his work on radio frequency front-end devices, developing materials that convert radio signals into acoustic waves at the microchip level.
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Large language models can lie to you — this professor wants you to know when they do
Assistant professor of computer science Malihe Alikhani has received a DARPA AI Exploration grant to introduce “healthy frictions” into human-AI interactions. These frictions would help human users understand the varying levels of certainty large language models have regarding their own statements and decrease the likelihood of users falling for AI “hallucinations.”
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When it comes to building more resilient structures, it takes ‘a whole profession,’ Northeastern professor says
CDM Smith Professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering Jerome Hajjar received both the AISC Special Achievement Award and the SSRC Beedle Award at the recent AISC annual conference, delivering a keynote to several thousand attendees on sustainable and resilient structural systems.
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Professor’s new book shines light on how architectural works are in constant conversation with the past
With “The Architecture of Influence,” associate professor of architecture Amanda Lawrence explores how architectural copies, imitations, emulations and more interact to create an ongoing conversation between the present and the past.
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Lili Su receives NSF CAREER Award for developing ‘resilient, scalable distributed algorithms’
Assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Lili Su has received an NSF CAREER Award for her work on federated learning, a “privacy-preserving and communication-efficient” methodology for large distributed systems.
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Ferrins receives NIH AViDD Center Development Grant
“There are two goals in this project, firstly, to continue to develop our advanced hit compound … to identify a lead suitable for in vivo proof of concept studies. Secondly, to develop novel methods to study the structural dynamics of both covalent inhibitors and PLpro active site structures enabling the development of more potent covalent inhibitors.”
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Meni Wanunu, developer of sensitive biological sensors, receives Northeastern University NAI Innovator of the Year Award
Professor of physics and chemistry and chemical biology Meni Wanunu develops “nanopores,” sensors composed of molecule-sized holes that stretch individual molecules for scientific observation. At this year’s annual gathering of the Northeastern chapter of the National Academy of Inventors, Wanunu received the Innovator of the Year Award.
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Dy elected as Fellow of Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
Professor Jennifer Dy, in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and in the department of electrical and computer engineering, was elected as a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) “For significant contributions to unsupervised and interpretable machine learning, advancing AI to address health care challenges and service to the AI community,” the organization wrote in its announcement.
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Cassella added to Fulbright Specialist Roster
“Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Cristian Cassella was recommended by a panel of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and World Learning to join the prestigious Fulbright Specialist Roster for a tenure of three years. The program, which is part of the larger Fulbright Program, pairs highly qualified U.S. academics and professionals with host institutions in over 150 countries to share their expertise, strengthen institutional linkages, hone their skills, gain international experience and learn about other cultures while building capacity at their overseas host institutions.”
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Two members of the Northeastern community elected ACM Fellows for contributions to artificial intelligence and advances in computer science
Professor of the practice at Northeastern University Kenneth Church and Northeastern graduate Natasha Noy have been elected 2023 ACM Fellows. Both Church and Noy have advanced research in artificial intelligence, and both have worked on tools to support other researchers’ efforts.
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For teaching computers to see, Northeastern professor receives eminent achievement award
A leading researcher in the field of computer vision — which uses artificial intelligence to process images received from cameras that “mimic human eyes” — Yun Raymond Fu, distinguished professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, has received the 2024 Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award for making “impactful contributions” over a nearly 20-year career.