Three Furman University Department of Biology faculty have each received research grants of $72,000 from the South Carolina IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (SC INBRE) program for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

Biology professors Adi Dubash (“Desmoplakin Harnesses Rho GTPase and p38 MAPK Signaling to Coordinate Cell Migration”), Linnea Freeman (“Sex Differences in Microgliosis: The Role of Gut Microbes”) and Alison Roark (“Interspecific Communication Between Anemones and Their Algal Symbionts”) each received competitive funding from the SC INBRE Developmental Research Program (DRP). Effective July 1, 2018, the awards will be applied to biomedical investigations conducted with undergraduate researchers on the Furman campus.

Among 14 South Carolina primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) eligible to submit applications, Freeman and Roark successfully competed for the two awards made during the 2018-19 award cycle. In addition, Dubash was renewed for a second year of funding following an initial award in July 2017.

Said John Wheeler, associate provost for integrative science and principal investigator of Furman’s INBRE program, “The SC INBRE DRP program has committed more than $730,000 in competitive research funding to Furman faculty since 2015. This is in addition to $1.3 million Furman will receive via the INBRE mechanism supporting undergraduate research access across all departments engaged in biomedical research between 2015 and 2020.

"The awards are a testament to the quality of professional scholarship conducted by Furman faculty and students contributing to the mission of the National Institutes of Health.”