URI Professor Besio Awarded $6 Million Grant For Biomedical Research
Tuesday, October 06, 2015
University of Rhode Island engineering professor Walt Besio has been awarded a $6 million grant front he National Science Foundation to lead an interdisciplinary consortium of scientists to create brain imaging and modulation technologies that can provide insight into the nervous system and how it functions in both health and disease.
“We’re going to create a portable integrated system to get electrical and neurovascular activity from the brain. The system will allow researchers to conduct experiments that until now have not been easy to do,” said Besio, who invented a patented tripolar concentric ring electrode sensor for detecting brain signals that will be the basis of the new research.
The Project
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBesio will collaborate with colleagues from institutions in Kentucky and Oklahoma to develop innovative tools to image, sense and record brain function and deliver stimuli to the brain to treat neurological diseases like epilepsy, stroke and Parkinson's disease.
The URI scientists will focus on development of the hardware for the new system while the Kentucky and Oklahoma teams will create algorithms and explore applications that could benefit the project.
"By the time we develop the instrumentation, we will be able to do research that nobody else can do," Besio said.
The Funding
The funding for the research comes from the National Science Foundation's experimental program to stimulate competitive research. The URI grant was one of eight awards selected from 60 proposals.
Along with funding the research, the grant aims to advance careers of junior faculty, so URI Assistant Professors Stephen Kennedy and Kunal Mankodiya will be among the collaborators on the project.
Related Articles
- RI Commerce Picks 2 Out-of-State-Firms to Brand and Promote RI Tourism
- URI and Brown Set for 100th Meeting on Saturday Night at Brown Stadium
- Brown Wins 5th Straight Governor’s Cup, Beat URI 41-31
- Langevin is Skeptical on Chinese Part of Cybersecurity Agreement
- URI Basketball Gets Verbal Commit From Cyril Langevine
- Brown Basketball to Host URI, Visit Georgetown in 2015-16 Season
- URI Looking For 1st Win Over Ranked Opponent Since 2011 vs #25 Harvard
- URI Basketball Gets Verbal Commitment From Michael Tertsea
- Online Security After a Breakup: It’s Just Like Starting Over
- 2 URI Football Players Arrested, Charged With Assault and Disorderly Conduct
- Cranston West Beats Missouri, Avoids Elimination
- NEW: Providence Closes City Pools During Heat Wave
- URI Alum Henderson Named 62nd PGA Golf Professional of the Year
- Homeland Security Test at T.F. Green Opposed by RI ACLU
- URI is 1 of 14 Organizations to Receive $2.5 Million Grant to Improve Geriatric Care
- URI Basketball to be Featured as Part of ESPN’s Tip-Off Marathon
- URI Football Set to Kick Off 2015 Season vs Syracuse
- URI Football Looks to Bounce Back vs. Albany
- URI Football Falls 27-17 to Maine
- Bryant, Brown and URI Hit the Road Looking For Wins
