The following grant awards were recently reported to the Office of Sponsored Programs:Dr. Barbara Clancy, Department of Biology, recently received a $104,024 grant to study the effects of adverse perinatal experiences on cortical organization.
The grant is being funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources, Biomedical Research Infrastructure Networks and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
In this study, Clancy and many UCA undergraduate students will investigate if during development, there may be a critical window of time when the brain is especially vulnerable to adverse experiences such as pain.
According to Clancy, ?We hope that these studies, which will be done in collaboration with Dr. K.J.S. Anand at Arkansas Children?s Hospital, will encourage the development of better methods of pain relief and anesthesia for premature babies.?
This seems particularly important right now because currently one in eight children in the US are born prematurely, and premature babies experience repetitive pain during their early hospital care. Many in the medical field believe that pain relief should not be used on preterm babies because of the side effects of such medications. Others believe that because the brain is not fully developed, premature babies may not experience pain, or at least they will not remember it.?
She continued, ?Because newborn rats on the day of their birth have similar brain structures to human preterm infants, we will test rats that have undergone repetitive pain at birth to see if their behavior and underlying brain structures may be altered. Our preliminary data indicates that disruption does occur and that the resulting problems may last for a lifetime. These changes may help to explain the high incidence of behavioral abnormalities and poor cognitive outcomes noted from follow-up studies of ex-preterm human children during their adolescence or adult life. We will also investigate the hypothesis that these disruptions may be minimized if anesthesia is administered appropriately.
To compare brain development between rats and humans, we will develop a mathematical model that can be used to ?translate? time across ten mammalian species. Because many other investigators also try to make comparisons between humans and experimental animals, we will make these data available via the Internet. The Web site will provide users with predicted dates of neural events where empirical data are currently unavailable. This should provide much greater precision to medical professionals who need to estimate the timing of any brain developmental events in the human fetus, and to biomedical researchers who need to identify comparable developmental timing across different mammalian species.?
UCA students assisting with the study include: James Hyde, Shannon Palmer, Brandon Kersh, Amanda Plummer, Sonja Isabell, Jason Talbert, Heather Delahunt, Pia Sellabos and Jessica Harrison.
Kathy McDaniel, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, recently received two grants for student traineeship stipends.
The Department of Veterans Affairs provided a $3,768 grant, and Conway Therapy Services provided a $9,500 grant.
According to McDaniel, the grants will provide training and experience for speech-language pathology students. ?It will help train a speech-language pathologist and provide financial support to the graduate student. It will also allow UCA to provide speech-language pathology services to a wide variety of clients.?
Jacquie Rainey, College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, recently received a $9,000 grant to evaluate tobacco cessation and parent education programs in Van Buren and Searcy counties.
The grant is being funded by the Ozark Health Foundation.
According to the author, ?The projects will contribute to the better health of Arkansans through tobacco use reduction programs and parent education.?
Kim Bradford, Laura Garner, David McCalman and Robert Pittman, Academic Outreach and Extended Programs, recently received a $500 grant for the UCA Community Development Institute.
The grant is being funded by the Conway Advertising and Promotion Commission.
According to Bradford, ?This grant will assist the marketing of the 2005 Community Development Institute and increase enrollment and awareness of the program.?
Also involved with the grant is UCA professional development coordinator Shaniel Ealy.
