The following awards were granted in October 2019. To see a total of all awards and breakdown of where the monies originated, see the graph below. To download the data used in this report, please see the link following the interactive chart.
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Skin cancer cell nuclei buckle, bend, and deform as the cells squeeze through narrow constrictions in a dense collagen gel. The more these nuclei can change their shape, the more likely the skin cancer is to become metastatic, crawling through the body to spread to distant sites. Figuring out how these shape changes happen will be a step toward improving diagnosis and treatment of metastatic cancer.

A UT biophysicist has been awarded a $1.84 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute for General Medical Science (NIGMS) to investigate how the 3D folded structure of the human genome reacts to physical stress in health and disease.

The award provides funding to operate Rachel Patton McCord’s lab and research program. McCord is an assistant professor in UT’s Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

NIGMS is among the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The MIRA program provides long-term stability—the funding is granted over five years—and allows for flexibility if the direction of a project shifts.

McCord’s project seeks to clarify the role of a chromosome’s structure in its biological response to physical stress, which can inform future disease diagnosis and treatment.

Read more about McCord’s MIRA grant. 

The American Institute of Architects has awarded a coveted AIA Innovation Award to an academic institution, the School of Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Architecture and Design. Most often awarded to architecture firms, the Innovation Award recognizes technologies and practices of architects and designers related to buildings or research in practice or academia.

The award recognizes the overhaul of the school’s curriculum that leads to a Bachelor of Architecture degree. This new educational paradigm could serve as a model for schools across the country as it integrates the content of stand-alone courses focused on technology into the design studio experience. This innovative, interrelated curriculum leverages and expands the college’s digital agenda and leads to a broader and more applicable design education.

“Our faculty created a new model for integrating building technology with design studio in ways that both anticipate the realities of integrated practice and meet design students where they are,” said Jason Young, director of the UT School of Architecture. “The new model uses team-taught, project-based modules to enliven and sustain content that has long lacked meaningful reinforcement in the studio. We’ve changed how and therefore why we teach building technology for the benefit of our students.”

Read more about the School of Architecture’s award. 

The following awards were granted in September 2019. To see a total of all awards and breakdown of where the monies originated, see the graph below. To download the data used in this report, please see the link following the interactive chart.
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The Center for Global Engagement awarded Global Catalyst Awards to nine professors with a wide range of research areas received the awards to pursue their global research initiatives.

“An important mission of the University of Tennessee is to engage locally and globally, and in doing so, we address and engage global challenges and opportunities through strategic research collaborations,” explains Jamie McGowan, director of the Global Research Office. “We are very fortunate to have so many talented professors who are actively reaching out to build institutional partnerships that will advance cutting-edge research.”

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