Research Awards
Intramural Research Awards
Augusta University offers various competitive intramural grants to our researchers.
- AU-GSU Seed Award Program
- Career Development Scholar Program
- Converge Rural Health Grant Program
- Implementation Science Pilot Grant (ISPG)
- Intramural Grant Program (IGP)
- Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity (RSCA) Award
- Translational Pilot Grant Program
FY 2027 Recipients
award icaward icon Intramural Grant Program (IGP)
Dr. Jennifer Bradford
- College of Science and Mathematics
- Department of Biological Sciences
"A Bacterial Model for Near-Infrared Laser Biostimulation and In vitro Host-Pathogen Interaction"
Dr. Michael Washington
- College of Science and Mathematics
- Department of Biological Sciences
"A Bacterial Model for Near-Infrared Laser Biostimulation and In vitro Host-Pathogen Interaction"
Dr. Ahmed El-Awady
- Dental College of Georgia
- Department of Periodontics
"A Bacterial Model for Near-Infrared Laser Biostimulation and In vitro Host-Pathogen Interaction"
Dr. Brett Burrows
- School of Public Health
- Department of Community and Behavioral Health Sciences
Dr. Shiwei Fang
- School of Computer and Cyber Sciences
- Department of Computer Science
"Predictive and QoSAware Resource Allocation for Multi-Tenant Edge AI Inference”
Dr. Shungeng Zhang
- School of Computer and Cyber Sciences
- Department of Computer Science
"Predictive and QoSAware Resource Allocation for Multi-Tenant Edge AI Inference”
Dr. Richard McIndoe
- Medical College of Georgia
- Center for Biotechnology & Genomic Medicine
"Cellivista Nexus: A local-first, human-audited agentic platform for reproducible multi-omics discovery”
Dr. Syed Adeel Zaidi
- Medical College of Georgia
- Vascular Biology Center
"Targeting Ornithine Decarboxylase as a Novel Disease-Modifying Therapy for Diabetic Retinopathy”
Dr. Jianqiu Zou
- Medical College of Georgia
- Vascular Biology Center
Previous Recipients
FY 2026
Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity (RSCA) Award
Matteo Borgini, Ph.D.
- College of Science and Mathmatics
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
“Mapping Protein Targets of Novel Covalent Inhibitors to Expand the Druggable
Proteome”
Mohamed Ibrahem, Ph.D.
- School of Computer and Cyber Science
- Department of Computer Science
“SHIELD: Secure and Adaptive LLM-Powered Healthcare in Resource-Limited
Settings”
Michael Katz, Ph.D.
- Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
- Department of Psychological Sciences
“Profiles of Therapist Technique in Community Practice in Relation to Patient
Crying: A US Pilot”
Robert Saunders, Ph.D.
- Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
- Department of Music
“Let's Jam: A Community Music Method”
Blaire Zeiders, Ph.D.
- Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
- Department of
- English and World Languages
“The Arthurian Catechism: Reading Literature as Liturgy in Early Modern
England”
Career Development Scholar Program (CDSP) Award
Lorriane Odhiambo, Ph.D.
- School of Public Health
- Department of Biostatics, Data Science and Epidemiology
“Feasibility of Smartphone-Enabled Active Case-Finding for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in the Clinical Setting”
Dustin Pluta, Ph.D.
- School of Public Health
- Department of Biostatics, Data Science and Epidemiology
“GP-Augmented Survival Models for Multi-Cancer Outcomes in SEER-Medicare Data”
Intramural Grant Program (IGP)
Dr. Jessica Faulkner
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Physiology
“Lipid peroxidation-driven mechanisms for peripartum cardiomyopathy”
Dr. Daria Ilatovskaya
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Physiology
“Lipid peroxidation-driven mechanisms for peripartum cardiomyopathy”
Dr. Stephen Hsu
- Dental College of Georgia
- Department of Oral Biology & Periodontics
“EC16 Nanoparticles as a Novel Drug Delivery System for Neurodegenerative Diseases"
Dr. Ranya El Sayed
- Dental College of Georgia
- Department of Oral Biology & Periodontics
“EC16 Nanoparticles as a Novel Drug Delivery System for Neurodegenerative Diseases"
Dr. Guido Verbeck
- College of Science and Mathematics
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
“EC16 Nanoparticles as a Novel Drug Delivery System for Neurodegenerative Diseases"
Dr. Amal Kaddoumi
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
"Dietary supplementation with EVOO phenolics prevents MCI progression to Alzheimer’s disease”
Dr. Ryan Harris
- Medical College of Georgia
- Georgia Prevention Institute
"Dietary supplementation with EVOO phenolics prevents MCI progression to Alzheimer’s disease”
Dr. Siva Panda
- College of Science and Mathematics
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
“Translational Development of Hybrid Conjugates: A Novel Strategy for Treating Metastatic Breast Cancer”
Dr. Brian Stansfield
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Pediatrics
"A Novel Liver-Eye Axis Implicated in Retinopathy of Prematurity”
Dr. Nicola Zetola Burneo
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Pulmonary
"PNP-US: Validation, Calibration, and Silent Prospective Evaluation of a Capacity-Aware Hospital Deterioration Prediction System”
Dipankar Ash, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Vascular Biology Center
“Miro1-mediated mitochondrial transfer from endothelial cells protects against retinal ischemia-reperfusion injury”
Waylon Brunette, Ph.D.
- School of Computer and Cyber Science
- Department of
- Computer and Cyber Sciences
“Automated Generation and Evaluation of Clinical Case-Based Multiple-Choice Questions Using Biomedical Ontologies and Transformer Models”
Ahmet Guven, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Educational Innovation Institute
“Automated Generation and Evaluation of Clinical Case-Based Multiple-Choice Questions Using Biomedical Ontologies and Transformer Models”
Nicole Winston, PharmD
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of
- Academic Affairs - Curriculum
“Automated Generation and Evaluation of Clinical Case-Based Multiple-Choice Questions Using Biomedical Ontologies and Transformer Models”
Rudolf Lucas, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Vascular Biology Center
“A novel peptide-based approach to improve vascular endothelial function in T1D”
Muthusamy Thangaraju, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
“Netrin-1 is a new and novel biomarker and a potential therapeutic target for the ADPKD cystogenesis”
Wei Zhang, Ph.D.
- School of Computer and Cyber Sciences
- Department of Computer Science
“Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Neuroimaging to Advance Stroke Analysis and Understanding”
Xingguo Zhu, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Georgia Cancer Center
“Decoding Gamma Globin Repression via a DNAse I Cis-Regulatory Element”
Betty Pace, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Pediatrics
“Decoding Gamma Globin Repression via a DNAse I Cis-Regulatory Element”
FY 2025
award icon AU-GSU Seed Award Program
Sumit Fogla, MD
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Family and Community Medicine, AU
"Enhancing Care of Older Adults in Chronic Illness Clinic Using the 4M Aging Model"
GSU PI: Katherine Hsieh, PhD, Department of Physical Therapy, GSU
Wei Zhang, PhD
- School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, AU
- Department of Computer & Cyber Sciences
“A Large Language Model and An Efficient Deep Learning-Based Framework to Advance Early and Non-invasive Diagnostics for Mild Cognitive Impairment”
GSU PI: Houping Xiao, PhD, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, GSU
award icon Converge Rural Health Grant Program
Vahe Heboyan, Ph.D.
- School of Public Health
- Department of Health Management, Economics, and Policy
“Pilot testing of an economic decision model for community based preventive interventions for dental caries in vulnerable populations”
University of Aberdeen PI:
Dwayne Boyers, Ph.D.
Department of Health Economics
Stephanie Johnson Ph.D.
- College of Allied Health Sciences
- Department of Occupational Therapy
“Exploration of Occupational Therapy management for people with Parkinson’s disease: A cross-sectional comparison between the state of Georgia and Scotland”
Robert Gordon University PI:
Julie Jones, Ph.D.
School of Health Sciences, Department of Economic, Social and Cultural Development
Ashwini Tiwari, Ph.D. & Matthew Cornish, MD
- School of Public Health
- Department Community and Behavioral Health Sciences
“Advancing Trauma-Informed Care in Pediatric Primary Care Settings Serving Rural Populations- A Comparative Exploration of Practices in Augusta and the Grampian Region"
Robert Gordon University PI:
Kayleigh-Anne Walker, MSc
School of Health Sciences
Matthew Cornish, MD & Ashwini Tiwari, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Pediatrics: General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
“Advancing Trauma-Informed Care in Pediatric Primary Care Settings Serving Rural Populations- A Comparative Exploration of Practices in Augusta and the Grampian Region"
Robert Gordon University PI:
Kayleigh-Anne Walker, MSc
School of Health Sciences
award icon Implementation Science Pilot Grant (ISPG)
Dr. Marlo Vernon
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
“Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Gestational Diabetes: A Pilot Study”
Dr. Ashwini Pandey
- School of Public Health
- Department of Community & Behavioral Health Science
“From Training to Action: Using Implementation Science to Explore Trauma-Informed Care in Rural Georgia”
award icon Intramural Grant Program (IGP)
Wendy Bollag, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Physiology
Shruti Sharma, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Ophthalmology
Gokila Dorai, Ph.D.
- School of Computer and Cyber Sciences
- Department of Computer & Cyber Sciences
Santhakumar Manicassamy, Ph.D.
- Georgia Cancer Center
- Department of Immunotherapy
Nagendra Singh, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Shaoyong Su, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Georgia Prevention Institute
Xiaoling Wang, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Georgia Prevention Institute
Alexander Verin, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Medicine: Pulmonary
Graydon Gonsalvez, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy
for formation of primary cilia"
Paul Langridge, Ph.D.
- College of Science and Mathematics,
- Department of Biological Sciences
Honglin Li, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Stuart Thompson, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Infectious Disease
Nitrosative Stress Resistance"
Seungwoo Kang, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Jason Orlosky, Ph.D.
- School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, AU
- Department of Computer and Cyber Sciences
Xingming Shi, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine
Syed Zaidi, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Vascular Biology
award icon Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity (RSCA) Award
Jennifer Bradford, Ph.D.
- College of Science and Mathmatics
- Department of Biology
“Determining How the CXCR3/CXCL10 and NF-kappaB Signaling Pathways are Connected to Alter Macrophage Phenotype in Triple Negative Breast Cancer”
Rebecca Harper, Ph.D.
- College of Education and Human Development
- Department of Research, Counseling and Curriculum
“Literacy on the Field: How Athletics Programs Support a Reinforce Literacy Skills”
Courtney Kalbacker, DMA
- College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
- Department of Music
“Defining the Defiant: A Guide to the Art Song and Opera of E. Adaïewsky (1846-1926) for Performers, Teachers and Scholars"
Paul Langridge, Ph.D.
- College of Science and Mathmatics
- Department of Biology
“Biophysical Principles of Synthetic Cell-Cell Signaling in Vivo"
Benjamin Ogrodnik, Ph.D.
- College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
- Department of
- Art and Design
"Unraveling a Cotton Nation: Textile Histories and Women Artists of the Texas-Mexico Borderlands"
Peter Robinson, Ph.D.
- School of Computer and Cyber Sciences
- Department of Computer and Science Sciences
"Secure Distributed Graph Processing"
Rhucha Samudra, Ph.D.
- College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
- Department of Social Sciences
"Effect of Medicaid Expansion on Mental Health Outcomes"
FY 2024
award icon AU-GSU Seed Award Program
Gianluca De Leo, PhD
- College of Allied Health Sciences
- Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
“Teaching Parents Communication Strategies Using an APP: Examining Parent-Child Outcomes”
GSU PI: MaryAnn Romski, PhD and Rose Sevcik, PhD
Deborah Jehu, PhD
- College of Allied Health Sciences
- Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
“The Predictors of Falls Among Older Adults with Impaired Mobility”
GSU PI: Katherine Hsieh, PhD
Christy Ledford, PhD, FACH
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Family Medicine
“Does community engagement promote health equity by increasing recruitment and retention of racially and ethnically diverse samples?”
GSU PI: Claire Spears, PhD
Qihua Qiu, PhD
- James M. Hull College of Business
“Racial/ethnic disparities in changes in prescription medication expenditures on smoking cessation medication among U.S. adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic”
GSU PI: Jidong Huang, PhD
award icon Converge Rural Health Grant Program
Kendall Buchanan, MD
- Medical College of Georgia
- Department of Dermatology
“Using app-based digital healthcare intervention to encourage total skin self-examination by melanoma survivors”
University of Aberdeen PI: Peter Murchie, PhD,
Denise Kornegay, MSW
- Medical College of Georgia
- Area Health Education Centers
“How can hybrid healthcare education drive change in remote, rural, and island practice?”
University of Aberdeen PI: Anita Laidlaw
Travis McMaine, DMD
- Dental College of Georgia
- Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
“Study of rural residents using urgent care and emergency departments for dental care: Examination of the relationship between visits to urgent care facilities and emergency departments due to non-traumatic dental conditions among residents of DHPSAs in the state of Georgia (GA) as well as Aberdeen and surrounding areas"
University of Aberdeen PI: Ekta Gupta, PhD
Preethi Reddi
- Medical College of Georgia
“Maternal health- delayed antenatal care: Understanding barriers to care through the perspectives of new mothers who experienced delayed antenatal care in rural Georgia and rural Scotland”
Robert Gordon University PI: Joanna Shim
award icon Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity (RSCA) Award
Namwon Choi, MFA
- College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences - Art and Design
Christina Heckman, Ph.D.
- College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences - English and World Languages
Mohamed Ibrahem, Ph.D.
- School of Computer & Cyber Sciences
"SAFE-5G: Safeguarding 5G and Beyond Networks Against Cyber Threats and Data Privacy Leaks in the Era of AI-driven ORAN"
Eric Numfor, Ph.D.
- College of Science and Mathematics
"The Impact of Defective Viral Genomes on the Spread and Control of SARS-CoV-2: Multiscale Modeling"
Wendy Turner, Ph.D.
- College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences - History, Anthropology, and Philosophy
"Connections Between Violence and Mental Trauma in Medieval English Legal Records"
Angelia Winkler, Ph.D.
- College Of Education - Kinesiology
"Hydration and cardiovascular disease risk assessments in firefighters"
award icon Intramural Grant Program (IGP)
Onyeka Ezenwoye, Ph.D.
- School of Computer and Cyber Sciences
- Computer and Cyber Sciences
Dawn Langley-Brady, Ph.D, MSN
- College of Nursing
- Nursing Science
Ashwini Tiwari, Ph.D.
- Institute of Public and Preventive Health
- Health Management, Economics and Policy
"Exploring Maternal and Child Health through Systematic Braiding- A Breastfeeding and Parenting Initiative for Expecting African American Women"
MPIs: Drs. Tiwari, Vernon and Datta
Marlo Vernon, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- GA Prevention Institute
"Exploring Maternal and Child Health through Systematic Braiding- A Breastfeeding and Parenting Initiative for Expecting African American Women"
MPIs: Drs. Tiwari, Vernon and Datta
Biplab Datta, Ph.D.
- Institute of Public and Preventive Health
- Health Management, Economics and Policy
"Exploring Maternal and Child Health through Systematic Braiding- A Breastfeeding and Parenting Initiative for Expecting African American Women"
MPIs: Drs. Tiwari, Vernon and Datta
Xiaoling Wang, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- GA Prevention Institute
"Stress, chronodisruption and accelerated aging: the mechanistic view from diurnal oscillations of salivary metabolomics and microbiome"
MPIs: Drs. Wang and Baban
Babak Baban, Ph.D.
- Dental College of Georgia
- Oral Biology and Diagnostic Sciences
"Stress, chronodisruption and accelerated aging: the mechanistic view from diurnal oscillations of salivary metabolomics and microbiome"
MPIs: Drs. Wang and Baban
Haidong Zhu, MD
- Medical College of Georgia
- GA Prevention Institute
Mechanisms and Biomarkers for early detection"
MPIs: Drs. Zhu and Vernon
Marlo Vernon, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- GA Prevention Institute
Mechanisms and Biomarkers for early detection"
MPIs: Drs. Zhu and Vernon
Xingguo Zhu, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Georgia Cancer Center
"Heme-induced metabolic stress drives ferroptosis in sickle cell disease"
MPIs: Drs. Zhu and Pace
Betty Pace, MD
- Medical College of Georgia
- Georgia Cancer Center
"Heme-induced metabolic stress drives ferroptosis in sickle cell disease"
MPIs: Drs. Zhu and Pace
Manuela Bartoli, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Ophthalmology
Jian-Kang Chen
- Medical College of Georgia
- Cellular Biology & Anatomy
Yanbin Dong, MD, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- GA Prevention Institute
Sergei Kirov, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine
Lawrence Layman, MD
- Medical College of Georgia
- Obstetrics & Gynecology
Lin Gan, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine
David Mysona, MD
- Medical College of Georgia
- Obstetrics & Gynecology
Kim Barker, Ph.D.
- College of Education and Human Development
- Teaching and Learning
"CLIMBE: Collaborative Learning in a Multidisciplinary Based Environment"
MPI's: Dr. Barker and Sharon Swift
Sharon Swift, EDD, OTR/L
- College of Allied Health Sciences
- Occupational Therapy
"CLIMBE: Collaborative Learning in a Multidisciplinary Based Environment"
MPI's: Dr. Barker and Sharon Swift
Darren Browning, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Ahmed Elmarakby, Ph.D.
- Dental College of Georgia
- Oral Biology & Diagnostic Sciences
Elena Schiopu, MD
- Medical College of Georgia
- Rheumatology
David Stepp, Ph.D.
- Medical College of Georgia
- Vascular Biology