Seed funding to foster student-inspired, interdiciplinary teamwork

Following a competitive review process, the Macromolecules Innovation Institute (MII) has awarded seed funding to two research projects through its Interdisciplinary Collaborative Seed Program, now in its second year.

The program is a one-year funding opportunity designed to support and enhance collaborations between MII research groups in different departments and colleges at Virginia Tech. Because emerging collaborations among faculty in different disciplines often originate from their students seeking help from their peers, this program is specifically designed to support the stipends of the talented student collaborators.This year, funding has been awarded to a team investigating methods for enhancing the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines as well as a team seeking to improve methods for studying liver fibrosis.

“These two teams represent a total of four different departments, meaning that they are bringing diverse areas of expertise to the table,” said Robert B. Moore, professor of chemistry and director of MII. “The students, along with their advisors, will create new knowledge that transcends disciplines needed to foster discoveries in the heath frontier that greatly benefit our society. Their focus on macromolecular materials in medical advancements is something that we are immensely proud to be able to support.”