FAS faculty members are invited to submit proposals for funding in support of interdepartmental research endeavors. Projects should involve a minimum of two FAS departments.
Eligibility: FAS faculty members. Faculty members who are on Leave without Pay for more than one semester during the grant's award period will not be eligible for funding. Each faculty member may submit only one proposal as a Principal Investigator for only one of the calls listed under 1. General and Interdisciplinary Opportunities and 2. Mamdouha El-Sayed Bobst FAS Deanship Fund.
Budget: Up to $7,500
Application Materials: Apply online. Please upload in a single PDF file: 1. Proposal including abstract (no more than 200 words), description of the proposed activity and expected outcomes (no more than 1000 words), information on collaborator(s), detailed budget and budget narrative (indicating the anticipated use of the requested funds and all funds sought or secured from internal and external sources), and timeline.
Application deadline: October 1; March 15
Contact: [email protected]
2025-26
Development and Functional Characterization of a Fluorescent Cyclic Peptide Antagonist of TTLL4
Diana Jaalouk, Department of Biology
Kamal Bouhadir, Department of Chemistry
Tubulin-tyrosine-ligase-like 4 (TTLL4) is a nuclear glutamylase implicated in post-translational regulation of cytoskeletal and nuclear proteins, with emerging links to oncogenic signaling and nuclear remodeling (Arnold et al., 2020; Kashiwaya et al., 2010; Wu et al., 2022). A nuclearinteractome phage display identified a heptapeptide (PLNKPYL) that mimics a TTLL4 surface epitope, motivating development of a macrocyclic, fluorescent probe to evaluate functional antagonism. We will synthesize and label a cyclic analog (C-PLNKPYL-C) and a scrambled control (C-LYPKNPL-C) using a hydrophilic Bis-MAL-Lysine-dPEG₄-TFP ester crosslinker, enabling Alexa Fluor™ 488 conjugation. We then quantify peptide –TTLL4 binding and radiolabel-free enzyme inhibition in vitro (fluorescence anisotropy/MST; ADP-Glo™, GT335/PolyE ELISA) and assess incell antagonism of polyglutamylation (confocal microscopy; immunoblot) (Garnham & Roll - Mecak, 2015; Mahalingan et al., 2020; Genova et al., 2023; Chen & Roll -Mecak, 2023). This Chemistry–Biology collaboration will yield a new class of macrocyclic peptide tools for TTLL4, provide mechanistic insights into the tubulin code and nuclear substrates, and establish a cross-departmental pipeline to enable future funding (Roll -Mecak, 2020; Xiong et al., 2020).
The different regimes of the Hasegawa-Wakatani equations and comparison to the Polaris experiment
Sophie Moufawad, Department of Mathematics
Ghassan Antar, Department of Physics
Nabil Nassif, Department of Mathematics
We propose to continue the fruitful collaboration between the Departments of Mathematics and Physics while embarking on new innovative directions. Continuing with the mathematical and computational studies of the Hasegawa-Wakatani (HW). We propose to perform measurements of the velocity and density fluctuations on the Polaris linear plasma device and then compare the experiment to the theory and computational results for a more profound understanding of turbulence. Furthermore, since recent advancements in simulating solutions of partial differential equations have sparked interest in leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, we will be specifically using Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) and Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (Neural ODEs) for solving the Hasegawa-Mima (HM) and (HW) systems. Interestingly, such approaches are independent of space mesh size or time step and come with their own peculiarities and limitations.
- Understanding Social Cohesion among the Youth in Lebanon
Rima Rassi, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies
Jamil Mouawad, Department of Political Studies and Public Administration
Social cohesion is defined as “the extent of trust in government and within society and the willingness to participate collectively towards a shared vision of sustainable peace and common development goals”.1 In Lebanon, understandings of this concept are varied and contradictory. The Lebanese state promotes the idea of a unified and cohesive society as ‘living together’ (’aych muchtarak) between sectarian groups, at a time when citizens’ distrust in the state is at an all-time high. Concurrently – maybe in part due to weakened trust in the state – social cohesion between people of different groups appears to be heightened, especially among the youth. This qualitative research study will explore how ‘social cohesion’ is understood by the youth in Lebanon. Against the backdrop of the definition of social cohesion as well as the top-down policies promoting ’aych muchtarak in Lebanon, this study will assess how Lebanese youth perceive social cohesion in the post-2020 Beirut Blast and post-2024 Israeli war context. To understand the model of social cohesion in Lebanon, researchers will compare data gathered from youth focus group discussions held in 2020 with the data from ten focus group discussions with Lebanese youth, to be held during summer 2025. This will provide a comparative understanding of what the concept of ‘social cohesion’ means to young Lebanese citizens, the multiple ways in which it is understood and interpreted, and how it evolves over time.
2024-25
The Different Regimes of the Hasegawa-Wakatani Equations and Comparison to the Polaris Experiment
Ghassan Antar, Department of Physics
Nabil Nassif, Department of Mathematics
Interest in quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) turbulence is driven by its relevance to the physics of transport in fusion plasmas, as well as its applications in atmospheric and ocean sciences. These fields are closely linked to critical global challenges such as energy production and climate change, which are significantly influenced by turbulent transport. We propose to continue the fruitful collaboration between the Mathematics and Physics departments. Continuing our last year’s grant, we propose to study mathematically, and computationally a more advanced model, namely Hasegawa-Wakatani (HW) [1, 2]. Numerical simulation methods and statistical analyses will be developed to understand the properties of turbulence and the effects of the dynamics parallel to the magnetic field that were neglected in our previous studies. We also propose to perform measurements of the velocity and density fluctuations on the Polaris linear plasma device and then compare the experiment to the theory and computational results for a more profound understanding of turbulence. Furthermore, since recent advancements in simulating solutions of partial differential equations have sparked interest in leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, we will be specifically using Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) and Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (Neural ODEs) for solving the (HW) system. Interestingly, such approaches are independent of space mesh size or time step and come with their own peculiarities and limitations.