Texas A&M Invests In High-Impact Research To Drive Innovation And Accelerate Scientific Discovery

Fifty-seven interdisciplinary research teams at Texas A&M University will receive seed funding to advance high-potential projects that address major challenges in food and resource security, emerging technologies and innovations, health and quality of life, energy, national security, and community and economic resilience, the Division of Research announced today.

The university will award more than $2.6 million in seed funding through its Targeted Proposal Teams (TPT) initiative during the first round of the 2024-25 competition.

“The breadth and creativity of these projects reflect the power of interdisciplinary collaboration at Texas A&M,” said Dr. Costas Georghiades, interim vice president for research. “By investing in early stage, high-potential research through the TPT initiative, we’re accelerating scientific discovery while positioning our faculty to lead in areas of urgent national and global need.”

TPT supports team-based innovative research and creative ideas in three categories:

• Collaborative Seed Grants fund early-stage high-risk, high-reward research that builds capacity and momentum, with awards of up to $60,000.
• Proposal Planning Grants help interdisciplinary teams prepare large-scale proposals for external sponsors, with awards of up to $100,000.
• Grants on the Edge provide up to $50,000 to revise and strengthen previously unfunded proposals.

Led by Dr. Henry Fadamiro, associate vice president for research, strategic initiatives, and Dr. Gerianne Alexander, associate vice president and research integrity officer, the initiative empowers faculty to address pressing societal challenges through collaborative, cross-disciplinary approaches that are both innovative and actionable.

Eligibility is open to faculty at Texas A&M University (including Galveston and other branch campuses) and Texas A&M University System research agencies who are eligible to serve as principal investigators for external grants. Proposals must include at least two investigators from different disciplines.

“The breadth and creativity of these projects reflect the power of interdisciplinary collaboration at Texas A&M. By investing in early stage, high-potential research through the TPT initiative, we’re accelerating scientific discovery while positioning our faculty to lead in areas of urgent national and global need.”

Forty principal investigators and their teams received Collaborative Seed Grants to advance high-risk, high-reward research:

• Mona Ahmadiani, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Using Machine Learning and Mobility Data to Analyze Fishing Effort and Behavior in the Gulf of Mexico” with co-principal investigators Alan Kuhnle, Engineering, and Richard Woodward, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Reza Avazmohammadi, Engineering, “Integrated, AI-Powered, Mechano-Energetic Approach to Identify the Mechanisms of Heart Failure in Cardiometabolic Diseases” with co-principal investigators, Carl Tong, Medicine, and Mahua Choudhury, Pharmacy.
• Marcia Cooper, Engineering, “Rate-Dependent Mechanical Properties of Thin and Ultra-Thin Foils” with co-principal investigators Ankit Srivastava, Engineering, and Michal Demkowicz, Engineering.
• Victoria Crawford, Engineering, “Cross-Domain Interpretable Knowledge Transfer for Extrapolation in Natural Hazards Engineering” with co-principal investigator Stephanie Paal, Engineering.
• Jinyang Deng, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Leveraging AI and Digital Twins for Tourism Intelligence and Economic Sustainability (TIES) in Rural Development” with co-principal investigators Jian Tao, Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, and Manuel Garcia, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Youjun Deng, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Synergistic Effects of Novel Clay- and Gallium-Based Antimicrobials to Treat Wounds Infected with Multidrug-Resistant Pseudomonas Aeruginosa” with co-principal investigators Carolyn Cannon, Medicine, and Terry Gentry, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Sandun Fernando, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Development and Optimization of Novel Inhibitors Targeting Fusarium Oxysporum for Cotton Crop Protection” with co-principal investigators Maria King, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Sanjay Antony-Babu, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Cedric Geoffroy, Medicine, “The Role of Nasal Dysbiosis in Mediating Infection, Health Issues and Death after Spinal Cord Injury” with co-principal investigator Jessica Galloway-Pena, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
• Shannon Glaser, Medicine, “Unraveling the Mechanisms of Ductular Reaction for the Development of Antifibrotic Therapies for Chronic Liver Diseases” with co-principal investigator, Chaodong Wu, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Vishal Gohil, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Determining the Architecture of Mitochondrial Energy-Generating Machinery in Disease Models by Cryo-Electron Tomography” with co-principal investigator, Junjie Zhang, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Sheng-Jen Hsieh, Engineering, “Framework for Beef Quality Design and Measurements: An Integrated Concept of Metabotypes, Biomarkers, Imaging and Cyber-Physical Systems” with co-principal investigator Penny Riggs, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Linda Katehi-Tseregounis, Engineering, “Rapid Design and Optimization of Memristors Using Digital Twin and Additive Manufacturing Technologies” with co-principal investigtors Jian Tao, Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, and Shiren Wang, Engineering. 
• Kiseok Kim, Engineering, “Engineered Geo-Barriers for Geologic Energy Storage” with co-principal investigators Rami Younis, Engineering, and Joseph Kwon, Engineering.
• Yong-Rak Kim, Engineering, “Upcycling Urban-Rural Waste into Carbon-Negative Building Materials” with co-principal investigators Eunsung Kan, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Chenglin Wu, Engineering.  
• Peter Knappett, Arts and Sciences, “Arsenic Sources and Transformations in Brahmaputra River Sediments” with co-principal investigator Garrett McKay, Engineering.
• Dmitry Kurouski, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Development and Deployment of Raman Spectroscopy for Confirmatory Detection and Identification of Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Rice” with co-principal investigator Xin-Gen Zhou, AgriLife Research.
• Gerard Kyle, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Assessing Conservation Pressures Along the Texas Coastal Prairie to Support High-Value Conservation Efforts” with co-principal investigator Ashley Long, Texas A&M Galveston.
• Yuming Lei, Education and Human Development, “A Novel Approach to Motor Recovery in Spinal Cord Injury: Combining Brain Stimulation and Virtual Reality” with co-principal investigator Zina Trost, Arts and Sciences. 
• Yina Liu, Arts and Sciences, “Realistic Modeling Transport of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in the Environment” with co-principal investigators Itza Mendoza-Sanchez, Engineering, and Yinuo Yao, Engineering.
• Zhi Lu, Education and Human Development, “Harnessing AI-powered Digital Twins for Youth Sport Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention” with co-principal investigators Xin Li, Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, Hyun-Woo Lee, Education and Human Development, Lisa Colvin, Education and Human Development, Cheng Zhang, Engineering, and Huanhuan Shi, Mays Business School. 
• Zhipeng Lu, Architecture, “Examining Telemedicine Booths as a Community-Based Intervention to Improve Healthcare Access in Minority and Underserved Communities” with co-principal investigators Whitney Garney, Public Health, Xinyue Ye, Architecture, and Wei Li, Architecture.
• Lacey Luense, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Epigenetic Regulation of Tissue-Specific Metabolism in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome” with co-principal investigators Annie Newell-Fugate, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, James Cai, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Rodolfo Cardosa, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Amirali Najafi, Engineering, “Integrated Assessment of Wildland-Urban Interface Community and Infrastructure Resilience to Wildfires” with co-principal investigators Maria Koliou, Engineering, and Rajarshi Guhaniyogi, Engineering.
• Esuru Okoroafor, Engineering, “Quantifying the Impact of Biofilm Formation on Underground Hydrogen Storage” with co-principal investigator, Yinuo Noah Yao, Engineering.
• Santosh Subhash Palmate, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Integrated Solar PV Array and Hydro-Panel System – A Pilot Study for Arid Water Systems” with co-principal investigator, Girisha Ganjegunte, AgriLife Research.
• Jean-Philippe Pellois, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Harnessing Phage Encapsulation for Enhanced Biosynthetic Production of RNA Therapeutics” with co-principal investigator Junjie Zhang, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Hays Rye, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Understanding the Role of Conformational Disorder and Hydration in the Activity of Biological Nano-Machines: Molecular Chaperones” with co-principal investigators David Russell, Arts and Sciences, and Junjie Zhang, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Ashok Shetty, Medicine, “Directed Delivery of Metformin to Neural Cells in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease Using MOF-74 Mg Nanoparticles” with co-principal investigator Ya Wang, Engineering.
• Junqi Song, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “An Innovative Approach to Create Disease Resistance Genes Against Nematodes Through Deep Learning-Based Protein Design” with co-principal investigator Shuiwang Ji, Engineering.
• Yuxiang Sun, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Activation of Ghrelin Signaling in Macrophages Accelerates the Progression from Fatty Liver to Liver Cancer” with co-principal investigator, Robert Tsai, Medicine.
• Heather Thakar, Arts and Sciences, “Mapping Migrations” with co-principal investigators Ethan Grossman, Arts and Sciences, Peter Knappett, Arts and Sciences, Franco Marcantonio, Arts and Sciences, and Shankar Chellam, Engineering.
• Lynn Vartan, Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, “Sanctuary Space: Improving College Student Wellness Through Music and Visual Immersion” with co-principal investigators Jay Maddock, Public Health, Courtney Suess, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Charlie Hall, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Arianna Pikus, Education and Human Development.
• Shannon Walton, Graduate and Professional School, “Aggies-Lead Grad Program” with co-principal investigator, Hector Rivera, Education and Human Development.
• Aart J. Verhoef, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Optical Quantification of Hessian Fly Infestation in Wheat” with co-principal investigators Shuyu Liu, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Alexei Sokolov, Arts and Sciences.
• Shuyi Xie, Engineering, “AI-Driven Design of Compatibilizers for Multi-Stream Plastic Wastes Recycling” with co-principal investigator Wei Chen, Engineering.
• Takashi Yamauchi, Arts and Sciences, “Mobile Brain-Computer Interface” with co-principal investigators Sheng-Jen Hsieh, Engineering, Jessica Bernard, Arts and Sciences, Tomer Galanti, Engineering, and Jinsil Seo, Performance, Visualization, & Fine Arts.
• Ping Yang, Arts and Sciences, “A Novel Broadband Radiative Transfer Model for an Upcoming Earth Energy Budget Satellite Mission (LIBERA)” with co-principal investigators Elaine Oran, Engineering, and Lifan Wang, Arts and Sciences.
• Shixuan Zhang, Engineering, “Learn to Adapt to Wind Energy Variability in Smart Grid” with co-principal investigator Xin Chen, Engineering.
• Minghui Zheng, Engineering, “Integrating AI and Robotics in Insect Farming (AIR-INF): An Intelligent Robotic System for Larval Monitoring, Feeding, and Harvesting” with co-principal investigators Jeffrey Tomberlin, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Xiao Liang, Engineering.
• Yuling Zhuang, Education and Human Development, “Advancing Mathematics Teacher Education with GenAI as Students: An Innovative Conversational Role-Play Approach” with co-principal investigator, Zhengzhong Tu, Engineering.

Ten principal investigators and their teams received Proposal Planning Grants to support and facilitate submission of large-scale extramural proposals:

• Manish Dixit, Architecture, “AI-Driven Adaptive and Human-Centric Augmented Reality (AR) Interface for Reinforcing Spatial Perception During Space Missions” with co-principal investigators, Greg Chamitoff, Engineering, Joseph Orr, Arts and Sciences, and Xin Li, Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts.
• Hope Gerde, Education and Human Development, “Transforming Texas Lives and Economies Through Enhanced Early Educator Preparation: Developing Partnerships for Leading the Texas A&M University Early Educator Innovation Hub”, with co-principal investigators Jodi Nerren, AgriLife, Laci Watkins, Education and Human Development, and Jose Palma, Education and Human Development.
• Hyunyi Jung, Education and Human Development, “Empowering Marginalized Communities: Enhancing Microbiome Diversity for Well-Being Through Modeling” with co-principal investigator, Seockmo Ku, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Elnaz Kabir, Engineering, “Harnessing Supply-Chain Flexibility and Renewable Variability in the Energy-Supplychain Nexus” with co-principal investigator Thomas Overbye, Engineering.
• Xin Li, Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, “The Future of Student Support: AI-Empowered Digital Twin Campus and Virtual Coach for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” with co-principal investigators Xinyue Ye, Architecture, Wen Luo, Education and Human Development, Florina Erbeli, Education and Human Development, Sungmin Lee, Architecture, and Tianbao Yang, Engineering.
• Zhenyu Li, Pharmacy, “Molecular Mechanism and Therapeutic Targeting of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide” with co-principal investigator Wenshe Liu, Arts and Sciences.
• Shuyu Liu, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “AI Aid Climate-Smart Wheat Improvement” with co-principal investigators Nicholas Duffield, Engineering, Jackie Rudd, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Brandon Gerrish, Agriculture and Life Sciences,
• Zheng O’Neill, Engineering, “Climate Resilient Decarbonized Built Environment Through Equitable Energy Management and Underground Storage with Geothermal Wells (CRE3ATES – GW)” with co-principal investigator Hongbin Zhan, Arts and Sciences.
• Xiubin Bruce Wang, Engineering, “Planning for the Multi-Dimensional Autonomous Vehicles for Integrated Freight and Logistics Services to Rural and Tribal Areas (RAV-IFLORA)” with co-principal investigator Sivakumar Rathinam, Engineering, Wei Li, Architecture, and Yunlong Zhang, Engineering.
• Zhe Zhang, Arts and Sciences, “GeoShare: An AI-Driven Open Knowledge Geoscience Data Sharing Cyberinfrastructure” with co-principal investigators Nick Duffield, Engineering, and Shaowen Wang,

Seven principal investigators and their teams received Grants on the Edge to enhance the competitiveness and resubmission of extramural grant proposals :

• Aref Arzan Zarin, Arts and Sciences, “Multifunctional Sensorimotor Circuits Generating Bilateral Synchronous and Asynchronous Locomotor Behaviors” with co-principal investigator Isuru Godage, Engineering.
• Fadi Khasawneh, Pharmacy, “Paternal Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Exposure and Thrombogenesis” with co-principal investigators Fatima Alshbool, Pharmacy, and Michael Golding, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
• Jodie Lutkenhaus, Engineering, “Expanding the Chemistry of the MXene Frontier (ETCH)” with co-principal investigators, Perla Balbuena, Engineering, Micah Green, Engineering, Miladin Radovic, Engineering, and Abdul Djire, Engineering.
• Rupak Mahapatra, Arts and Sciences, “Magnetic Avalanche Detector Using Single-Molecule Magnets for Sub-GeV Dark Matter Search” with co-principal investigators Michael Nippe, Arts and Sciences, Nader Mirabolfathi, Arts and Sciences, and Ivan Borzenets, Arts and Sciences.
• Jingjing Qiu, Engineering, “Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from E-Waste Using Functionalized Mesoporous Carbon Foams” with co-principal investigator Shiren Wang, Engineering.
• Qing Tu, Engineering, “Plasticity in 2D Metal Halide Perovskites for Mechanically Resilient Semiconductor Applications: Deformation Mechanisms and Structure-Property Relationship” with co-principal investigator Wei Gao, Engineering.
• Azlan Zahid, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Advancing Climate-Smart Greenhouses for Optimized Hydroponic Leafy Greens Production in Hot and Humid Climates” with co-principal investigators Genhua Niu, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Krishna Bhattarai, Agriculture and Life Sciences.