Monthly Update – March 2023

Research and Scholarship Training Workshops: The Center for Excellence in Research spring 2023 workshops are now open for registration on our website! More will be added throughout the semester. If you would like to be updated about new workshops, please join our mailing list. Do you have an idea for a workshop? We would love to hear from you!

FEDERAL LANDSCAPE UPDATES: NASA has selected a new head of science. Dr. Nicola Fox has been announced as the new associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. As NASA’s head of Science, Fox’s portfolio includes more than 100 NASA missions. NSF has announced its Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-2 program. Mid-scale RI-2 projects may include any combination of equipment, instrumentation, cyberinfrastructure, broadly used large-scale data sets, and the commissioning and/or personnel needed to successfully complete the project. More details are available here.

STEVENS CENTER FOR INNOVATION: Every year, the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry hosts a Research Day where students, faculty and staff are commemorated for their incredible research in dentistry, dental hygiene, physical therapy, occupational therapy, bio kinesiology, and occupational science. This event includes keynote speakers and a poster session that is followed by awards presented to the best posters in several categories.USC Stevens participates each year as judges and offers cash prizes ($250) for two awards, and the winners for this year’s annual Research Day are:

  • “Most Commercial Potential” Award – Janet Sanchez and Jesse Anderson-Ramirez on their project titled: “Swine Calvarial Bone Regeneration Using an Irregular-Sized 3D-printed Scaffold”
  • “Most Disruptive” Award – Ashley Wu on her project titled: “The survival of dormant Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) in nutrient-restricted conditions”

The USC Stevens judges attending were our Technology Licensing Manager Bonnie Phan Wolfe and our Licensing Associates Benjamin Wild and Larry Cabral. If there are any upcoming events you feel are relevant and beneficial for our team to know about and/or attend, please tell us!

OPRS/IRB: OPRS is changing its name! You may have already seen the HRPP Pulse, a name change for the OPRS Scene, our monthly newsletter. We have also established a Quality Improvement Unit. Keep your eyes open for updates to our Dashboard, where you can find HRPP and IRB performance data.

We have entered a surge period with an uptick in the number of IRB exempt and expedited applications as well as amendments we receive daily. This uptick is typical for this time of year. Thus, the current wait time for assignment to an IRB analyst for exempt and expedited reviews has remained at 4 weeks. If you have questions or need assistance with an urgent review, please contact hrpp@usc.edu.

CONTRACTS & GRANTS: The Department of Contracts and Grants (DCG) would like to thank the USC research community for its patience and support during the recent Cayuse SP implementation. Over the last thirty days, our office has worked closely with a broad array of research personnel (i.e. PI’s, RA’s, Schools etc.), receiving informative feedback and substantive input regarding the transition to the new system. One of the primary methods of engagement has been through our DCG Slack Channel. Here, users can submit their questions to the DCG Training Team and receive real-time guidance and support regarding technical or other issues related to Cayuse SP. DCG will be continuing to monitor the Slack Channel over the next sixty days so please feel free to post any/all questions there or reach out to your DCG Officer for assistance.

DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL RESOURCES: DAR is excited to announce that we will be having two new Clinical Veterinarians starting in the upcoming months: Dr. Kris Galang and Dr. Lynlee Stevey-Rindenow. Dr. Stevey Rindenow has been a veterinary resident for the last 3 years and has been recently promoted. Dr. Galang will be starting in May. Both veterinarians are qualified to bring the highest standards of care to all laboratory animals at USC and be a resource for projects and teaching using animal models.

DAR will be featured in an audio interview to share our success with replacing live animals as sentinel detectors for pathogens in the animal facility with other non-animal means for detection. More information will come on where you can hear the interview, until then we invite you to explore the NC3Rs Site to check out the funding sources and libraries related to encouraging using the 3Rs in animal research.

To meet the cost of operations in the animal facilities, per diem rates will be increasing 11.6% compared to last fiscal year. Letters and phone calls to each research dean have been sent communicating this change with space recharge amounts and an iStar message will be sent out to all investigators notifying them that this change will go into effect on 7/1/23.