Research

two scientists in lab coats converse at a lab bench with equipment on it

Deepak Koirala to explore how RNA viruses hijack cellular machinery, with eye to future drug treatments

/ 4 minutes of reading

RNA viruses cause many human diseases, but understanding of how they do it is poorly understood. Deepak Koirala is pursuing new research to figure out how they trick their host cells into making viral proteins. “It could be a new biological mechanism we’ve never seen before,” Koirala says. Continue Reading Deepak Koirala to explore how RNA viruses hijack cellular machinery, with eye to future drug treatments

a sandy landscape, with a deep ditch down the middle

UMBC’s Steve Freeland co-leads $1.8 million research grant to predict the biochemical foundations of life beyond Earth

/ 7 minutes of reading

Every living thing on Earth uses the same set of 20 amino acids to build all of its proteins. But why that particular set of 20? And how might we recognize life beyond Earth based on different molecules? Now Stephen Freeland and colleagues are taking this work from theory to the laboratory for the first time. “Nobody knows what will happen,” Freeland says. “This is a first.” Continue Reading UMBC’s Steve Freeland co-leads $1.8 million research grant to predict the biochemical foundations of life beyond Earth

A woman with long curly brown hair wearing a green sweater stands outside with a red maple tree in the background. Arab

Creating Queer Arab Joy

/ 7 minutes of reading

“This book is my love letter to my unnamed queer Palestinian ancestors. It is the knowing glance, playful wink, and double entendre between us,” Mejdulene Bernard Shomali, assistant professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, says about her new book Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives. “It is the ways we call one another, not only for recognition and community but to action and movement toward a joyful and pleasurable queer Arab future.” Continue Reading Creating Queer Arab Joy

Group photo of nine people in a brightly lit laboratory

UMBC’s Achuth Padmanabhan to pursue promising ovarian cancer research with $1.5 million in grants

/ 5 minutes of reading

Achuth Padmanabhan’s research group, which includes graduate, undergraduate, and high school students, is revealing new potential treatment options by expanding understanding of the basic biology of ovarian cancer. Overall, “our goal is to eliminate ovarian cancer mortality,” he says. Continue Reading UMBC’s Achuth Padmanabhan to pursue promising ovarian cancer research with $1.5 million in grants

Two people look at model plane in lab space.

UMBC teams with the Navy and the University of Arizona to develop new capabilities for hypersonic flight

/ 6 minutes of reading

UMBC’s Ankit Goel has been investigating better ways to control aircraft flying at hypersonic speeds, by primarily focusing on the vehicle’s engine. He recently received more than $850,000 in funding from the Office of Naval Research to further the investigations. Over the next three years he will partner with Kyle Hanquist at the University of Arizona and researchers from the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) to develop improved engine control strategies and assess their performance in ground experiments conducted at the NAWC facility at China Lake, California. Continue Reading UMBC teams with the Navy and the University of Arizona to develop new capabilities for hypersonic flight

A family photo in sepia shows the Rosenthal family

Writing your way through your own history—and sharing the narrative

/ 6 minutes of reading

Family stories, told honestly, reach people in ways that reams of advice and pages in history books cannot. When personal narratives reach the classroom, students respond by opening up, say two professors who have published memoirs of their family tragedies as a way to process their grief and share their stories. “I believe that writing personal narratives and sharing my own family’s stories helps build trust and rapport in the classroom,” said Aharona (Roni) Rosenthal, director of Judaic Studies at UMBC. “Writing personal narratives can serve as a model for students and encourage them to listen to their grandparents’ stories,… Continue Reading Writing your way through your own history—and sharing the narrative

Two women talking outside of a red building.

Shared Stories, Shared Purpose

/ 9 minutes of reading

On a warm and bright sunny day in April when the trees in Baltimore City’s Patterson Park are changing from bright green buds to full leaf and the birds are competing with the car horns, Viridiana Colosio-Martinez ’22, modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, and M.A. ’24, intercultural communication, waits in front of the Creative Alliance, a community and performance space a few blocks away from the park. After three years of undergraduate and graduate classes with her professor Tania Lizarazo, Colosio-Martinez is finally meeting her in person.  “I’m nervous and excited,” she says, waving to Lizarazo, associate professor of… Continue Reading Shared Stories, Shared Purpose

Digital collage of abstract and illustrated imagery.

Open to Interpretation

/ 9 minutes of reading

What if you could ask yourself a big question and then use your intuition to follow it wherever it led for as long as it took? It would take a certain kind of guts, right? But, with a willingness to get lost on a tangent, to joyfully put themselves in positions of not knowing, truly creative thinkers can find new ways of translating the world around them. Enter the following: A dancer who makes beautiful movement from fish research. An information systems professor who turns poetry into wine. A data visualizer who draws connections while splattering paint. A mapper and… Continue Reading Open to Interpretation

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