CanDiag Inc., founded by UNC Charlotte researcher Pinku Mukherjee, was selected the grand prize winner of the Charlotte Venture Challenge. The company has developed a novel technology that accurately detects early breast cancer.

Winning the grand prize of a $50,000 convertible-debt note from Vaterra Capital, would “pave the path for further clinical validation and regulatory approval to offer women an early detection breast cancer blood test,” Mukherjee said. “The anticipated impacts are greater peace of mind to women from a more accurate test and improved survival with early detection.” Health care costs should be lowered due to the reduction of expensive testing, she said.

Mukherjee is Irwin Belk Distinguished Scholar of Cancer Research at UNC Charlotte.  She is a faculty member in the Department of Biology in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

Eighteen finalists competed for the grand prize. Winners of each Charlotte Venture Challenge category received $10,000.  They are InfoSense Inc. from Charlotte in the new energy and high tech category; Deal Cloud, a Charlotte-based entry in the information technology and informatics category; Asheville’s Mobile Potential in the consumer products and services category; and Qualiber Inc. from Chapel Hill in the life sciences and biotech category. Instruct Health from Queens University won the student category, and Bamboo Apparel of High Point topped the social enterprise category, which was presented in partnership with Queen City Forward.

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Casey Rimland, a biology and psychology honors undergraduate in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte, recently received an eight-year scholarship through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Oxford Cambridge Scholars Program.

Rimland, a Charlotte native who is graduating this May, will pursue a combined medical/doctorate degree through the NIH Oxford Cambridge program; she is one of only four individuals in the country accepted for that degree option this year.

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New research shows it may be no accident when doctors observe how patients suffering from both breast cancer and arthritis seem to have more aggressive cancer. However, the new-found interaction between the two diseases may also suggest a possible treatment.

A potential relationship between metastatic breast cancer and autoimmune arthritis, as suggested by past epidemiological studies, has led researchers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to perform a series of mouse model experiments that appear to confirm the connection.

“Epidemiological studies have implied that breast cancer survival is significantly lower in patients who also had autoimmune arthritis,” noted Pinku Mukherjee, Irwin Belk Distinguished Scholar of Cancer Research at UNC Charlotte, whose lab conducted the experiments. “As there is no obvious reason this should be so, we were interested in exploring possible cancer mechanisms that might explain why.” Mukherjee is a faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology.
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This year’s nominees for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Full-time Lecturer Award for Teaching Excellence and Part-time Lecturer Award for Teaching Excellence have been announced.

Six faculty have been nominated for the Full-time Lecturer Award and four faculty have been nominated for the Part-time Lecturer Award presented by the college.

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The spring plant sale at UNC Charlotte’s Botanical Gardens is still scheduled for Friday and Saturday, despite a fire on Wednesday night in one of the greenhouse rooms. The spring plant sale is the gardens’ largest sale of the year and its major fundraising event. All proceeds support the greenhouse and gardens’ operations and are needed now more than ever.

The sale is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, and plant lovers can find a wide selection of native plants and exotic botanicals for sale.  The selection will include wildflowers, trees and shrubs, perennials, carnivorous plants, orchids, tropicals, and indoor plants.In addition, staff will be available to answer questions. More information: http://gardens.charlotte.edu or 704-687-0721.

The greenhouse and gardens serve as a resource to the campus community, as well as the greater Charlotte community and its visitors. They are part of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

When the fire occurred, the Charlotte Fire Department and the UNC Charlotte Department of Police and Public Safety responded. No one was injured in the fire. One of the two Titan Arums — nicknamed Bella — did suffer damage but is expected to recover. Other specialized plants were destroyed.

In December 2011, A Celebration of Faculty Achievement recognized College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty in two categories:  those faculty who have received external funding during the previous academic year and those faculty who have published books.  128 faculty members in the College fall into one or the other of these two categories, and in four cases, both categories.

• Faculty Sponsored Research 2011
• Published Books 2011

Theoretical physicist Greg Gbur shares a slice of his life — as nano-optics researcher, teacher, science writer and skydiver.

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Five College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) women faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics disciplines will receive Bonnie Cone Fellowships from UNC Charlotte ADVANCE to support their scholarship and leadership.

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An article from the summer 2010 issue of Exchange magazine

UNC Charlotte professor Michael Klibanov uses mathematics to see through walls. An oversimplification of the process? Perhaps, but the end result is one that has piqued the interest of the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO). They hope to use Klibanov’s work to detect and identify Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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A group of UNC Charlotte chemistry graduate students, armed with nothing but a video camera and a catchy tune, submitted a video called “NanoGirls” to the American Chemical Society (ACS) for their second annual “nano video” contest. Organized as an outgrowth of ACS’ scientific publishing in the area of nanoscale science, the contest seeks creative videos that convey the applications of nanoscience to a broad audience.

The “NanoGirls” video was submitted by chemistry masters student Natalie Herring. The three students in the video are Kevin Major (a third-year student in the nanoscale science PhD program), Jonathan Ligda (a second-year student in the program) and Mikey Hurckes, a chemistry masters student. Chemistry faculty member Jordan Poler also provided some assistance to the students.

The video, which was also posted on the American Chemical Society Web site, is bringing national attention to the university and the nanoscale science program. Winning videos will be announced and displayed at the 238th ACS National Meeting and Exposition Aug. 16-20. Videos will be judged based on votes received on the video Web site.