Rudy Ruggles STEM Interdisciplinary Research Award
2025 Rudy Ruggles STEM Interdisciplinary Research Award Competition I
Deadline: 31 March (download information here)
2025 – 26 Rudy Ruggles Research Award Winners
Preparation and Biological Evaluation of Amide-Containing Quorum Sensing Inhibitors
Dr. Matthew Tracey, Dr. Jill Henning
The proposal was selected for its interdisciplinary breadth in advancing chemical synthesis and infectious disease research against multi-drug resistant bacteria. New therapeutics that can target quorum sensing by using amidation and the subsequent biological activity testing fits the spirit of the Rudy Ruggles Award that STEM innovation is stronger when it includes expertise from diverse disciplines.
2024 – 25 Rudy Ruggles Research Award Winners
Dissecting the effects of mechanical stress on immunosuppression in glioblastoma
Julia Linke, Dr Jain (SigmaXi member-Harvard Chapter), Dr. Dude and Dr. Munn at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
WCSU Sigma Xi Winter Rudy Ruggles Talk (4/23/2025)
“Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most aggressive, malignant brain cancers, and has a median patient survival of less than 15 months. GBM is highly refractory to most available treatment strategies, which has been attributed to its highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). The TME is impacted by increased mechanical stresses, that arise as the GBM tumor grows in the space confined by the skull, but the precise involved molecular pathways are unknown. To identify new biomarkers for the GBM cancer progression due to mechanical stress, the winners of this year’s award cultured in vitro glioblastoma cancer cell lines under increased mechanical stresses. They isolated RNA material from these cells and sequenced for their bulk transcriptomics signatures. This allowed analysis of which genes are upregulated due to the increased mechanical stress in these cancer cells, and observing that distinct glioblastoma cell types react differently to the same mechanical stimulus.”
2023 – 24 Rudy Ruggles Research Award Winners
WCSU Sigma Xi Winter Rudy Ruggles Talk (4/18/2024)
Understanding Neural Network Generalizability from the Perspective of Entropy
Dr. Entao Yang & Dr. Gee Zhang