The 15th began this week at the University of Notre Dame . Held every other year since 1985, this year’s workshop will host more than 85 scientists from 16 countries.

The plasminogen activation pathway is an essential regulator in tissue remodeling and plays an important role in the regulation of cell functions through the activation of cell signaling pathways. The pathway has been identified as a significant participant in the regulation and progression of several human diseases including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurological pathologies and bacterial pathogenesis.

More than 50 percent of this year’s workshop attendees are current graduate students or postdoctoral researchers, several of whom received fellowships to attend the meeting. “All sessions will be chaired by one established principal investigator and one young researcher,” said , the Kleiderer-Pezold Professor of Biochemistry and director of the at Notre Dame. “We wanted to be sure that young, up-and-coming researchers were well represented at the meeting.”

Over the five-day workshop, 52 oral presentations and 29 poster presentations will be shared. Scientists will come from Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. This workshop is unique in that it is almost completely abstract-driven, with the goal of fostering engaging research discussions on new and unpublished research. Keeping the new investigators in mind, four will also be included to provide information on previous work and predictions about future research in the field. The State-of-the-Art speakers include:

• Francesco Blasi, FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology Foundation: “Urokinase, Receptor, Inhibitors: But This is Very Old Now!”
• Nicola J. Mutch, University of Aberdeen: “Platelets are Key Modulators of Fibrinolysis.”
• Manuel Yepes, Emory University: “Tissue-type Plasminogen Activator is a Master Regulator of Synaptic Function in the Brain.”
• , University of Notre Dame: “Blood Ties: Host Microbe Interactions in Group A Streptococcal Pathogenesis.”

This year’s meeting was organized by Castellino, and of the University of Notre Dame, and M. Patrizia Stoppelli and Nicolai Sidenius of Italy. The 16th workshop, which will be the first joint meeting with the International Society of Fibrinolysis and Proteolysis, will be held in Japan in 2016.

On May 27 (Wednesday), , William K. Warren Dean of the and professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, will embark on his fifth cross-country bicycle ride to raise awareness and funds for rare disease research at Notre Dame.

This year’s will take Crawford on a 3,500-mile journey from Long Island, New York, to Pebble Beach, California. He will arrive at Pebble Beach on June 26 in time for the annual benefiting research.

NPC is a rare and deadly cholesterol storage disorder that primarily strikes children before or during adolescence. NPC causes cholesterol to accumulate in the body’s cells, leading to fatal neurodegenerative issues. Legendary Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian lost three of his grandchildren to NPC.

With previous research funding from the and the Charles Edison Fund, a group of Notre Dame researchers and their collaborators that have shown promising results in treating NPC disease cells in the laboratory. The treatment is currently in clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health, which are supported by the money raised during the 2013 Road to Discovery.

Since 2010, Crawford has successfully completed four bike rides to raise money for NPC research, traveled more than 11,200 miles, attended over 60 Notre Dame alumni club events and raised $1 million for NPC research. In 2010, he biked from Tucson, Arizona, to Notre Dame, Indiana. He then rode from Boston to Dallas in 2011. The following year, he cycled from Boston to Pebble Beach, and in 2013, he biked from Long Beach, California, to Baltimore.

Expanding Crawford’s fundraising efforts, this year’s Road to Discovery will also raise funds for research for other rare diseases, including ones that affect young children, nonketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH) and NGLY1 deficiency. NKH is a condition that prohibits the body from properly breaking down the amino acid glycine, which can lead to developmental issues, seizures and brain damage. NGLY1 deficiency is a disorder that causes the accumulation of glycoproteins in the body, which can result in developmental delays, abnormal tear production and liver disease. The goal of this year’s Road to Discovery is to raise $1 million for research for rare diseases at Notre Dame’s .

During the month-long bike ride, Crawford will attend many events, which include events with the Notre Dame Clubs of Mid-Hudson Valley, Philadelphia, Fairfield County, Harrisburg and Gettysburg, St. Joseph Valley, Quad Cities, Iowa City, Des Moines, Denver, Salt Lake City, Sacramento and San Jose/Silicon Valley.

Crawford will write a daily blog about his journey. The blog and full ride schedule can be found at .

The 2015 Road to Discovery is sponsored by , , , , , and .

Contact: Stephanie Healey, College of Science, 574-631-5833, shealey1@nd.edu

University of Notre Dame researchers led an international team to identify a molecular mechanism responsible for making malaria parasites resistant to artemisinins, the leading class of antimalarial drugs.

According to the World Health Organization’s , there are an estimated 198 million cases of malaria worldwide with 3.3 billion people at risk for contracting the infection. Although the impact of malaria is still significant, the statistics reflect a considerable reduction in the global malaria burden. Since 2010, disease transmission has been reduced by 30 percent and mortality due to malaria has decreased by almost half.

Artemisinins are powerful drugs that have the most rapid action of all current drugs against Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite species that causes the most dangerous form of malaria. Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are now standard treatment worldwide for P. falciparum malaria. Unfortunately, resistance to artemisinin has been detected in five countries across Southeast Asia. Along the Cambodia-Thailand border, P. falciparum is now resistant to most available antimalarial drugs. Artemisinin resistance poses a serious global threat to malaria control and elimination.

“There are two phases of blood stage malaria infection. In the first phase, the ‘ring’ parasite stage circulates in the bloodstream, and in the second phase, the ‘mature’ parasite stage sequesters in the tissues of the body,” explained , the Rev. Julius A. Nieuwland Professor of Biological Sciences and the James C. Parsons and Carrie Ann Quinn Director of the . “Artemisinins are highly effective in treating malaria quickly because they target the first ring stage. When patients take the medication, their fevers reduce quickly, and the parasite is eliminated rapidly.”

Although artemisinins have been widely used and investigated, no one fully understood how they worked or why clinical resistance has emerged. Laboratory studies showed that artemisinins were always active against the mature parasite stages that sequester in tissues, but clinicians were observing resistant infections from patients who were still in early stage of infections. In addition, previous genome wide association studies of P. falciparum identified genes associated with artemisinin resistance, but it was unknown how the genes worked. This Notre Dame-led study identified both the target of artemisinins in the clinically affected ring stages and how a gene named PfKelch13, a dominant marker used to track the parasite’s resistance, causes artemisinin resistance.

“We observed that levels of a lipid called phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PI3P) were higher in artemisinin-resistant P. falciparum than artemisinin-sensitive strains,” said Alassane Mbengue, a postdoctoral associate in biological sciences and co-first author on the study. “This lipid is produced by an enzyme called PfPI3K. We found that artemisinins block this kinase from producing PI3P lipids.”

“We also discovered that the amount of the kinase present in the parasite is controlled by the gene PfKelch13,” Mbengue said. “Mutation in the gene increases the kinase levels, which in turn increases PI3P lipid levels. The higher the level of PI3P lipids present in the parasite, the greater the level of artemisinin resistance. We also studied the lipid levels in parasites without the gene mutation and observed that when PI3P lipid levels were increased artificially, the parasites still became proportionately resistant.”

“Our results are especially significant because we studied clinical parasites from Cambodia, where artemisinin resistance is highly prevalent,” explained Souvik Bhattacharjee, research assistant professor of biological sciences and co-first author of the paper. “We collaborated with researchers and clinicians in Asia, Europe and the U.S. The local collaborators at the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases include at IUSM, in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Computer Assisted Molecular Design Core, Shahir Rizk in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Genomics and Bioinformatics Core. This was true cooperation over several years at both the international and the local levels.”

When asked about the next steps for this research, Bhattacharjee said, “There are presently two options for overcoming artemisinin resistance. Working with our colleagues at Notre Dame, Eli Lilly & Co. and the Medicines for Malaria Venture, we need to find drugs that kill the parasite by blocking the function of the kinase from making the PI3P lipid or disrupting the production of the kinase itself.”

The study, “,” was published online in Nature Wednesday (April 15). This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Parsons-Quinn Endowment and .

Contact: Kasturi Haldar, 574-631-1474, khaldar@nd.edu

University of Notre Dame alumna Lynn Larkin Flanagan will be the keynote speaker at the annual on Sunday (Feb. 1) at Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion.

Organized by the and the , the brunch will bring together local oncologists, researchers, survivors, patients and their families. The brunch will be held at 10 a.m. before the Notre Dame women’s basketball against Wake Forest at 1 p.m.

A breast cancer survivor, Flanagan decided to combine her passion for community service with her experience as a breast cancer patient to help educate women in the San Diego community about topics ranging from the importance of early detection to genetic predisposition. She established a monthly support group called Linked by Lynn, which now has more than 70 members, that shares news about the latest treatments and lifestyle choices that reduce the risk of recurrence. Flanagan also speaks regularly to high school teens in the San Diego area about breast health and serves as an advocate for women meeting with their cancer doctors for the first time.

Flanagan’s enthusiasm for community outreach and education has been recognized across the country. In 2002, she earned the annual Community Service Award from the Notre Dame Club of San Diego. In 2006, she received the Breastlink Spirit Award, and in 2008, CancerCare in New York City named Flanagan the Donor of the Year for organizing an international event on Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

Lynn Larkin Flanagan

“We are honored to have a dedicated breast cancer patient advocate like Lynn Flanagan speak at the Pink Zone Brunch this year,” said , dean of the College of Science. “She uses her commitment to service to others to improve the lives of women affected by breast cancer in the San Diego community. Her passion and work are truly inspirational.”

Flanagan was a member of the first group of women accepted to the University of Notre Dame, and both Flanagan and her husband, Frank, graduated in 1975. She pursued a career in professional sales and sales management until 1986, when she decided to retire and focus her energy on her family and volunteering.

“Lynn is an exceptional role model for our young people, not only as a result of her successful fight against breast cancer, but also through her continuing work to educate others on the importance of early detection and treatment of this disease,” said Notre Dame women’s basketball coach . “We are even more proud to welcome her back home to Notre Dame and are so thrilled she will bring her message of hope and inspiration as the keynote speaker for this year’s Pink Zone Brunch.”

A limited number of brunch tickets are still available for purchase by contacting Kim Kirkpatrick in the College of Science at 574-631-3136 or kkirkpa4@nd.edu. Tickets are $100 each or $150 per couple. Each ticket includes the brunch, admission to the basketball game and refreshments at Club Naimoli during the game.

In addition to the brunch, the College of Science has organized two beginning Friday (Jan. 30) in collaboration with RecSports and Knollwood Country Club to raise money for Pink Zone. Spinners interested in participating in the on campus RecSports Spin-a-Thon, beginning at noon, can sign up and make a donation via . Anyone interested in spinning at Knollwood Country Club, starting at 3 p.m., should contact Rhonda Bremer at rhonda.bremer@clubcorp.com for available time slots.

Pink Zone proceeds benefit the Pink Zone initiative, a global, unified effort of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) to assist in raising awareness and support for women with breast cancer. All of the funds raised this year will be distributed locally to Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center and RiverBend Cancer Services to assist with breast cancer screenings, education and support, and to the national organization . The late Kay Yow, the fund’s namesake, was a past president and founding member of the WBCA who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and passed away in 2009.

Contact: Stephanie Healey, 574-631-5833, shealey1@nd.edu

Diabetes affects more than 29 million Americans, or 9.3 percent of the population. One of the many complications of the disease is the inability of wounds to heal properly because diabetic patients often have nerve damage, weakened immune systems or narrow arteries. In 2010, 73,000 non-traumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in the United States due to diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) announced Tuesday that it is funding a $1.6 million to , research professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, to help lower that number. The research award, part of the association’s Pathway Awards program, will provide funding for Chang’s project, “A Strategy to Accelerate Diabetic Wound Repair,” over five years.

Chang’s research is broadly focused on exploring the molecular basis of disease and designing small molecules for therapeutic interventions. She has ongoing projects related to stroke, traumatic brain injury, cancer metastasis and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). A newer area of work for Chang is to understand why diabetic wounds are so difficult to treat and to develop novel therapeutics to promote wound healing.

Using a mouse model and a novel diagnostic resin that binds to active forms of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), proteases involved in tissue remodeling, Chang’s research group found that MMP-9 may cause diabetic wounds and MMP-8 may be involved in wound repair. They also demonstrated that selective pharmacological inhibition of MMP-8 delayed wound repair and inhibition of MMP-9 accelerated wound healing.

Using a combination of research techniques, Chang’s project will identify the mechanisms associated with diabetic wound development, progression and healing; study bacterial colonization in diabetic wounds; and find interventions that expedite the healing process. To achieve these goals, she will validate the roles of MMP-8 and MMP-9 in diabetic wounds, investigate the relevance of these MMPs in human patients, evaluate novel MMP-9 inhibitors and determine the contribution of bacterial infection on wound repair.

“This research project will allow intervention of chronic wounds, a complication of diabetes for which pharmacological clinical recourse is not available,” Chang said. “Our work holds great promise in addressing an unmet medical need.”

Accelerator Awards are designed to support early-career investigators or established researchers who are accomplished in other fields, but would like to apply their expertise to innovative diabetes-related research topics.

Contact: Mayland Chang, 574-631-2965, mchang@nd.edu

A new paper, co-authored by University of Notre Dame astrophysicist Joseph Bramante, discusses how detecting imploding pulsars may lead to insights about the properties of dark matter. The paper, “,” was recently published in Physical Review Letters, the flagship journal for the American Physical Society.

Pulsars, or pulsating stars, are rotating neutron stars that emit pulses of light visible to astronomers on Earth. Pulsars are created from the collapsing cores of supermassive stars that have exploded into supernovae. These supermassive stars, 10 to 40 times the mass of the sun, have been found at the center of the galaxy, leading astronomers to predict a certain number of pulsars should also reside there, but that predicted number of pulsars has not yet been observed.

“In 2013, the first pulsar at the galactic center was detected, and this observation has deepened the mystery of these stellar objects,” explained Bramante, a postdoctoral associate in the lab of . “Prior to this detection, it was thought that pulsars at the galactic center might simply be shielded from observation by dense material in the center of the galaxy.”

In the paper, Bramante and his colleague at the University of Chicago, Tim Linden, discuss how dark matter could explain the absence of pulsars in the galactic center. Dark matter, which makes up approximately 25 percent of the matter in the universe, is a very dense type of matter that does not emit a significant amount of light. A particular kind of dark matter could destroy pulsars at the galactic center by falling into the pulsars and forming black holes that swallow them.

“Observations of pulsars imploding into black holes could provide important clues to the properties of dark matter, specifically indicating it is asymmetric, just like visible matter,” said Bramante.

The paper also explains how the researchers showed that the presently unknown mass and quantum couplings of dark matter could be found by determining the age at which a pulsar is swallowed by a dark matter black hole. One predictor of this pulsar-collapsing dark matter is a maximum age for pulsars, which gets higher the further away from the galactic center the pulsars are because there is less dark matter away from the center.

The next steps in this work for Bramante and his collaborators includes building and testing a model of dark matter to ensure the model meets all other cosmological and astrophysical dark matter observations.

Contact: Joseph Bramante, Joseph.Bramante.2@nd.edu

A team of University of Notre Dame scientists, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Connecticut, have announced the results of a new study on identifying potential targets for personalized cancer vaccines. The paper, “,” was recently published in the . The research group at Notre Dame was led by , associate dean for research and graduate studies and professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and included , associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and graduate student Cory Ayers.

“There has been a lot of attention on cancer vaccines in the last 10 years. The potential is huge, but actual progress has been slow,” said Baker.

Vaccines are introduced into the body to create or boost an immune response to protein antigens that differ from those normally produced by the host, such as those from viral proteins. Tumors develop due to mutations in a person’s DNA, causing production of mutated proteins and neo-antigens that also differ from those produced by the host. “Many of these neo-antigens result in the destruction of early-stage cancerous cells by the immune system,” said Baker. “In cases of established cancer, however, the immune response is insufficient, but can be boosted through vaccines.” It has been difficult for researchers to develop vaccines for cancer based on neo-antigens because they are rare and can vary from person to person. Additionally, identifying those neo-antigens that differ enough from the host to elicit an actual immune response presents yet another challenge.

Brian Baker

The study discusses two methods of identifying, with relatively high accuracy, potential neo-antigens for use as personalized cancer vaccines. Combing high-throughput genome sequencing and bioinformatics, the University of Connecticut team identified the neo-antigens present in mouse models of cancer. The Notre Dame group then combined the sequencing data with three-dimensional structural modeling to predict which neo-epitopes differed most from those present in the normal mouse genome, helping identify the neo-epitopes that were the most immunogenic.

“The next step is to repeat this methodology with tumors from human cancer patients,” explained Baker. “Our goal is to one day see personalized vaccines play a starring role in cancer therapy. With advances in DNA sequencing and computational modeling, the process could be done quickly — from the time the tumor genome is sequenced and analyzed, to the production of a vaccine cocktail — it could be done in a matter of weeks.”

“This study is hugely exciting because it combines cancer immunology with personalized medicine, which are two of the most exciting areas of biomedical research right now,” Baker said. The research groups have submitted an application for a clinical trial with ovarian cancer patients and expect to begin the trial this winter. Further highlighting the impact of Notre Dame science, the trial will be led by Notre Dame alumnus Dr. Angie Kueck of the University of Connecticut . It will be among the first in the world to test genomics-driven, personalized cancer immunotherapy, and the first of its kind for ovarian cancer.

Contact: Brian Baker, 574-631-9810, brian-baker@nd.edu

More than 70 researchers, patients and families will attend the 2014 on Thursday-Saturday (June 12-14) at the Jordan Hall of Science at University of Notre Dame. The conference is hosted annually by the and the (APMRF).

Researchers will discuss their progress in (NPC) research throughout the three-day conference, which will be broken into six presentation sessions and one poster session. This year’s event has attracted international participants from Chile, Denmark, France, Israel and the United Kingdom, as well as researchers from Columbia University, National Institutes of Health, Scripps Research Institute, Stanford University, Tufts University, Weill Cornell Medical College and many other universities and institutions around the United States.

Niemann-Pick Type C disease is a rare, fatal neurodegenerative disease for which there is currently no cure. NPC primarily strikes children before and during adolescence and affects one in every 150,000 children. The disease causes cholesterol and other lipids to build up in the body’s cells, which results in symptoms such as delayed motor development, deterioration of memory and balance, and seizures. There is no cure for NPC, but research has led to a better understanding of the disease and some promising treatments.

Two Notre Dame researchers and their collaborators have identified histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as potential therapeutic agents for NPC and have gained approval for clinical trials later this year. Several of this year’s presentations will discuss different aspects of this finding, including the testing of HDAC inhibitors on NPC cell lines and the proof of concept used to get approval for clinical trials. Other presentations will also discuss discoveries of new biomarkers for the disease, new findings in disease progression, and other potential treatments that are currently being studied.

“It is part of the Notre Dame mission to fight for life, dignity and well-being of every person, especially those who are underserved. Our research on NPC and other rare diseases is a very important aspect of our work,” said , dean of the College of Science. “We are so honored to host NPC researchers, patients and families at Notre Dame every year for the Parseghian conference. Each year we learn about the continued progress that researchers are making around world. This gathering continues to give all of us hope that we are getting closer to a treatment or cure.”

Cindy Parseghian, who lost three children to the devastating disease and founded APMRF with her family, will give remarks at the beginning of the conference. Parseghian and Nadine Hill, executive director of the , will give a special presentation at the reception on Thursday evening.

“This research conference is an important part of the Notre Dame’s partnership with the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation,” said Rich Taylor, associate vice president of research. “The annual meeting continues to be a wonderful opportunity for researchers in the field to exchange the most recent findings of their understanding of this terrible disease and the most promising leads in the search for a cure.”

The conference is open to the media, but closed to the public. It is made possible through a generous gift to Notre Dame by APMRF, which established the Michael, Marcia and Christa Parseghian Endowment for Excellence to support NPC research and discovery.

Contact: Stephanie Healey, 574-631-5833, shealey1@nd.edu

University of Notre Dame alumna will be the keynote speaker at the annual on Feb. 9 (Sunday) at the Purcell Pavilion at Notre Dame. The luncheon, organized by the and the , will bring together local oncologists, researchers, survivors and patients and their families. The luncheon will be held before the Notre Dame Women’s Basketball against Syracuse at 3 p.m.

Tuthill is an award-winning reporter at WCVB-TV in Boston. Her reporting of the protests outside the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston helped WCVB win the Best Breaking News Coverage Award from the Associated Press. In 2010, Tuthill received a Gracie Award for Outstanding Hard News Feature for her report that led to the government granting a woman’s dying wish to have her parents be allowed to travel from China for a visit.

A breast cancer survivor, Tuthill poignantly shared her journey with WCVB viewers and online users. The cameras followed her from diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to life after cancer. She is also the co-author of “You Can Do This! Surviving Breast Cancer Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Style.” Tuthill’s work both on- and off-camera that explores all aspects of cancer has resulted in multiple national Gracie Awards and a regional Emmy.

In 2008, she was recognized as a “Hero Among Us” by the Boston Celtics and earned a spot in a “40 under 40” list by the Boston Business Journal. She is also featured in the 2011 book “Boston: Inspirational Women” for her work on behalf of local and national breast cancer organizations.

“We are excited to have such an outstanding advocate and breast cancer survivor speak at the Pink Zone Luncheon this year,” said , William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science. “Kelley has been very open about sharing her story from the very beginning and has dedicated herself to breast cancer awareness. She is an inspiration to us all.”

Tuthill earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies from Notre Dame in 1992 and received a Master of Science degree from Columbia University Graduate 91��Ƶ of Journalism. She is also a member of the College of Arts and Letters Advisory Council.

“We are thrilled that Kelley will be joining us as the keynote speaker at this year’s Pink Zone luncheon,” said women’s basketball coach . “Not only is Kelley a proud alumna of Notre Dame, but she courageously and successfully won her battle with breast cancer. It’s that experience, and those that she has shared with those in her community as a successful journalist, that makes her such an engaging and insightful speaker for one of the cornerstone events of Pink Zone 2014. I would encourage all of our fans and friends in the Michiana community to join us Feb. 9 at the Pink Zone luncheon as well as for our Notre Dame women’s basketball game later that day against ACC rival Syracuse. Hope to see you there — GO IRISH!”

In addition to the luncheon, the College of Science has organized two in collaboration with RecSports (Feb. 7) and Knollwood Country Club (Feb. 8) to raise money for Pink Zone. Pink Zone proceeds benefit the WBCA Pink Zone initiative, a global, unified effort of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) to assist in raising awareness and support for women with breast cancer. All of the funds raised this year will be distributed locally to Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center and RiverBend Cancer Services to assist with breast cancer screenings, education and support, and to the national organization . The late Kay Yow, the fund’s namesake, was a past president and founding member of the WBCA who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and passed away in 2009.

The luncheon begins at 11:45 a.m. A limited number of luncheon tickets are still available for purchase by contacting Jenna Rangel in the College of Science at 574-631-3136 or jenna.rangel@nd.edu. Tickets are $100 each or $150 per couple. Each ticket includes the luncheon, admission to the basketball game, a pregame chalk talk by an Irish assistant coach, and refreshments at Club Naimoli during the game.

Contact: Stephanie Healey, 574-631-5833, shealey1@nd.edu

With the continual increase in demand for global energy, scientists across the world are working to find a way to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources that are more efficient and environmentally friendly. The sun delivers more energy to the Earth’s surface in one hour than the entire world uses in one year, and realizing the full potential of solar power will require finding effective, inexpensive ways to utilize this vast energy source.

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have identified a possible inorganic material for perovskite solar cells, which provides a lower-cost alternative to the organic polymers currently used in the cells. The was published in the by , a graduate student in Notre Dame’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; , Rev. John A. Zahm Professor of Science; and Raymond Fung, an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo.

“Of all the potential renewable energy sources available, solar energy is really the only option that has the potential to completely meet humanity’s energy needs,” said Christians. “However, to reach this ambitious goal, there needs to be a transformative solar cell technology that dramatically lowers the cost for consumers.”

Professor Prashant Kamat, left, works with graduate students on the solar panels on the roof of Stinson-Remick Hall of Engineering

Organo-lead halide perovskite solar cells have recently emerged as one of the most promising candidates for the next generation of solar cells, with record efficiencies increasing from just a few percent to more than 15 percent in just a few years. However, these solar cells have exclusively used organic hole conducting polymers, which are one of the components responsible for conducting electricity in the cells. These organic polymers are generally expensive because they are synthetically produced and must be pure for photovoltaic applications.

For this study, the researchers replaced the organic polymer with copper iodide, a inorganic compound that is less expensive than organic polymers. Their results showed that copper iodide could produce power conversion efficiencies as high as 6 percent, with excellent photocurrent stability. Although a 6 percent efficiency is lower than the nearly 8 percent efficiency achieved in comparable cells utilizing organic polymers, with refinements to the solar cell, copper iodide still provides a promising hole conductor for perovskite solar cells.

“This is our first attempt to employ bench-top technology to design simple and cheaper solar cells with efficiencies competitive with current commercial photovoltaic devices,” Christians said. “This work opens the door for further research and the exploration of a range of inorganic materials, potentially making these already inexpensive solar cells even more affordable.”

The researchers have already identified several promising areas to optimize the perovskite and hole conducting layers to further improve the performance of the perovskite solar cells. With further research, their goal is to improve the efficiency of these solar cells well above 10 percent, which is a key threshold to making these solar cells commercially competitive.

Contact: Jeffrey Christians, jchrist5@nd.edu

The University of Notre Dame’s Ruth M. Hillebrand Center for Compassionate Care in Medicine, the and the will host Arjia Rinpoche, director of the in Bloomington, Ind., and seven Tibetan Buddhist monks from Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery in Dehra Dun, India, for the construction of a peace sand mandala and a presentation on compassion from Nov. 18-21 (Monday-Thursday).

The monks have been to give teachings on Buddhism, to educate the public about the culture and religion of Tibet and to raise funds for their monastery. The monks will be ending their U.S. tour at the University of Notre Dame. Rinpoche has been raising funds for the Children’s Cancer Care Treatment Center adjacent to the Maternity Hospital in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The painting with colored sands is considered the most unique and exquisite of all artistic traditions of Buddhism. This Tibetan art form is called dul-tson-kyil-khor, which means “mandala of colored powders.” The sand mandala represents many things, including the cycle of life — creation, beauty of existence and its impermanence, and finally, the return to the natural world for creation again.

At 9:30 a.m. Monday (Nov. 18), an opening ceremony will be held in the Jordan Hall of Science Reading Room with the seven monks to consecrate the site of the mandala with chants, music and mantra recitation. The monks will be constructing the mandala from Monday through Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day. The campus community and public are welcome to visit and watch the progress of the sand mandala throughout the four days. The construction process will also be on the College of Science website.

Closing ceremony

At 4:30 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 21), the mandala will be dismantled with a closing ceremony in the Jordan Hall of Science Reading Room, which will include sweeping up the colored sands to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists. A portion of the sand will be given to the guests and the remainder carried in a procession by the monks to a flowing body of water, where it will be ceremonially poured to disperse the healing energies of the mandala throughout the world.

In addition to the creation of the sand mandala, Rinpoche and the monks will give a presentation called, “The Power and Practice of Compassion: Taking in Harshness and Giving out Kindness,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Nov. 20) in DeBartolo Hall, Room 102. Rinpoche, a prominent Buddhist teacher and lama who escaped from China in 1998, will give a talk on the practice of cultivating compassion, followed by a moving ceremony conducted by the monks to mark this occasion. The evening will be facilitated by Dominic Vachon, director of the Hillebrand Center, and , visiting assistant professor of mathematics.

“In our teaching and research on compassionate care in medicine, one of the major issues we run into is how physicians, nurses and other helping professionals deal with discouragement in encountering suffering or dealing with difficult patients,” said Vachon. “Buddhism is one of a number of religious traditions that really deal with this issue. We are excited to have Arjia Rinpoche and the Tibetan monks discuss their insights about cultivating compassion and to be a catalyst for others to reflect on how they are compassionate in their helping work.”

The campus community and public are invited and encouraged to attend all events with the Buddhist monks and Rinpoche.

These events are co-sponsored by the , the , the , the and the .

Contact: Dominic Vachon, 574-631-9536, dvachon@nd.edu

A new paper by , professor of physics and concurrent professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame, and his collaborators provides a predictive model of cerebral cortical connectivity at the interareal level. The study was published in the Oct. 2 issue of the journal .

The cerebral cortex is responsible for all the sensory, motor and cognitive functions of an individual and is arguably the most powerful known supercomputer. A characteristic feature of the cortex is that these functions are highly organized into cortical areas within well-defined regions or lobes of the cortex that have a complex network of physical connections between them. Network analysis has recently evolved into a widespread approach to characterizing features of complex systems that contain many interacting components, such as the brain, and has provided insights about the behaviors that these complex systems may enable and support.

The primate cerebral cortex is about the thickness of a few business cards (2-4mm), and when extended, is not much larger than a napkin. Primates have one of the largest complex brain networks in existence. Toroczkai’s analysis with his collaborators, who include Maria Ercsey-Ravasz, a former postdoctoral associate at Notre Dame, and the neuroscience group led by Henry Kennedy in Lyon, France, was based on cortex data from the cynomolgus monkey, a macaque found primarily in Southeast Asia. Using consistent and coherent brain-wide tracing data at the interareal level of the cortex from 29 different target areas evenly distributed across the cortex, the group of researchers analyzed the network of interareal connections, their strengths, and distances to reveal an important organizational principle of brain connectivity. The anatomical tract-tracing data, generated by the Kennedy lab, was used for this study because the analysis of physical cortical connectivity is more reliable than what is currently possible with in vivo brain imaging techniques.

The researchers’ analysis of the data showed that the interareal network is very dense and has strong structural specificity. Specifically, they showed that the connection strengths span more than five orders of magnitude and obey a lognormal distribution, and that this distribution is a direct consequence of both the physical constraint of wiring costs and the geometrical constraint of the interareal distances in the cortex. The researchers then introduced a simple, one-parameter network model based on these constraints called the exponential distance rule (EDR) model to explore how well it describes both the connectivity and weighted properties of the interareal network.

The paper explains how well the EDR model predicts many key features of the cortical network including the existence of a very dense network core concentrated around high-level cognitive functions (prefrontal cortex), global and local binary connectivity properties, global and local strength-based communication properties and overall wire-length minimization.

“Connectivity is what makes the brain. Understanding this network is a crucial step toward understanding the brain and, in the long run, possibly developing medical treatments for diseases of the brain. But it is a highly complex problem,” Toroczkai said. “It was a real shock for us when we discovered that a single parameter graph model could very well describe the highly heterogeneous structure of the interareal cortical network. It has revealed the fundamental role of physics and geometry and the way in which they work together to provide the large-scale structure behind the most amazing bio-computer ever created. The next challenge for us is to understand brain connectivity and its implications on information processing at increasingly higher resolutions, towards the neuronal scale.”

Toroczkai’s expertise is in modeling complex systems, statistical physics and fundamentals of computation by physical systems. He is the founding director and currently a co-director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications (iCENSA) at the University of Notre Dame.

Contact: Zoltán Toroczkai, 574-631-2618, toro@nd.edu

The Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States has selected University of Notre Dame senior MurphyKate Montee as a for the 2013-14 academic year. She will use the scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom for her master of advanced studies (part III) in theoretical mathematics with a focus on geometry and topology.

Montee, a and (voice) double major in the , is one of just 14 students in the United States selected for the scholarship this year. She is only the second student from Notre Dame to receive this prestigious award. , who was also a double major in mathematics and music, won in 2009.

The Churchill Scholarship will cover the majority of Montee’s expenses at Cambridge, including tuition and fees, a living allowance, and transportation to and from the United Kingdom.

Montee has participated in two Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs during her summers, which included studying polynomials of recursive ribbon graphs at Louisiana State University and studying knot theory at Williams College. She is also a member of the (SUMR), a program designed for the most talented mathematics students at Notre Dame. She is currently completing an honors thesis, titled “On the Construction of Chern Classes of Complex Vector Bundles.”

As a talented and accomplished student, Montee has received several awards and scholarships including the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship, the Notre Dame Provost’s Scholarship, the Notre Dame Reilly Trustee Scholarship and the Bordui Foundation Scholarship. She was also the winner of the 2012 , which is awarded to the top female undergraduate mathematician in the United States. She was the first Notre Dame student to win this prize.

In addition to excelling in mathematics, Montee also has a passion for music. She sang the lead mezzo-soprano role in Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” at Notre Dame this year and will be the lead soprano in this year’s production of Poulenc’s “Dialogues des Carmelites.”

After completing her year at Cambridge, Montee plans to pursue doctoral studies in mathematics at a university in the United States.

Montee’s Churchill Scholarship was made possible in part through her participation in Notre Dame’s Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE). CUSE provides undergraduate students in all the University’s colleges opportunities for research, scholarship, and creative projects. The center also assists them in finding faculty mentors, funding and venues for the publication or presentation of their work, and promotes applications to national Fellowship programs and prepares them in their application process.

More information on CUSE is available online at .

Originally published at .