Research at University of Rochester

At Rochester, we recognize the value of collaboration in moving research forward. We push boundaries to ask and answer some of humankind’s toughest questions. Rochester students conduct research in the lab and in the field, independently and with industry partners, in our local communities and all over the world. In doing so, they help us better understand and radically reimagine the world while building their academic portfolios.

School of Medicine and Dentistry
New Grant Unlock Workings of Brain’s Waste Removal System

Rochester is playing an important role in The BRAIN Initiative, a massive research program supported by NIH and several other federal agencies that aims to fill gaps in our knowledge of the brain’s organization and function. Scientists in our Center for Translational Neuromedicine received a $15 million grant to accelerate our understanding of the glymphatic system to support the development of new therapies for diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Experimental Gene Therapy Targets Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

This year, children in Rochester were among the first in the nation to receive an experimental gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Physician researchers from the department of Neurology and Golisano Children’s Hospital launched the trial, putting Rochester at the front of an accelerating trend of trials involving gene therapies that could transform how we treat many childhood neurological disorders.

Examining How COVID-19 Deepened the Opioid Crisis

A new $3.5 million grant will help researchers examine how the economic, social, and health care disruptions caused by COVID-19 worsened the nation’s opioid epidemic. Co-led by Elaine Hill, an associate professor of public health sciences, of obstetrics and gynecology, and of economics, the study will seek to determine how the response to the pandemic impacted opioid use disorder in different communities and whether the progress made in recent years can be recovered.

Major Grant Funds Research to Understand Key Features of OCD

A team of scientists from across the country, led by our department of Pharmacology & Physiology, will use a $15 million award from the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate the brain networks central to obsessive compulsive disorder. The five-year grant funds a Silvio O. Conte Center for Basic and Translational Mental Health Research at the University of Rochester; we’re one of only 15 Conte Centers in the U.S.

School of Arts, Sciences and Engineering

The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) is one of the leading research facilities in the world for investigating fusion energy and several areas of high-energy-density-physics (HEDP) such as plasma physics, high-energy-density materials, and astrophysics. In 2022 the lab secured $83 million dollars for their OMEGA laser facility which is one of the most powerful lasers in the world. This grant is supporting cutting-edge nuclear fusion research that is being done by the U of R faculty, students, staff and their partners.

TEAMuP Project

University of Rochester leads the way in audio engineering - The TEAMuP project is a partnership between researchers from across four schools at the University of Rochester and Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering. The project, which recently received a $1.8 million grant from the National Research Foundation (NSF), is aimed at leveraging artificial intelligence to help musicians disseminate their art more effectively and independently. The team is working together to create an open-access framework that will facilitate collaboration between musicians and AI researchers to develop innovative solutions to some of the challenges faced in music production.

Project to Create Rapid Breakdown Biodegradable Plastics

Associate Professor Anne S. Meyer from the Biology department is a part of the Nereid Group, a collaboration of researchers from institutions and labs across the United States working to create biodegradable plastics that will break down faster and easier in our world’s oceans. Meyer recently secured $1 million of a $5 million grant awarded to the group that will support the work being done in her lab at the University of Rochester. Meyer and the members of her lab have created an original 3D printer, which enables them to print living bacteria that can be used on plastics to facilitate the rate at which the biopolymer degrades.