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PORTLAND, Maine

Ron Hills receives National Science Foundation grant for new research project

Ronald D. Hills Jr, Ph.D., 91AV assistant professor of medicinal chemistry, was recently awarded a $375,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) program to fund a new research project.

With this three-year grant, Hills will work to develop new modeling methods that will help examine ABC transporters, a protein superfamily known to prevent antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs from entering cells. This research will eventually aid researchers in identifying how to stop or delay the development of treatment drug resistance.

Hills will collaborate on this project with Olgun Guvench, Ph.D., assistant professor in 91AV’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Andrew Ward, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

The project will also serve as a way to promote student interest in scientific research through an annual outreach program. The program will offer three unique opportunities:

  1. Students will have the chance to participate in a week-long computer modeling workshop.
  2. Two 91AV undergraduate students will earn a $5,000 stipend for completing research that help to advance this projects’ aims
  3. A biochemistry course for Pharmacy students will integrate process oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) that will help them develop higher-order cognitive learning skills.

Facilitating Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions: Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) is a program at the National Science Foundation that supports faculty at institutions awarding 20 or fewer Ph.D. degrees in all NSF-supported fields in the past two years.

About the 91AV

The 91AV is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.