Life and health sciences faculty summit to chart next major investment at Purdue

Ahead of the summit, faculty teams submitted 48 proposals for research topics where Purdue has unique nationally leading strengths. Funding from a pool of up to $2 million is set aside to catalyze such faculty pursuits as part of a seed investment.

The summit will feature presentations and discussions of research areas broadly defined in the life sciences and in “one health” across human, plant and animal health, and selected from proposals made by faculty teams. The following research proposal topics will be presented by six interdisciplinary faculty teams representing seven colleges and 22 departments:

• Unlocking a Blueprint for Health: The Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) as a Disease Safeguard
• Leveraging Cross-species Digital Twins for Modeling Cancer Progression and Outcome
• Synaptic Ultra-Structure and Disease (SUSD)
• Using Across-phyla Methods to Increase Genomic Prediction Accuracy to Improve Health and Food Security
• Data-Driven Cross-Species Auditory Neuroscience for Accessible Mechanistic Precision Audiology
• Role of Environmental Contaminant Exposure in the Health Inequities of Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (ADRD) in Rural Populations

An “open mic” session is also planned for summit participants to offer comments and perspectives on the future of life and health sciences at Purdue.

The Life and Health Sciences Summit will take place Oct. 19 from 1-5 p.m. in the Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121. President Mung Chiang will participate through the entire event. Follow-up actions from this faculty summit will be taken forward jointly by the Office of Research and Office of the Provost.

All Purdue faculty and staff are welcome to attend, but preregistration is required. If you have not yet registered but wish to attend, please register at Life Sciences Summit.