RI-INBRE-COBRE Collaborative Research
Dr. Susan Meschwitz received the first RI-INBRE/COBRE Collaboration Supplemental Award in 2019 with Dr. Helen (Beth) Fuchs of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital. In 2021, Dr. Meschwitz also received the RI-INBRE Women’s Health Supplemental Award, in collaboration with URI investigators Dr. Jodi Camberg and Dr. David Rowley.
Dr. Susan Meschwitz, Associate Professor and Chairwoman of Chemistry at Salve Regina University received the first RI-INBRE/COBRE Collaborative Supplemental Award in May 2019. The collaborative project entitled “Quorum sensing antagonistic inhibition of medically important ESKAPE pathogens” was with Dr. Helen (Beth) Fuchs. Dr. Fuchs is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Research Scientist at Rhode Island Hospital, a COBRE Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Therapeutic Discovery investigator (Reported in RI-INBRE’s Winter 2021 eNewsletter).
After a “wonderful, but quick year” the two published “A Substituted Diphenyl Amide Based Novel Scaffold Inhibits Staphylococcus aureus Virulence in a Galleria mellonella Infection Model,” in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology (October 5, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.723133). Although the COVID-19 pandemic impacted plans for Dr. Meschwitz’s students to research in Dr. Fuch’s lab (converted to a COVID-19 testing site in 2020), the two investigators are still in touch. “The beauty of collaborative grants is that they open doors… you can continue with future collaborations” remarked Meschwitz.
In May of 2021, Dr. Meschwitz received the RI-INBRE Women’s Health Supplemental Award, conducted at Salve Regina University in collaboration with the University of Rhode Island investigators Dr. Jodi Camberg and Dr. David Rowley. This is an exciting award for Dr. Meschwitz since it is a result of her 2019 collaborative grant with Dr. Fuchs, and Dr. Rowley was her RI-INBRE Early Career Development mentor who played a major role in mentoring her and supporting her research efforts. Dr. Meschwitz stressed that RI-INBRE’s funding and collaborations have helped get her “back into the research realm.” Before teaching and researching at Salve Regina, Dr. Meschwitz worked in industry.
Dr. Meschwitz’s two collaborative research awards with Dr. Rowley and Dr. Fuchs confirm that “you cannot do research in a vacuum…most projects are multifaceted and if you can have those connections and collaborations, it will open avenues… to further your research.” Rhode Island is a small state however RI-INBRE provides investigators opportunities to take advantage of our size and closeness. Susan mentioned that RI-INBRE events, meetings, and SURF conferences “provide excellent opportunities to see colleagues and meet other researchers throughout the state and the RI-INBRE network.”
Dr. Meschwitz is “looking forward to the in-person experience” after the challenges brought on by the pandemic and said, “You can’t replace hands-on training and in-person research experiences.” Salve Regina University, a predominantly undergraduate institution (PUI), provides lab and research opportunities to their undergraduate students, Meschwitz said “exposure to more complicated techniques and higher end equipment” will provide her students with “hands-on training at a higher level than courses or undergraduate research at a PUI alone.” Dr. Meschwitz’s Women’s Health Supplemental Award also provides her students the opportunity to “visit URI [and] physically be in a graduate program setting…learn from and work alongside graduate students and postdocs…attend group meetings with the two labs” and more. In-person, collaborative research experience can “really spark interest in pursuing their degree [and research] Dr. Meschwitz shared.