Charles Ebert, an assistant chemistry professor at Winston-Salem State University, has received a $199,518 from the National Science Foundation to study peripheral nerve regeneration and the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries.

The two-year grant will fund his research that started Sept. 1 and will end Aug. 31, 2014, according to a foundation document.

Ebert said that his research will benefit people with nerve injuries.

"Peripheral nerve injuries, most often seen as a result of automobile accidents and battlefield injuries, create the loss of sensation and function in thousands of people in the U.S. annually," Ebert said.

The most common treatment is to implant donated nerve fibers to repair the damaged nerves, Ebert said, but the procedure is expensive and relies on donors.

"Now recent successes have suggested that keratin isolated from human hair may support the repairing of damaged nerves, and human hair keratin is plentiful and inexpensive to refine," Ebert said.

Ebert was awarded the grant through the foundation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program, said Claudia Rankins, the program's manager with the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va. The program supports researchers intending to build a research program at their institutions.

"A panel of experts and NSF staff found that the proposal had significant intellectual merit, as well as broader impacts," Rankins said.

Ebert will involve his students and also will work with the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine in his project, Ebert and Rankins said.

The grant is part of the National Science Foundation's effort to provide support of college faculty members nationwide in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Originally posted here:
WSSU chemistry professor receives science grant