Thaddeus S. Stappenbeck, instructor in molecular biology and pharmacology in the School of Medicine, has received a five-year, $424,387 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for research titled "Signals That Control Mouse Intestinal Differentiation." ...

Stephen M. Highstein, M.D., Ph.D., professor of otolaryngology and of anatomy and neurobiology in the School of Medicine, has received a three-year, $1,061,534 grant from the National Eye Institute for research titled "Morphophysiology of Pre-Nuclear Oculomotor Neurons." ...

Roger J. Phillips, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, has been appointed by NASA as deputy team leader for a sounding radar experiment on NASA's 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The contract for this effort will run to 2009 at a total value of more than $1 million. The purpose of the experiment is to map water and ice to depths of 1 kilometer beneath the surface of Mars. The radar is being supplied by the Italian Space Agency, and California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission. ...

Elena Rivas, Ph.D., research instructor in genetics in the School of Medicine, has received a three-year, $285,492 grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute for research titled "Probabilistic Methods to Identify Noncoding RNA Genes." ...