Congratulations to the new CTSI Pilot Project Award recipients and the CTSI Academy of Research Excellence’s second class of investigators pursuing a Master Certificate for Excellence in Human Subject Research and Protections. These 28 investigators represent all six colleges of the UF Health Science Center plus the colleges of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Engineering, Fine Arts, and Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System.
CTSI Pilot Project Awards
The UF CTSI’s most recent round of one-year intramural pilot grants provides approximately $250,000 in support of 14 projects led by investigators from six colleges. CTSI Pilot Project Awards support the growth of interdisciplinary and investigator-initiated research and provide three categories of support: trainee, junior faculty and novel methods and technologies. Areas of special interest for this round of awards included collaborations with the CTSI Biorepository and the CTSI Human Imaging Core.
College of Engineering
Josephine Allen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
Junior Faculty Project Title: “Bioactive ssDNA polymers for directed stem cell differentiation”
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Natalie C. Ebner, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Psychology
Junior Faculty Project Title: “Neuro-Behavioral Effects of Oxytocin on Decisions of Trust in Aging”
College of Medicine
Andrew H. Ahn, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Neurology
Novel Methods and Technologies Project Title: “Multimodal brain imaging of pain: novel pathways for targeted therapy”
Michael Byrne, DO, Clinical Fellow, Hematology & Oncology
Trainee Project Title: “Stratification of PKR expression as an AML biomarker”
Timothy Garrett, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, Pathology, Immunology & Laboratory Medicine
Novel Methods and Technologies Project Title: “Targeted Metabolomics to Probe Glycolysis, Tricarboxylic Acid (TCA) Cycle and Acyl-CoA Metabolism in Mitochondrial Dysfunction”
Thomas J. George, Jr., M.D., FACP, Associate Professor, Hematology & Oncology
Junior Faculty Project Title: “Mucosal Inflammation and Digestive Cancer Correlation Science Biorepository”
Rena Harrington, M.D., Clinical Fellow, Pediatric Endocrinology
Trainee Project Title: “Hypoglycemia in Prader-Willi Syndrome: A Pilot Study”
Shouguang Jin, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
Novel Methods and Technologies Project Title: “A Novel Protein Delivery Technology for Cellular Reprogramming”
Nishanth E. Sunny, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
Junior Faculty Project Title: “Targeted Profiling of Nutrient Classes in Human Subjects with Obesity and Fatty Liver”
College of Pharmacy
Stephan Schmidt, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology
Junior Faculty Project Title: “Personalizing Antiplatelet Therapy: Development of a CYP2C19 Genotype-Directed Dosing Algorithm for Clopidogrel”
Xin (Cindy) Qi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Medicinal Chemistry
Junior Faculty Project Title: “Identification of Biomarkers to Target Breast Cancer Through Peptoid Library Screening and Microarray Technology”
College of Public Health & Health Professions
Jason Gravano, M.S., Graduate Student Assistant, Clinical & Health Psychology
Trainee Project Title: “An Investigation of Structural Connectivity in PTSD, mTBI, and PTSD/mTBI”
Tanisha Hill-Jarrett, Graduate Student, Clinical & Health Psychology
Trainee Project Title: “White matter lateralization of the parietofrontal orienting network as a biomarker predicting degree of attention impairment following Traumatic Brain Injury: Insights from diffusion MRI tractography”
College of Veterinary Medicine
Beata Clapp, D.V.M., Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases & Pathology
Novel Methods and Technologies Project Title: “Humanized mouse: a preclinical model system to evaluate vaccines against human brucellosis”
CTSI Academy of Research Excellence
The CTSI Academy of Research Excellence welcomes its second class of 14 investigators from seven colleges pursuing a six-month Master Certificate for Excellence in Human Subject Research and Protections, completion of which leads to membership in the academy:
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences /
North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System
Sean C. McCoy, Ph.D., Animal Sciences
College of Dentistry
Özlem Yilmaz, D.D.S., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Periodontology & Oral Biology
College of Fine Arts
Jennifer Lee, M.A., Lecturer, Center for Arts in Medicine
College of Medicine
Marie-Carmelle Elie, M.D., RDMS, FACEP, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Priya K. Gopalan, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Hematology & Oncology
Robert W. Hurley, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Lisa J. Merlo, Ph.D., M.P.E., Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
Charles E. Riggs, Jr., M.D., Professor, Hematology & Oncology
William Slayton, M.D., Chief, Pediatric Hematology & Oncology
Kevin R. Vincent, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation
College of Medicine-Jacksonville
Phyllis L. Hendry, M.D., FAAP, FACEP, Associate Professor, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
College of Medicine /
College of Public Health and Health Professions
Catherine W. Striley, Ph.D., M.S.W., M.P.E., Assistant Professor, Epidemiology
College of Nursing /
North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System
Linda Cowan, Ph.D., ARNP (FNP-BC), CWS, Courtesy Clinical Assistant Professor, Adult and Elderly Nursing
College of Pharmacy
Rhonda Cooper-DeHoff, Pharm.D., M.S., FAHA, FACC, Associate Professor, Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research