About

The UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) Pilot Project Awards program supports translational science projects that help advance ACTRI’s mission of turning scientific discoveries into improved health outcomes.

ACTRI Pilot funding is made available through the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program awarded to ACTRI by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Pilot projects funded through the CTSA must be focused on translational science, with the goal of developing generalizable innovations that address longstanding and systemic bottlenecks along the translational research pipeline.

Whereas translational research focuses on moving discoveries from basic science to health implementation, translational science identifies and addresses barriers in the scientific process that can be generalized to other translational research projects and scientific fields. Translational science thus enables and accelerates translational research by providing generalizable and scalable scientific and operational innovations, while maintaining scientific and ethical rigor.

Please see “Distinguishing between translational science and translational research in CTSA pilot studies: A collaborative project across 12 CTSA hubs” for further details.

Pilot Projects are one-year competitive awards (up to $40,000) to provide funding for projects not yet ready for extramural funding.

ACTRI Pilot Grants Help Investigators Take-Off since 2018

Leading this program is Gretchen Bandoli, PhD.

2027 Pilot Funding Opportunity

2026 Call for Pilot Applications

Application Status: OPEN

InfoReady Link: https://ucsd.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/2025312

Pilot Project Awards RFA

Pilot Project Awards Frequently Asked Questions

The Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) Pilot Project Awards program finances initiatives that are not yet ready for extramural funding. Up to six pilot project awards ($40,000 each) will be funded.

Research & Funding Priorities

San Diego County Health Priorities

For this cycle, the ACTRI Community Advisory Board (CAB) identified priority themes, populations, and research methods aligned with San Diego County health needs.

While the Pilot Project Awards Program welcomes proposals across the translational science spectrum, translational science projects responsive to one or more of the below themes, populations, and/or research methods will be given preference for funding.

Themes:

Primary prevention (e.g., community-led violence prevention, systemic solutions to safety-net provider burnout and compassion fatigue, immunization against infectious diseases, stress reduction interventions, etc.)
Healthcare access (e.g., understanding and addressing the individual, structural, and/or systemic determinants of healthcare access, including factors like navigation and healthcare literacy)
Economic, environmental, or social risk and/or protective factors (e.g., horticultural therapy and food production, social isolation and loneliness across the lifespan, environmental exposures, etc.)

Populations:

Transitional-age youth
Older adults
Refugees / immigrants
Justice-involved individuals

Research methods:

Asset-based research methods
Bi-directional learning between community and academia
Explicit policy and/or systems-change implications

Clinical & Translational Science Focus

All proposed projects must additionally have a clear clinical and translational science (CTS) focus. Translational science refers to systematic efforts to understand and address roadblocks commonly encountered in translational research. Whereas translational research focuses on moving discoveries from basic science to health implementation, translational science identifies and addresses barriers in the scientific process that can generalized to other translational research projects and scientific fields. Translational science thus enables and accelerates translational research by providing generalizable and scalable scientific and operational innovations, while maintaining scientific and ethical rigor.

Examples include:

Improvements to security process to enable data transfer and storage in electronic health record studies;
Studying the implementation of mobile testing during a disease outbreak;
Research on applications of mobile technology into point of care settings;
Development of models/assays to better predict human processes relative to animal models (e.g. organoids);
Development of frameworks to screen for biomarkers of early disease or treatment efficacy

In each of these examples, the research focuses on addressing a barrier that could affect multiple research studies outside of a specific application/disease focus.

Applicants must note how their project meets this focus, and how specifically the innovation will be disseminated to the broader research community. See the following resources for more information: NCATS Translational Science Resources , Montefiore Einstein CTSA; University of Utah CTSA, UAMS CTSA.

Two-Phase Application Timeline and Resources

Date	Details
Weeks of August 31 and September 7	Office hours (Outlook link below to sign-up)
September 14, 2026 by 11:59 PM PST	Letter of Intent (LOI) deadline
Week of November 2, 2026	Invitations to submit full application
January 4, 2027 by 11:59 PM PST	Full application deadline
March 2027	Funding decisions
May 1, 2027	Awards expected to start, pending NCATS approval
March 31, 2028	Funds must be spent
April 30, 2028	Awards conclude

Office Hours

Sign-up for a 15-minute meeting with the program director using the following link (copy and paste the link in web browser): https://outlook.office.com/book/PilotApplicationOfficeHours@ucsdhs.onmicrosoft.com/s/2XnKrHIeGEK-mz5H7PgvTg2?ismsaljsauthenabled=true

Eligibility

Applicants from all UC San Diego departments/divisions and ACTRI partner institutions are invited to apply. Submission of the ACTRI membership application is required for Primary Investigators who are not already ACTRI members.

Priority will be given to early-career, full-time faculty
Preference will be given to applications responsive to the priority themes, populations, and/or research methods.
Postdoctoral Fellows and Project Scientists are not eligible.
Principal Investigators must be full-time faculty members at UC San Diego or an ACTRI Partner Institution.
Previous Pilots and PATHWAYS awardees are not eligible to reapply for 12 months following the conclusion of an awarded Pilot project.
Only one pilot proposal may be submitted by a Principal Investigator.
Full professors are NOT eligible unless they are entering a new line of research. In general, proposals from full professors who have greater than $350,000/year in current funding will receive lower priority.
Proposals cannot overlap with currently funded projects.

Application Content & Instructions

Application Link:

Based on LOI scores, 12-15 applicants will be invited to submit a full application.

Applications should be well-written, precise, and succinct. Applications will be subject to both scientific and programmatic review. All submissions must adhere to current NIH formatting guidelines. View NIH format guidelines.

Use the tables below to structure your proposal, including content and word/page limits.

Phase 1: Letter of Intent

Item and Page Limit

Description

Project Summary and Specific Aims

200 words

Summarize the project and its importance. Ensure that the information is accessible to scientific reviewers from different disciplines. Briefly state the specific aims and health significance of the project.

Approach

300 words

Briefly describe how the research project will be carried out. Include feasibility metrics and answer questions such as:

Research design
Project milestones and feasibility in a one-year funding cycle
What critical information will this proposal provide
Anticipated results

Translational Science Focus

100 words

Briefly describe how your project produces generalizable solutions for shared challenges across projects, initiatives, diseases, conditions, or organizational environments, thereby enhancing the efficiency of translational research.

See NCATS' translational science principles.

Alignment with Funding Priorities

100 words

Briefly explain if and how your proposal is responsive to a priority theme, population, and/or research method.

Plans for Extramural Funding

100 words

Briefly describe how the proposed project will provide data supporting future extramural funding proposals.

Phase 2: Full applications

Item and Page Limit

Description

Proposal

5 pages (excluding references)

Must follow NIH proposal criteria and include:

1) Specific Aims

2) Background and Significance (must include a statement describing how the project demonstrates a translational science focus)

3) Preliminary Data (if applicable)

4) Research Design and Methods

5) Literature Cited (not included in the page limit)

Translational Science Focus

100 words/question

Applicants should consider how their project aligns with NCATS’ translational science principles.

Respond to these questions:

1) Translational science identifies and addresses a common inefficiency or barrier that permeates across translational research projects. What is a potential shared scientific, operational, or administrative challenge that your Pilot Award will address?

2) How could your study’s methods or processes be broadly applicable and generalizable to other translational research projects, thereby providing a common scientific or operational innovation that would accelerate research?

3) How do you plan on disseminating your findings beyond your immediate field? Provide specific examples of conferences, seminars, colloquia, grand rounds, interdisciplinary journals, etc.

NCATS Translational Science Resources; Montefiore Einstein CTSA; University of Utah CTSA; UAMS CTSA

Community Health Impact Statement

See word count in description

Community reviewers will score responses to the following questions based on clarity and likelihood that the project will benefit and/or involve local communities.

1) Provide a lay project title

2) Community impact: Identify which San Diego County community (e.g., patients, families, neighborhoods, clinicians, advocacy groups, policy makers and legislators, etc.) would most benefit from your research. Explain how your project advances the discovery of treatments or interventions that would aid that community, even if not immediately (max. 350 words)

3) Alignment with community priorities: Identify if and how your project aligns with the priority themes, populations, and/or research methods (max. 100 words)

4) Dissemination plan: Describe how you would disseminate your findings to relevant San Diego County communities. Address how you would foster bidirectional communication that encourages members to provide input on your project (max. 250 words)

Study Timeline, Budget, and Justification

No page limit

Include a study timeline and a detailed budget and justification. Must follow federal grant guidelines.

Funding will not be provided for travel, clerical help, office supplies, books, subscriptions, graduate student support or tuition remission, or publication expenses. Equipment requests must include strong justification.

As a reminder, these are pilot projects to obtain preliminary data.

Applicant NIH Biosketch Common Form

5 pages/Biosketch

All biosketches must follow the latest NIH-approved format.

NIH Guidance

Applicant NIH Other Support Common Form

No page limit

Applicant Other Support must follow the latest NIH-approved format.

IRB/IACUC Approval

If the project involves human or animal subjects, applicants must submit evidence of IRB or IACUC submission with their application.

Review Process and Criteria

To ensure that the ACTRI funds projects with the strongest scientific merit that are most likely to translate into healthcare solution aligned with community priorities, full applications will be reviewed by two scientific and one community reviewer. Community reviewers will score Community Impact sections and provide input that will help determine research priorities and funding decisions.

Community reviewers bring expertise and perspectives that ensure ACTRI-funded projects are responsive to patient, family, neighborhood, and community needs, and therefore more likely to improve health outcomes.

Phase	Reviewers	Criteria
Phase 1 – Letter of Intent	ACTRI Leadership	Significance of the research and scientific quality Clinical & translational science focus Responsiveness to priority themes, populations, and/or research methods Likelihood of future funding
Phase 2 – Full applications	Content Experts	Significance of the research and scientific quality Clinical & translational science focus Feasibility of completing within funding period Likelihood that the work will yield important new information, technology, service and/or yield new federal funding Principle Investigator and co-Investigators’ qualifications
Phase 2 – Full applications	Community Reviewers	Community Impact section’s clarity Likelihood that the project will benefit and/or involve local communities

Awardee Expectations

All investigators selected for funding will be required to meet quarterly with the ACTRI Pilots Director and Management Team to discuss progress, potential challenges, and ensure that expenditures will be spent within the project period.

In addition, investigators must submit a progress report – as required by the program’s funder, NCATS. A follow-up report will be due one year after the project’s completion. This report will consist of a detailed description of progress to date and a listing of all submitted publications and grant applications (pending or funded), meeting abstracts, and seminars relating to the pilot project.

Upon concluding the Award, investigators will have the opportunity to participate in ACTRI’s “What’s Next” program that provides post-award support as investigators pursue extramural funding.

Questions

Email ACTRI-Education@health.ucsd.edu.

ACTRI Pilot Project Awardees

2026 Awardees

Award date: May 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Andrei Chernov	Genetically Encoded Biosensors for Real-Time ATP Dynamics in Human Sensory Neurons: A Platform for Translational Neurotherapeutics	UC San Diego, Department of Anesthesiology	General CTS Track
Asona Lui	Development and validation of a diagnostic assay to identify the MLH1-low subset of ER+/HER2- breast cancers	UC San Diego, Department of Radiation Medicine and Applies Sciences	General CTS Track
Caroline Kumsta	STRONG Evidence: PBMC Autophagy Flux as a Biomarker of Exercise Response in Older Adults	Sanford Burnham Prebys	General CTS Track
Fiza Singh	Translation of an in-lab EEG neurofeedback system to a scalable BCI platform to enhance memory	UC San Diego, Department of Psychiatry	Device Validation Track, General CTS Track
Jenny Zhou	Development of a novel wearable for at-home detection of heavy menstrual bleeding	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Device Validation Track
Saravanan Raju	Developing Peptide Inhibitors of Viral Entry via AI-Guided Design and Functional Testing	UC San Diego, Department of Pathology	General CTS Track

2025 Awardees

Award date: October 20, 2025 through April 30, 2026

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Cory Weissman	Machine Learning to Identify Predictors of Treatment Response in Treatment-Resistant Depression: Development of a Clinical Decision Support System for Treatment Selection	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical and Translational
Hiromi Wettersten	Ex vivo tissue slice culture system to assess immune cell interactions in lung cancer	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Clinical and Translational
Ina Stelzer	Unraveling peripheral responses to SSRI therapy in pregnancy	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Clinical and Translational
Jason Qian	Defining Immune-Epithelial Dysregulation in Otitis Media with Effusion through Transcriptomic and Surface Protein Profiling	UC San Diego Department of Otolaryngology	Clinical and Translational
Melissa Campbell	Bridging Prenatal Exposures and Neurodevelopmental Disorders with Engineering: Placenta-Brain Axis-on-a-chip	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Clinical and Translational
Phillipp Hartmann	Serum Proteomic Biomarker Discovery in Pediatric MASLD	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical and Translational
Wei Sun	MiR-483 Oxidative Transversion and Blood–Brain Barrier Dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational

2024 Awardees

Award Date: May 1, 2024 through April 30, 2025

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Monica Tincopa	The impact of social and structural determinants of health on disease burden among Hispanic individuals with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Ukachi Emeruwa	Wearables to define postpartum blood pressure trajectories and facilitate evidence-based monitoring guidelines	UC San Diego Department of Ob/Gyn & Reproductive Sciences	Clinical and Translational
Shanglei Liu	Ileostomy Continence Device	UC San Diego Department of Surgery	Clinical and Translational
Lingling Huang	Prediction of Treatment Response Using Artificial Intelligence in Birdshot Chorioretinopathy	UC San Diego Department of Ophthalmology	Clinical and Translational
Reza Bavarsad Shahripour	The role of mean arterial pressure on the outcome in stroke patients with Large‐Vessel Occlusion and successful thrombectomy: An Observational Transcranial Doppler study	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Clinical and Translational
Mark Bounthavong	Quantifying health equity and financial risk protection for a nationwide naloxone distribution program among patients at risk for opioid-related overdoses: Application of the distributional cost-effectiveness analysis framework	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science	Clinical and Translational
Nana Matoba	Placental histopathology and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical and Translational
Lindsey Burnett	Understanding the Connection Between Urinary Metabolites and Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms	UC San Diego Department of Ob/Gyn & Reproductive Sciences	Clinical and Translational
Jessica Bomyea	Establishing Multidimensional Neural Substrates of Repetitive Negative Thinking	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical and Translational
Matthew Herbert	Investigating Mechanisms of Intra-individual Pain Variability among Patients with ChronicLow Back Pain	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical and Translational

2023 Awardees

Award Date: May 1, 2023 through April 30, 2024

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Wael ElMaraachli	Detection of lipoarabinomannan in patients at risk for non-tuberculous mycobacteria	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Ryan Moran	Strong Foundations 2.0: A Digitally Delivered Fall Prevention Program.	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Alexander Bullen	Effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on biomarkers of kidney tubule health	UC San Diego Department of Medicine - Nephrology and Hypertension	Clinical and Translational
Paul Kim	Identification of tissue cellular and transcriptomic signature for the enhancement of diagnostic sensitivity for cardiac sarcoidosis	UC San Diego Department of Medicine - Cardiology	Clinical and Translational
Rena Yadlapati	Novel Clinical Risk Prediction Score for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR)	UC San Diego Department of Medicine - Gastroenterology	Clinical and Translational
Kelly Kisling	Generalizable Automated Planning for Breast Radiotherapy using Deep Learning	UC San Diego Department of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences	Clinical and Translational
Jamie LaBuzetta	Impact of Neurochecks on Sleep in Critically Ill Adults	UC San Diego Department of Neuroscience	Clinical and Translational
Ahnika Kline	Development of a Microbiology Laboratory Sample Repository	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Clinical and Translational
Christine Smith	Memory Across the Lifespan and its Relationship to Memory Structures in the Brain	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical and Translational
Pranav Garimella	SGLT2i Use and Adverse Kidney Outcomes in Patients Receiving Cisplatin	UC San Diego Department of Medicine - Nephrology	Clinical and Translational
Robert Thomas	Investigating Circulating cell-free Mitochondrial DNA as an Early Marker of Diabetes Pathogenesis	UC San Diego Department of Medicine - Endocrinology and Metabolism	Clinical and Translational

2022 Awardees

Award Date: May 1, 2022 through April 30, 2023

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Philip Gordts	Genetic and Chemical Modulation of Glycans in Mice	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Katherine Nguyen	Evaluation of the use of different social media platforms and development of best practice recommendations for clinical trial recruitment	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Maria Marchetto	Modulation of miR-128 as a potential therapeutic approach to autism	UC San Diego Department of Anthropology	Clinical and Translational
Marni Jacobs	Oral fat tolerance testing for prediction of preeclampsia	UC San Diego Department of Ob/Gyn & Reproductive Sciences	Clinical and Translational
Naomi Abe	Maternal psychiatric illnesses and infant health outcomes	UC San Diego Department of Emergency Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Kathleen Fisch	Unraveling the Role of Placental Mutations in Placenta Accreta Spectrum Disorders	UC San Diego Department of Ob/Gyn & Reproductive Sciences	Clinical and Translational
Jolene Rudell	Characterization of Neuromuscular Junctions in Extraocular Muscles in Patients with Strabismus	UC San Diego Department of Ophthalmology	Clinical and Translational
Emma Farley	Using regulatory principles to identify causal enhancer variants in congenital heart disease	UC San Diego Department of Molecular Biology	Clinical and Translational
Andrew Vahabzadeh-Hagh	Endotracheal Tube Clip for Prevention of Post Intubation Laryngeal Symptoms	UC San Diego Department of Otolaryngology	Clinical and Translational
Rui Carlos Pereira de Sa	Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Long COVID patients with pulmonary sequela	UC San Diego Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine, and Physiology	Clinical and Translational

2021 Awardees

Award Date: May 1, 2021 through April 30, 2022

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Marianna Alperin	MOTHER: Maternal Outcomes Transformed by Harnessing Endogenous Regeneration	UC San Diego Department of Ob/Gyn & Reproductive Sciences	Clinical and Translational
Catherine Ayers	Supporting Older Communities in Active Living (SOCIAL) aka “Interventions for Loneliness among Older Adults	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical and Translational
Gabriel Wardi	Development and Implementation of a Real Time Machine Learning Algorithm to Predict Tracheal Intubation in Patients with COVID19	UC San Diego Department of Emergency Medical Services	Clinical and Translational
Jacqueline Greene	Tracking Facial Nerve Regeneration through an Automated Remote Facial Analysis Mobile Device Platform	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical and Translational
Jesse Jokerst	Improved Oral Health via Acoustic Imaging	UC San Diego Department of Nanoengineering	Clinical and Translational
Kiyomi Tsuyuki	Discrimination, Trauma, and Violence in Mental Health among Black Women Identifying the roles of stress, inflammation, social support and resilience in mental health disparities	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Saima Aslam	Prevention of Transmission of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) from HCVViremic Organ Donor to HCVNegative Organ Transplant	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Tommi Gaines	Evaluating Online Opioid Prevention Training for California American Indians	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational

2020 Awardees

Award Date: April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Stephan Anagnostaras, PhD	Exploring the therapeutic effects of low-dose MDMA	UC San Diego Department of Psychology	Clinical and Translational
Schafer Boeder, MD	Effect of Glucagon Receptor Antagonism on Ketogenesis in SGLT-2i Treated Subjects With Type 1 Diabetes	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Drew Hall, PhD	A point-of-care, bedside milk analyzer	UC San Diego Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	Clinical and Translational
Martin Hoenigl, MD	High Resolution Melt for Rapid Diagnosis of Invasive Mold Infection in Immunosuppressed Patients	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Jyoti Mishra, PhD	Personalized Closed-Loop Brain Stimulation for Depression	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical and Translational
Martin Pham, MD	Validation of Simulation for Training Neurosurgery Residents	UC San Diego Department of Neurological Surgery	Clinical and Translational
Partha Ray, PhD	An anti-KIT Aptamer-Conjugated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle-Based Theranostic System for Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor Imaging	UC San Diego Department of Surgery	Clinical and Translational
Calvin Yeang, MD, PhD	Refining Cardiovascular Risk Attributed to Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Xianjin Zhou, PhD	Anti-NMDAR Autoantibodies Confer Susceptibility for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational

2019 Awardees

Award Date: April 1, 2019 through March 31, 2020

PI Name	TItle of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Gretchen Bandoli, PhD	Stress responsive biomarkers as predictors of preterm birth: an examination by maternal race	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical and Translational
Jill Buckley, MD	Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evaluation of Urethral Stricture Disease	UC San Diego Department of Urology	Clinical and Translational
Cathleen Collins, MD, PhD	Understanding the Role of T Follicular Helper Cells During Vaccination in Children of Different Ages	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical and Translational
Anjan Debnath, PhD	Fexinidazole and its Metabolites: New Drug Leads for Helicobacter pylori Infection	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Clinical and Translational
Angela Meier, MD, PhD	Impact of Anesthetics on the Antimicrobial Treatment Response of Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms	UC San Diego Department of Anesthesiology, pision of Critical Care	Clinical and Translational
Amy Non, MD, MPH (Daniel T. O’Connor Award Recipient)	Examining epigenetic effects of stress in developing human neurons	UC San Diego, pision of Anthropology	Clinical and Translational
David Pride, MD, PhD	Assessing the role of high fat derived viruses in gut inflammation and microbiome modulation	UC San Diego, Department of Pathology	Clinical and Translational
Stephanie Stanford, PhD	Exploration of LMPTP as a new target for fibrosis therapy	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Tiffany Tanaka, MD	Understanding how clonal hematopoiesis mediates cardiovascular risk through targeted exome, single cell transcriptome and epigenome analysis of clonal immune cells	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Clinical and Translational
Wynnis Tom, MD	Pediatric Psoriasis and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD): Spectrum and Significance for Co-Management	UC San Diego, Departments of Dermatology and Pediatrics	Clinical and Translational
Louise Laurent, MD, PhD	Correlating maternal and neonatal microbiome profiles with pregnancy and postnatal outcomes: Urinary Microbiome vs. Vaginal and Rectal Microbiome during Pregnancy	University of California, San Diego, Department of Reproductive Medicine	Life Course
Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk, PhD	Advancing the understanding of neuroprotective function of senolytic drugs in glaucoma	University of California, San Diego, Department of Ophthalmology	Life Course
Argentina Servin, MD, MPH Tsuyuki Kiyomi, PhD MPH Community Partner: Kevin Mattson, CEO	Developing a youth-centered mobile app for Sex Ed and linkage into care in California	University of California, San Diego, pision of Infectious Diseases & Global Public Health, Department of Medicine University of California, San Diego, pision of Infectious Diseases & Global Public Health, Department of Medicine San Ysidro Health	Academic-Community
Jay Silverman, PhD Community Partner: Ilana Brongiel, MPH	Adapting an evidence-based model for reducing reproductive coercion and intimate partner violence, and increasing contraceptive use among Latina adolescents in southern San Diego: ARCHES Jovenes	University of California, San Diego, Department of Medicine San Ysidro Health	Dissemination and Implementation Research
Irene Su, MD	Developing a multicomponent implementation strategy for fertility care for female adolescent and young adult cancer survivors	University of California, San Diego, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Services	Dissemination and Implementation Research

2018 Awardees

Award Date: April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Andrew Barleben, MD, MPH	Combined Computational-Experimental Approach to Evaluation of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms following Stent Graft Placement to Mitigate Endoleak and Late Graft Failure	UC San Diego Department of Surgery	Clinical
Rafael Bejar, MD, PhD	Pilot study of age-associated cellular and molecular markers in patients with MDS	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Leslie Crews, PhD	Targeting Interferon-responsive Transcripts to Prevent Malignant Regeneration in Multiple Myeloma	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Soumita Das, PhD	Targeting the Gut Barrier to Cure Inflammatory Bowel Diseases	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Clinical
Adam DeConde, MD	Investigation of the Lipomics of Aspirin-exacerbated Respiratory Disease	UC San Diego Department of Surgery	Clinical
Paul Kim, MD, FACC	Identifying an Immune-mediated Mechanism in Non-specific Allograft Dysfunction of Heart-Transplant Patients	UC San Diego, pision of Cardiology	Clinical
Kevin King, MD, PhD (Daniel T. O'Connor Award Recipient)	Clinical Pilot of Single Cell Analysis during Human Cardiac Ischemia and Infarction	UC San Diego, pision of Cardiology, and Department of Bioengineering	Clinical
Olivia Osborn, PhD	Metabolomic Signatures Associated with Antipsychotic-induced Food Intake	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Clinical
Bryan Sun, MD, PhD	Impact of Beckers Nevus-Associated ACTB Mutations on Hedgehog Signaling	UC San Diego, Department of Dermatology	Clinical
Niels Vande Casteele, PhD	Quantification of Denatured and Degraded Drug in Intestinal Tissue Samples from Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients Treated with Vedolizumab	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Clinical
Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD	Serum Bile Acid Pool of Patients with Hepatic Encephalopathy	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Clinical
Eileen Moore, PhD	Pharmacological Treatment to Improve White Matter Plasticity in FASD	San Diego State University, Department of Psychology	Life Course
Inna Fishman, PhD Mikaela Kinnear, PhD Community Partner: Richie Ploesch, MA, BCBA	Evaluating Clinical Outcomes of Improv Theater Intervention for Teens with Autism	Department of Psychology San Diego State University Department of Psychology San Diego State University National Comedy Theatre Unscripted Learning	Academic-Community
Sheila Mody, MD, MPH	Exploring the Layers of Logistics of Adoption: Utilizing the PRISM Framework-informed Implementation Intervention for Direct Provision of Emergency Contraception by Pharmacists	Department of Reproductive Medicine UC San Diego	Dissemination and Implementation Research

2017 Awardees

Award Date: April 1, 2017 through March 31, 2018

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Lori Daniels, MD, MAS	Kinetics of Cell-Cycle Arrest Biomarkers after Contrast Exposure in Patients at High Risk for Contrast-Induced Nephropathy	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
David Gonzalez, PhD	Characterization of the Mitochondria Proteome in Healthy and Diabetic Human Skeletal Muscle	UC San Diego Department of Pharmacology	Clinical
Suzi Hong, PhD	Pesticide Exposures and Risks of Adverse Motor and Cognitive System Health Effects Among Latino Residents of Imperial Valley, California	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Olivier Harismendy, PhD	Sharing Genetic Test Results	UC San Diego School of Medicine, Biomedical Informatics	Clinical
Jane J. Kim, MD	Linking the Gut Microbiome to Metabolism in Obese Children with Type 1 Diabetes	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Daphne (Yvette) LaCoursiere, MD	Placental Role in Biopsychosocial Risk for Childhood Obesity and Related Comorbidities	UC San Diego Department of Reproductive Medicine	Clinical
Jair Lage de Siqueira Neto, PhD	Zika Virus Drug Discovery	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Clinical
Carrie McDonald, PhD Jona Hattangadi-Gluth, MD	Integration of BOLD-FMRI and DTI into Radiation Treatment Planning for Sparing of Eloquent Brain Regions	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry UC San Diego Department of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences	Clinical
Shirley M. Tsunoda, PharmD	The Effect of the Microbiome on Drug Metabolizing Enzymes	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Clinical
Jillian Lee Wiggins, PhD	Pathways of Risk and Resilience: Neural Predictors of Irritability in At-risk Offspring of Mothers with Depression	San Diego State University, Department of Neurosciences	Clinical
Matthew Shtrahman, MD, PhD	Developing Two-Photon Calcium Imaging of Brain Activity for Human Subjects	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Innovative Technology
Michael Yip, PhD	A Robotic, Wristed Cupped Biopsy Forceps for Flexible Endoscopy	UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Electrical & Computer Engineering	Innovative Technology
Richard Haas, MD Gail Reiner, PhD	The Impact of Breastfeeding in High-risk Neonates with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy on Fetal Maternal Bonding and Neurodevelopmental Outcome	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences Azusa Pacific University San Diego Regional Center	Academic-Community
Sarah Rieth, PhD	Building Capacity for Evidence-Based Early Intervention in Imperial County: A Community Collaborative Approach	San Diego State University Department of Child and Family Development	Academic-Community
Elizabeth Twamley, PhD	Working to Improve Supported Employment Fidelity (WISE Fidelity)	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Dissemination and Implementation Research

2016 Awardees

Award Date: April 1, 2016-March 31, 2017

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Paula Aristizabal, MD, MAS	Factors affecting Parental Satisfaction, Anxiety and Comprehension of the Informed Consent in Pediatric Oncology Clinical Trials	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics/Rady Children’s Hospital	Clinical
Edward Chao, DO, MA	Studying the Effectiveness of Non-Invasive Glucose Sensors in Patients with Diabetes: The SENSOR Study	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Farhad Imam, MD, PhD	Untargeted, Large-Scale Metabolomics in Neonatology for Disease Biomarker Discovery	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Daniel Simpson, MD	Restriction Spectrum Imaging for Pre-surgical Assessment of Neoadjuvant Treatment Response in Rectal Cancer	UC San Diego Department of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences	Clinical
Eric Adler, MD	Preclinical Gene Therapy Study for the Treatment of Danon Disease	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Translational
Conor Caffrey, PhD	Rapid, Point-of-care Diagnosis of Schistosomiasis	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Translational
Soumita Das, PhD	The Link between MCP-1 and ELMO1: a New Marker in Inflammatory Diseases	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Translational
Anthony O’Donoghue, PhD	Rapid, Products of Conception (POC) Detection of Candidemia in Serum	Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences	Translational
Albert Remacle, PhD	Potent and Selective Fully Human Recombinant Monoclonal Antibody Against Pro-tumorigenic/Invasive Membrane Type-1 Matrix Metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP)	Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute	Translational
Fiza Singh, MD	Enhancing Gamma Band Response in Schizophrenia Patients to Improve Working Memory	UC San Diego, Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Alexandre Gingras, PhD	Identification of Small Molecule Inhibitors of Integrin Activation using Nanodiscs	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Innovative Technology
Shelley Lawrence, MD, MS	High-resolution Melt with Machine Learning for the Accurate Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis	UC San Diego, Department of Pediatrics/Rady Children’s Hospital	Innovative Technology
Amy Lansing, PhD Sacha Sykora, MA	School-based Trauma-Informed System (TIS) Implementation: Trauma-Responsiveness and Cognitive Capacity Building in Imperial County	UC San Diego, Department of Psychiatry SIA Tech HS	Academic-Community
Elizabeth Reed, ScD, MPH Argentina Servin, MD, MPH Zara Marselian, MA, FACHE Julia Macouzet	Microfinance Businesses to Prevent Obesity and Related Health Conditions among Latinos in San Diego, CA	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine, pision of Global Health La Maestra Community Health Centers	Academic-Community
Jeanne Huang, MD, MPH Javier Rodriguez, MD	Improving Pediatric Hepatitis B Screening in High-Risk San Diego Communities	UC San Diego Dept of Pediatrics La Maestra Community Health Centers	Dissemination and Implementation Research

2015 Awardees

Award Date: August 13, 2015-March 31, 2016

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Seema Aceves, MD, PhD	The Role of LIGHT in Esophageal Remodeling in Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Joshua Alexander, DO, MPH	The Role of Osteopathic Medicine in the Management of Post-traumatic Migraine	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Clinical
Joel Baumgartner, MD	Pilot Study of Postoperative Chemotherapy in High-Grade Appendiceal Adenocarcinoma with Peritoneal Carcinomatosis	UC San Diego Department of Surgery	Clinical
Tiffany Greenwood, PhD	Are Bipolar Brains Creative Brains? Investigation of Regional Activation and Neural Connectivity in Bipolar Patients and Artists Towards a Model of Creativity as a Positive and Evolutionarily Adaptive Trait within the Bipolar Spectrum	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Monica Guma, MD, PhD	Eicosanoids as Biomarkers of Psoriatic Arthritis	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Sanjay Mehta, MD	Optimizing Vaccine Efficacy in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients	UC San Diego School of Medicine	Clinical
Hilary Roeder, MD	Evaluation of Placenta Growth Factor as a Diagnostic Marker for Late Preterm Preeclampsia	UC San Diego Department of Reproductive Medicine	Clinical
Paula Desplats, PhD	The Impact of Circadian Alterations on Brain Insulin Resistance and Alzheimer Disease Pathology	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Translational
Jeremiah Momper, PharmD, PhD	Regulation of Hepatic UGT1A9 by Sex Hormones: Implications for Mycophenolic Acid Exposure in Renal Transplant Recipients	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Translational
Gerald Morris, MD, PhD	Defining Immunologic Effects of Reprogramming Human Tissue Precursors for Regenerative Therapy	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Translational
Alysson Muotri, PhD	Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors as a Novel Therapeutical Approach for Neurological Autoimmune Disorders	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Innovative Technology
Joseph M. Cantor, PhD	CD98hc in Pancreatic Islet Allograft Rejection	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Personalized Medicine
Amanda Gosman, MD Venessa Malcarne, PhD	Pediatric Facial Deformity Quality of Life (QoL) Questionnaire Development Study	UC San Diego Department of Surgery San Diego State University Department of Psychology	Academic-Community
Christina Holub, PhD, MPH Camille Nebeker, EdD, MS	Increasing Physical Activity through a Culturally Tailored, Community-led Intervention among Pacific Islanders: The Rawmana Fitness Pilot Study	San Diego Institute for Behavioral and Community Health; San Diego State University UC San Diego Department of Family Medicine and Public Health	Academic-Community

2014 Awardees

Award Date: April 2014-March 2015

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Carolyn Allard, PhD	A Pilot Test of the Effectiveness of a Pre-PTSD-treatment Emotion Regulation and Distress Tolerance Skills Building Group on PTSD Treatment Engagement and Effectiveness in Survivors of Military Sexual Trauma	UC San Diego Veterans Medical Research Foundation	Clinical
Luis Castellanos, MD	Pilot Study to Evaluate the Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Home-based Cardiac Rehabilitation Program in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease	UC San Diego Department of Medicine, pision of Cardiology	Clinical
Inna Fishman, PhD	Neural Generators of Emotional Mimicry (and Lack Thereof) in Autism	San Diego State University	Clinical
Jane Kim, MD	Profiling Metabolomic Signatures in Children with Type 2 Diabetes	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Dawn Meyer, PhD	Is Platelet Hyperactivity the Key to Increased Stroke Recurrence in Post-Stroke Depression	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Clinical
Charles Taylor, PhD	Positive Valence System Enhancement Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: Clinical Efficacy and Neural Changes	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Taylor Doherty, MD	Regulation of Type 2 Innate Lymphoid Cells in Asthma	UC San Diego Department of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology	Translational
Sara Gianella Weibel, MD	Mechanisms of HIV Persistence	UC San Diego Center for AIDS Research	Translational
Jona Hattangadi-Gluth, MD	Quantitative Neuroimaging and Neurocognitive Assessment to Measure Radiation-Induced Brain Injury in Non-targeted Tissue: Implications for Cognitive Preservation	UC San Diego Department of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences	Translational
Ji Zhang, MD, PhD	Genetic Association Study of the Mitochondrial Phosphatase PTPMT1 in Metabolic Syndrome	UC San Diego Department of Pharmacology	Translational
Drew Hall, PhD	Smartphone-based Point-of-care Detection and Treatment Monitoring of Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) in Urine from HIV-associated Tuberculosis (TB) Patients in Remote Settings	UC San Diego Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	Innovative Technology
Wenxian Fu, PhD	Identifying The Initiating Factors in Type 1 Diabetes by Disclosing The Crosstalk Among Islet Vascular Inflammation, Immune Responses and β Cell Death	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Personalized Medicine
Louise Laurent, MD, PhD	Whole Exome Sequencing for Prenatal Diagnosis	UC San Diego Department of Reproductive Medicine	Personalized Medicine
Lawrence Prince, MD, PhD	Personalized Genomic Medicine in Preterm Infants	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Personalized Medicine
Kate Murray, PhD	Improving Taxi Driver Health and Access to Health Care – A Community-Academic Partnership	UC San Diego Department of Family & Preventive Medicine	Academic-Community
Jamila Stockman, PhD	The Role of Peer Navigators and Social Support in the HIV Care Continuum: Perceptions of HIV-Positive Women	UC San Diego pision of Global Public Health	Academic-Community

2013 Awardees

Award Date: April 2013 - March 2014

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Dawn Schiehser, MD/PhD	Neurocognitive and neural changes associated with cognitive rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease	UCSD Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Pam Taub, MD	Effects of epicatechin on functional capacity, skeletal muscle structure and diastolic function in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF)	UCSD Department of Medicine (Cardiology)	Clinical
Adriana Tremoulet, MD	Immunoglobulin G sialylation in patients with treatment-resistant Kawasaki disease	UCSD & Rady Children's Hospital – Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Dean Acheson, PhD	Intranasal oxytocin as a putative facilitator of virtual reality-based exposure therapy for arachnophobia	UCSD Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Beatrix Bartok, MD	The novel role of YAP in regulating synoviocytes behavior in rheumatoid arthritis	UCSD Department of Medicine (Rheumatology)	Translational
Karen Christman, PhD	Novel biomaterial for preventing cardiac adhesions	UCSD Department of Bioengineering	Translational
Todd Costantini, MD	Taxonomically restricted gene expression in injured patients	UCSD Department of Surgery	Translational
Yo Suzuki, PhD	Using Yeast to Understand Malaria Drug Mechanisms of Action	J. Craig Venter Institute, Department of Synthetic Biology	Translational
Albert Remacle, PhD	Imaging of metastatic breast cancer cells via the active cell-surface proteinase	Sanford Burnham Research Institute – Cancer Center	Translational
Douglas Conrad, MD	Metabolites as biomarkers in Cystic Fibrosis	UCSD Department of Medicine (Pulmonary)	Personalized Medicine
Daniel O'Connor, MD	Natural human genetic variation and the metabolism: Studies in twin pairs	UCSD Department of Medicine (Nephrology)	Personalized Medicine
Gregory Light, PhD	Predicting Cognitive Enhancement Following Intensive Neuroplasticity-Based Training Intervention in Schizophrenia	UCSD Department of Psychiatry	Community
Monica Ulibarri, PhD	Assessment of risk factors for commercial sexual exploitation of high risk adolescent girls in San Diego County	UCSD Department of Psychiatry	Community
Hemal H. Patel, PhD	Membranes as a Regulator of Healthy Aging	UCSD Department of Anesthesiology	Pilot Project

2012 Awardees

Award Date: April 2012 - March 2013

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Jason Sicklick, MD	Innovative Targeting of Melanoma with Allosteric RAF inhibitors	Department of Surgery	Clinical
Jeannie Huang, MD, MPH	Neurobiology of Pain Processing in Children with Gastrointestinal Disorders	Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Xavier Soler, MD, PhD	Effects of Pulmonary Rehabilitation on sleep architecture, obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia and nocturnal hypoxemia in COPD	Department of Medicine	Clinical
Jared Young, PhD	Neurocognitive Effects of Nicotine Use in Schizophrenia: Parallel Human and Animal Studies	Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Michael McCarthy, MD, PhD	Pharmacogenetics in Treatment Refractory Depression	Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Sameh Ali, PhD	Markers of Oxidative Stress in Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid as Predictors of Sleep Disturbance in PTSD Subjects	Department of Medicine	Translational
Wesley Thompson, PhD	Improved Inferences in Dynamic Causal Modeling of Observational Data: Application to Breast Cancer Chemotherapy, Cognition and Sleep	Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Carl Stepnowsky, PhD	Research platform for remote monitoring of health parameters	Department of Medicine	Innovative
Scott Matthews, MD	Multimodal biomarkers of recovery from depression	Department of Psychiatry	Innovative
David Chang, PhD, MBA, MPH	Stronger Communities through Effective Mentorship and Trauma Prevention Program	Department of Surgery	Community
Jae Kim, MD, PhD	Premature Infant Nutrition Post-discharge Collaborative Project	Department of Pediatrics	Community
Carrie McDonald, PhD	Neuropsychological and Neuroanatomical Profiles of Children with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy	Department of Psychiatry	Community

2011 Awardees

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Lisa Eyler, PhD	Neurocognitive Effects of Nicotine in Bipolar Disorder: Parallel Human and Animal Studies		Clinical
Hal M. Hoffman, MD	Genetic and Molecular Basis of Familial Atypical Cold Urticaria	Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Amy E. Lansing, PhD	Hearing Loss, Middle Ear Status & Auditory Processing Deficits in Detained Girls	Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Randy A. Taplitz, PhD	The Role of Type 1 Interferon in Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant	Department of Medicine	Clinical
Jenny M. Kim, MD	Biomarkers of Human Sickle Cell Disease	Department of Pediatrics	Translational
Alessandra Sacco, MD	Role of telomere shortening in human Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy	Department of Orthopedics	Translational
Jean Wang, PhD	Targeted nanosomal delivery of Imatinib to ameliorate renal damage from cis-platinum therapy for cervical cancer	Medicine and Biology	Translational
Karen Christman, PhD	Injectable autologous scaffold for treating myocardial infarction	Bioengineering	Translational
James Hagood, MD	Lung-specific targeting of antifibrotic therapies	Pediatric Respiratory Medicine	Translational
Suzi Hong, PhD	Validation of Flow Cytometric Analysis of Beta-adrenergic Receptor Expression on Blood Leukocytes in the Healthy and Heart Failure Patients	Psychiatry	Translational
Victoria Risbrough, PhD	COMT val/met polymorphism effects on novelty-seeking: Developing a mouse model of Bipolar Disorder Abstract	Psychiatry	Translational
Dena Rifkin, MD	Real-time wireless blood pressure monitoring for kidney disease Abstract		Innovative
Steven J. Bark, PhD	Molecular Basis of Microglial Activation by the Fractalkine Receptor, CX3CR1 Abstract	School of Pharmacy/ Pharmaceutical Science	Innovative
Rebecca J. Theilmann, PhD	Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Assessment of Secretions in Cystic Fibrosis Airways	Department of Radiology	Innovative
William Song, PhD	Development of novel 4D imaging framework for liver cancer radiation therapy	Radiation Oncology	Innovative
Lisa Madlensky, PhD	Developing a Community-Based Cancer Genetics Research Project with the Chula Vista Community Collaborative	Department of Family and Preventive Medicine	Innovative

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