In this Issue:

• CHRI Annual Scientific Conference: Register to Attend, Submit Abstracts to Present 
• Russell McCulloh, MD, Ashley Deschamp, MD, Receive R01 Funding for Obesity Study 
• Leverage CHRI’s Grant Resource Library to Improve Your Applications
• Executive Director Update
• Changes Coming for NIH Grant Applications in 2025
• Disseminating Discoveries - July Publications
• Funding Opportunities

Join us Friday, Nov. 8, at UNO's Scott Conference Center for the third annual Child Health Research Institute Scientific (CHRI) Conference. Doors will open at 7:30 a.m. for a light breakfast and networking. The Children's Nebraska Grand Rounds presentation that day will be incorporated into the Scientific Conference agenda and will start at 8 a.m. followed by the plenary session. 

The CHRI Conference is scheduled to include:

• "Using AI to understand the real thing: the role of intelligent cryptographic analysis for the interpretation of deep brain signals in children with movement disorders” - Grand Rounds Keynote presentation from Terence Sanger, MD, PhD, Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer, Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC); Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California Irvington (UCI) Samueli School of Engineering; Department Pediatrics Vice Chair for Research, UCI School of Medicine; CHOC 
• Featured CHRI members highlighting exceptional work across several disciplines
• Breakout sessions with presentations from CHRI's six Areas of Emphasis (AOE) 
• Dedicated time to meet and network with other attendees

At the registration page for this in-person event, all registrants should select their appropriate membership tier and mode of payment for the corresponding registration fee. Please contact CHRI@unmc.edu for further clarification.

Exceptions: International affiliates (who are located outside of the U.S. at the time of the conference) can use the "international affiliate virtual attendance" option.

The Global Health Area of Emphasis Breakout Session, uniquely, will be offered over two days with hybrid options.

Submit Your Research

Abstract submissions will be accepted until Sept.  27 at 11:59 p.m. CDT.

Outstanding scientific work submitted in the following three categories will be recognized via opportunities to present during the conference.

• Basic Science
• Clinical Research/Health Outcomes
• Translational Science

Investigators who submit must be registered for the CHRI Conference by the registration deadline (Oct. 30).

Please note that case studies, quality improvement projects and educational projects are not eligible for submission for this platform.

Full members of CHRI (see membership page for eligibility and/or apply) with qualifying entries will be considered for three $1,000 faculty development awards to use toward publication expenses. One award in each of our focus areas will be awarded: Basic Science, Clinical Research/Health Outcomes and Translational Science. The award-winning entries will also be invited to present in the plenary session in the morning of Friday, Nov 8. Click here for more information.

Register now to take advantage of the 2024 Early Bird pricing and save 10% on registration fees (see fee table below). 

Early Bird pricing will end at midnight on Sept. 27. Registrations will be accepted until Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m.

Ticket Information:

Non-Member Ticket: $75

Full/Affiliate Member Ticket: $60

Associate Member Ticket: $40

Community Member Ticket: $25

International Affiliates Joining Virtually/Trainee Members: Free

Russell McCulloh, MD

Ashley Deschamp, MD

Russell McCulloh, MD, associate vice chancellor for clinical research, UNMC, and director of clinical and translational research operations, Children’s Nebraska, and Ashley Deschamp, MD, associate professor, Division of Pulmonology, Allergy and Sleep Medicine, UNMC, and pulmonologist, Children’s, have received R01 funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for leading Nebraska’s involvement in a national R01 study to examine interventions for treating pediatric obesity among underserved rural children and families. Dr. McCulloh serves as subaward principal investigator. The study’s site co-investigator is Dr. Deschamp. A prior trial done by Dr. McCulloh, in his role as Director of the Nebraska Pediatric Clinical Trials Unit, and conducted at the Children’s Physicians Kearney clinic, provided a logistical model for participation and made applying for this R01 possible.

Obesity poses a major health risk to children, contributing to elevated morbidity and mortality from cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The proposed study will deploy a multilevel, factorial design with interventions at the clinic and individual patient level to treat pediatric obesity. One aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention bundle called iAmHealthy that seeks to provide individual families with a digital curriculum to encourage healthy living, group family sessions and access to dieticians and psychological support. It will be compared against a control intervention that furnishes families with a monthly educational newsletter. A second aim of the study is to evaluate the Healthy Clinic intervention, which is designed to improve processes at primary care provider offices, in alignment with the American Academy of Pediatrics 2023 Clinical Practice Guideline for treating pediatric obesity. Finally, the study aims to measure the effectiveness of combining the iAmHealthy intervention and the Healthy Clinic intervention together.

Clinics located in Hastings, Kearney, Norfolk and Wahoo will enroll up to 64 participants. The study leverages the Great Plains IDeA-CTR-supported Practice-Based Research Network and includes the Children's Physicians – Kearney clinic as one of the performance sites. Participation will be open to English- and Spanish-speaking families.

“We are so excited to get this study going for so many reasons,” Dr. McCulloh said. “Obesity affects rural children more commonly than their urban counterparts, so we regularly hear from parents and public health leaders that they would welcome support in this area.”

“This study will not only test methods of reducing obesity, but in so doing, could help us address the other serious health risks associated with being overweight,” Dr. Deschamp added. “If we can demonstrate a model that works to help children manage their weight, the downstream effects could be life changing for these kids, their families and the greater health system.”

Do you ever reach the point in a grant application where you wonder, “What is this section for? How should it look? Is there any time-saving institutional verbiage to start from?” If so, the Child Health Research Institute (CHRI) Grant Resource Library is a tool you may want to explore and bookmark for the future. Find it at this direct link or by navigating through the Member Portal (membership required).

The Grant Resource Library contains a mix of resources, including:

• A Facilities & Other Resources boilerplate document containing descriptions of resources at UNMC, Children’s Nebraska and CHRI that support clinical and bench research
• Curated examples of ancillary documents from proposals by other CHRI members (among these are Equipment, Letters of Support, Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives and Supplementary Preliminary Data)
• Skeleton drafts of specific documents, with instructional tips on the side (these include Cover Letter, Vertebrate Animals Research and Authentication of Key Biological & Chemical Resources)
• Archived workshop presentations on grant writing topics

These reference tools will help you fill gaps in your application, while spotlighting the strengths of your research team and your readiness to carry out the proposed aims. CHRI’s scientific writer, Matt Sandbulte, PhD, is working to refresh and increase the contents of the library. Are there any specific topics or application components that you would like to see added? Please reach out to Matt with your suggestions!  

If you are planning to be part of any grant proposals to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2025, several upcoming changes are worth keeping on your radar. Learn about them in more depth [grants.nih.gov] at the NIH Grants & Funding webpage.

Simplified Peer Review Framework for Research Project Grants

For most applications with due dates Jan. 25, 2025, or later, peer reviewers will have new guidelines for evaluating proposed studies. Currently, assigned reviewers are asked to give numerical scores on five criteria: Significance, Innovation, Approach, Investigators, and Environment. Under the new system, NIH will repackage these criteria into three factors:

1.     Importance of the Research (aligning with Significance and Innovation)

2.     Rigor and Feasibility (aligning with Approach)

3.     Expertise and Resources (aligning with Investigators and Environment)

Assigned reviewers will provide numerical scores for Factors 1 and 2, aided by written criteria that can be found in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. For Factor 3, reviewers will be asked to make a simple binary assessment of “sufficient for the proposed research” or “not sufficient,” but will not assign a numerical score. If a reviewer deems the Expertise and Resources not to be sufficient, they will have to explain the reasons. NIH intends that the different handling of Factor 3 will lower the likelihood that an applicant’s reputation makes an undue impact on score. After panel discussion, each panelist will give an overall impact score that considers all components.

Will this new framework affect how we write the proposals? NIH’s guidance says proposal formats will remain unchanged, so the impacts on investigators will probably be subtle. If things work according to plan, less experienced investigators will be on a more even playing field with their senior peers in their field. As with any grant proposal, it will be important to become familiar with the stated review criteria so that the final product hits all of the key points for scoring.

Changes to the Application and Review Process for Fellowship Awards

Similarly to the simplified peer review framework for research grants, there will also be significant reorganization of Fellowship applications, such as for F30 and F31 awards, submitted Jan. 25, 2025, and beyond. Besides revising the evaluation criteria for reviewers, NIH seeks to simplify the contents of the application to ensure recognition of meritorious candidates from a broad range of backgrounds.

Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support

A few months later, starting with applications due May 25, 2025, there will be changes [grants.nih.gov] in the forms for Biographical Sketch and Current & Pending (Other) Support. This is the result of NIH adopting federal Common Forms in accordance with a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum. NIH intends to supplement the Common Forms to keep capturing all of the biographical data found in the existing NIH Biosketch (i.e., Personal Statement, Honors and Contributions to Science). Investigators will need to use the online tool SciENcv to populate both the Common Form and NIH’s Biographical Sketch Supplement. Starting May 25, the old NIH Biosketch format will not be allowed. Expect more information from SPAdmin and CHRI in the months ahead. 

Dual β-lactam for treatment of pulmonary Mycobacterium abscessus in a child. Becken B*, Dousa KM, Johnson JL, Holland SM, Bonomo RA. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 2024;68(7):e0031924.

* Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Optimizing the performance of silica nanoparticles functionalized with a near-infrared fluorescent dye for bioimaging applications. Ehrhorn EG, Lovell P, Svechkarev D, Romanova S, Mohs AM*. Nanotechnology. 2024;35(30):305605.

* Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Re-assessing the assessment of fears of positive and negative evaluation: Scale development and psychometric evaluation of the Bivalent Fear of Evaluation Scale (BFOES). Weeks JW*, Beltzer M, Schmidt KM, Olino TM, Goldin PR, Gross JJ, Heimberg RG, Zoccola PM. Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 2024;105:102879.

* Department of Psychiatry

Structure-Based Design and Synthesis of Covalent Inhibitors for Deubiquitinase and Acetyltransferase ChlaDUB1 of Chlamydia trachomatis. Zimmermann T, Feng J, de Campos LJ, Knight LA, Schlötzer J, Ramirez YA, Schwickert K, Zehe M, Adler TB, Schirmeister T, Kisker C, Sotriffer C, Conda-Sheridan M*, Decker M. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2024;67(13):10710-42.

* Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Supporting the Grieving Child and Family: Clinical Report. Schonfeld DJ, Demaria T, Nasir A*, Kumar S. Pediatrics. 2024;154(1):e2024067212.

* Division of General Pediatrics