Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the final edition of our research newsletter before we break for the summer, resuming again in September. As we wrap up this academic season, we are thrilled to celebrate the outstanding achievements within our department. This issue is brimming with accolades, as we proudly recognize the numerous awards our faculty members have garnered, showcasing the remarkable talent within our community. 

In this issue, we launch a new series of features spotlighting the DOM programs that support our research mission. This month’s Spotlight shows how the DOM’s Cohort Grant program has significantly propelled one researcher's career, offering insights into the profound impact of patient cohort development on advancing medical research. 

We hope you enjoy this edition and help us in congratulating the accomplishments of our colleagues. Have a wonderful summer, and we look forward to reconnecting in September with more inspiring stories and useful updates. 

All the best, 

Diane Havlir, MD, Associate Chair for Clinical Research

David Erle, MD, Associate Chair for Biomedical Research

Juan Qin, PhD, associate researcher in the Division of Cardiology at UCSF Health, received a K-equivalent from the American Heart Association for a project entitled, "The Role of Immune Checkpoints in Cardiac Ischemia."

Michael Peluso, MD, MHS, assistant professor in the Division of HIV, ID & Global Medicine at ZSFG, received an R01 Award from the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke for a project entitled, "Evaluating SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen-induced coagulopathy and neuroinflammation as mechanistic drivers of neurologic PASC."

Congratulations to Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, professor of Endocrinology at UCSF Health and Director of the Diabetes Center, has been awarded the prestigious Coley Award from the Cancer Research Institute. The Coley Award honors groundbreaking contributions to cancer research, validating and highlighting the impact of innovative work, particularly in immunotherapy and recognizes Dr. Anderson's foundational contributions to the understanding of immune tolerance mechanisms, self-antigen presentation, and the role of Aire in preventing auto-immunity. 

DOM Cohort Grant



This month, we highlight the Cohort Grant, an award administered by the Department of Medicine to DOM PIs who are looking to establish or expand a patient cohort for research purposes. Since 2013, nineteen investigators have received $100,000 each to build their cohorts. We caught up with Jen Lai, MD, MBA, a hepatologist and professor of gastroenterology at UCSF Health and Cohort Grant awardee in 2016, to learn how the award has impacted her research and career.

Tell us about your patient cohort. How large is it and what data are you collecting?

Using the DOM Cohort Expansion Award, we proposed to expand my existing cohort of liver transplant patients (that had only clinical data) with a biorepository of blood and tissue specimens in order to explore mechanisms of frailty and sarcopenia in patients with cirrhosis. To date, we have collected blood specimens on 3,102 unique liver transplant patients at UCSF. We have collected intraoperative tissue on 170 unique patients during their liver transplant - including liver, muscle, visceral, and subcutaneous adipose tissue. As timing of liver transplantation is unpredictable, this has been very challenging to set up – we needed to set up a specimen collection infrastructure that could be available at a moment’s notice. And we did it! This has involved coordination with my own research team, the UCSF Biospecimen Processing Laboratory (BSPL) team, the transplant surgeons, and the transplant anesthesiologists.

In my opinion, the hardest part of starting up the biorepository was getting from zero specimens to one. What the DOM Cohort Expansion Award allowed me to do was to get biospecimens on the very first patient in two different clinical settings – ambulatory and intra-operatively. The award funded the establishment of the IRB, study coordinator support, laboratory supplies, and procurement/processing fees from the UCSF BSPL – all of which had to be in place before we could collect specimens on that very first patient. None of this would be possible without the DOM Cohort Expansion Award.

How has the Cohort Grant impacted your research grant portfolio and scientific publications?

I have received multiple grants and produced multiple peer-reviewed publications based on the data generated from the cohort. Several of my mentees have received extra-mural grants, including their career development awards, that used this cohort's data and the specimens from the biorepository. At this point, the biorepository that this award funded has become integral to my entire research program, that it is very difficult for me to isolate what is directly related to the DOM cohort award specifically and what is not. I consider the DOM Cohort grant the foundation for my success as a researcher and as a mentor.



What else would you like to say about the Cohort Grant?

Of all the grants that I have received, this award has allowed me to be the most ambitious and forward-thinking and has best positioned me for my transition to independence and a long-term research career plan. For all of my other grant applications, particularly to the NIH, I have had to play it safe; I had to propose aims that were definitely answerable, with data that would be easily collected. No extramural funding agency was interested in supporting me to initiate a biorepository (especially given the amount of time it takes to collect hundreds, if not thousands of patient samples)—they only wanted to fund me once I had the biospecimens in hand. Well, the DOM Cohort Award was exactly the mechanism I needed to do just that. And now that I have this precious biorepository, other investigators have been coming out of the woodwork to collaborate–providing many potential opportunities for funding to continue to sustain this biorepository.

Congratulations to Shoshana (Beth) Zha, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy & Sleep at UCSF Health, for winning the Department of Medicine's Cohort Grant for 2024! Her project entitled "DISCOVER-BeNTM: Discovery and Innovation to improve therapy for Bronchiectasis and Pulmonary NTM Disease," will receive $100,000 for a two-year period to expand the cohort and biorepository across UCSF Health and ZSFG.

The Cohort Grant RFP goes out each February with applications due in late April. Thank you to Karla Kerlikowske, MD, professor of general internal medicine at the VAMC, for chairing the grant selection committee. You can learn more about the Cohort Grant and see past funded projects here.

REMINDER NIH National Research Service Award Increases (T32s and F32s)



NIH-funded recipients of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) will see an increase in the stipend levels for all awards made on or after October 1, 2023, increasing the overall amount of the awards. Retroactive adjustments for an award made prior to October 1, 2023, are not permitted. Eligible recipients also will receive a $500 increase in subsidies for childcare and an additional $200 for training-related expenses. These changes are the result of strong advocacy by members of the academic research community and recommendations from the NIH Director’s recent working group report on postdoctoral training.  

UCSF Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (NORC) Pilot Feasibility Awards

Applications due July 15

The Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) at UCSF is sponsoring an open Request for Applications (RFA) for Pilot and Feasibility Grants, which provide funding for investigators to pursue novel and promising ideas broadly relevant to nutrition, obesity, and metabolism research. The NORC Pilot and Feasibility Program is funded through a Center grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to facilitate the engagement of junior faculty and encourage new directions in NORC related research, regardless of a laboratory’s historical research focus.

Pilot funding of up to $50,000 per application is available for a period of 12 months from the time of award.

Preference will be given to Junior Faculty engaged in research broadly relevant to nutrition, obesity, and metabolism, who do not yet have NIH R01 funding (K awardees are eligible to apply).

EXTRAMURAL Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Letters of Intent due July 18

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund has issued a request for applications for its Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) program. This program aims to provide opportunities for accomplished investigators at the assistant professor level to study what happens at the points where the systems of humans and potentially infectious agents connect. It supports research that sheds light on the fundamentals that affect the outcomes of these encounters: how colonization, infection, commensalism, and other relationships play out at levels ranging from molecular interactions to systemic ones. The program's intent is to give recipients the freedom and flexibility to pursue new avenues of inquiry, stimulating higher-risk research projects that hold potential for significantly advancing our understanding of how infectious diseases work and how health is maintained. 

$505,000 over 5 years will be awarded.

Eligibility criteria include: 

• The ideal candidate is an accomplished investigator at the mid-to-late assistant professor level with an established record of independent research in a tenure-track position or its well-supported equivalent in non-tenure offering departments. 
• Candidates who will be promoted to Associate Professor by November 14, 2024 are not eligible to apply.

Please see RFP below for full criteria. 

To Apply: 

· This is an open RFP (UCSF may submit an unlimited number of applications). 

· Email Liz.Catalano@ucsf.edu to announce your intention to apply, then follow application instructions in RFP, conferring with your Grants Officer as needed. 

· Letter of Intent (LOI) deadline is July 18, 2024. If you are invited to submit a full application, the deadline will be November 14, 2024.

EXTRAMURAL Bezos Earth Fund

Applications due July 30

The Bezos Earth Fund has launched the $100 million AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge. This global initiative is exploring new ideas for multiplying the impact of climate and nature efforts using modern AI. The first round of awards will focus on sustainable proteins, power grid optimization, and biodiversity conservation, in addition to embracing visionary wildcard solutions for climate and nature. 

Submit a proposal describing your idea for how you might protect our planet and our future using AI. Up to 30 applicants will be selected as Seed Grantees and receive funding and mentorship from experts at the forefront of climate, nature, and AI. Phase 1 ($50,000) submissions are due by 5:59 p.m. Eastern Time (9:59 p.m. UTC) on Tuesday, July 30.

Upon invitation, up to 15 awardees will each receive an implementation grant of up to $2 million (Phase 2). 

Potential applicants can learn more at the June 20 virtual information session. The team will present an overview of the Grand Challenge and answer questions submitted in advance. A video recording and summary of questions and answers will be published following the session. 

If you have interest, please email Gretchen Kiser, Executive Director, Research Development Office, UCSF.

NIH Grant Writing Webinar Series

See upcoming dates below

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is hosting a virtual grant writing webinar series entitled - Debuting Your Research Career: How to Plan for and Write Your First (or Next) NIH Grant Application. This monthly webinar series is free and open to all pre- and post-doctoral fellows, clinician-scientists, and early to mid-career research investigators. This series is taking place every third Thursday of the month between 10am and 11:30am EST from February to July 2024. The workshop will provide information on funding opportunities for early career researchers at NIAID; navigating F, K, DP2, and R38/K38 awards; and understanding the peer review process. Four events have already passed, but there are more upcoming. 

All workshops are virtual via Zoom:

• Navigating NIH to prepare your grant application – DP2/R38/K38 awards – June 20th, 2024
• Understanding the Peer Review process – July 18th, 2024

K PREP

K Prep is a new CTSI-sponsored program to support fellows and junior faculty who are from groups that are historically underrepresented in the health sciences* to prepare for patient-oriented NIH K-series grant applications.

Program Components:

• Small group mentorship
• One on one mentoring as needed
• Support in crafting a mentoring team, drafting an aims page, and understanding the K application process
• Opportunity to apply for K Writing Workshop to finalize application components with faculty and peer mentorship

Eligibility:

• UCSF fellows or junior faculty member
• Identified as underrepresented in the health sciences*
• Planning to apply for a K-series grant in patient-oriented research
• 
  

 If you are interested in participating or have questions, please reach out to Marissa Raymond-Flesch (marissa.raymond-flesch@ucsf.edu).

*K PREP uses UCSF’s definition of underrepresented.

PRE-Proposal Application REview (PREPARE) Program

Ongoing

The PREPARE program is here to help you meet your funding goals with application review services—at no cost to you! See what one of our recent PREPARE reviewees had to say about his experience:

“PREPARE has always been an excellent resource - I think I've used it three times now, at least, and each time the feedback has been on point and insightful.” – Anoop Sheshadri, MD, MAS, assistant professor in the division of Nephrology at the VAMC

For more information, click here. Please email Sara Wingate with any questions.

If you'd like to contribute to future newsletters, please send your items to Ilona Paredes.

Resources for Space Planning Updates



For updates on work space projects, be sure to check out the UCSF Space websites for Parnassus Heights and ZSFG. Also, check out the Parnassus Vision website, maintained by a group of Parnassus-based research faculty.

Copyright © 2024, University of California, San Francisco, All rights reserved.

Please send comments, suggestions and questions to:

Diane Havlir, MD, Associate Chair for Clinical Research (diane.havlir@ucsf.edu)

David Erle, MD, Associate Chair for Biomedical Research (david.erle@ucsf.edu)