MU Faculty Members Receive Pilot Funding for Translational Research

Six MU faculty recently received pilot funding from the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. MU is a formal partner of Washington University’s Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences. This joint initiative, co-funded by MU’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICATS), makes clinical and translational science pilot awards for MU researchers possible.

“The collaboration with Washington University in the area of clinical and translational science has been highly beneficial for both institutions,” said Jerry Parker, PhD, associate dean for research at the MU School of Medicine. “The pilot funding program is just one example of how the two institutions have worked together to advance research programs at each site, including collaboration on studies of mutual interest.”

The recipients of these pilot awards received approximately $50,000 per team to advance their research.

MU projects that received pilot funding include:

• “Development Of Extremely Potent Cross-Clade HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor,” by principal investigator Kamlendra Singh, PhD, assistant research professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.
• “Launching Diagnosis of Asthma In Children Using NMR Metabolomics,” by principal investigator Steven Van Doren, PhD, professor in the Department of Biochemistry.
• “Multi-Omics Informatics Methodologies for Biomarker Discovery in Endometriosis,” by principal investigator Trupti Joshi, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Health Management and Informatics.
• “Development of an Exam Room-to-Newsroom Strategy to Enhance Firearm Safety,” by site principal investigator Glen Cameron, PhD, Maxine Wilson Gregory Chair in Journalism Research at the MU School of Journalism and Department of Family and Community Medicine; Amanda Hinnant, PhD, associate professor in the MU School of Journalism; and Sungkyoung Lee, PhD, assistant professor in the MU School of Journalism.

The Clinical and Translational Science Award program, funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was designed to increase the efficiency and speed of clinical and translational research on the local, regional and national levels.