Other Pilot Awards

Annette Lightner Research Award in Rheumatology, Autoimmune Diseases, and Rheumatoid Arthritis

This program supports medical research in rheumatology, autoimmune diseases, and rheumatoid arthritis (with particular interest in dermatomyositis). Research on diabetes is not funded by this program. Deadline: TBA (see RFP). Program contact: Danny Burdine.

Recent Awardees

2016: John Lukens (Neuroscience) – Dendritic cell-mediated SYK signaling is a central regulator of multiple sclerosis.
2017: Gordon Laurie (Cell Biology) – Use of human sensory neurons from induced pluripotent stem cells to characterize ‘lacritin’-dependent re-innervation in Sjögren’s Syndrome dry eye.
2018: Coleen McNamara (Medicine) – Precision immune phenotyping for personalized therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
2019: Sun-Sang Sung (Medicine) and Shu Man Fu (Rheumatology and Immunology) – Podocyte Mertk as therapeutic target in lupus nephritis.
2021: Jae Hee Yun (Medicine) – Elucidating Biological Pathways in Dermatomyositis-Related Interstitial Lung Disease.
2021: Sun-Sang Sung (Medicine) – Treatment of Lupus Nephritis by Glomerular Cytokine.
2021: Shu Man Fu (Medicine) – Podocyte-derived C1q plays a protective role in the
pathogenesis of lupus nephritis.
2021: Richard Flowers (Dermatology) – Topical and intralesional sodium thiosulfate 25% in the
treatment of connective tissue disease-associated calcinosis cutis: a two-arm trial of
effectiveness.
2021: Loren Erickson (Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology) – Meningeal immunity in neuropsychiatric lupus.
2021: Brent DeGeorge (Plastic Surgery) – Ultrasound Guidance for the Delivery of Botulinum Toxin in the Treatment of Vasospasm Associated with Rheumatologic Disorders.
2021: Brent DeGeorge (Plastic Surgery) – Assessing the Mechanism of Cannabichromene (CBC) Alone and in Combination with Major Phytocannabinoids in the Alleviation Pain.
2021: Sanja Arandjelovic (Medicine) – Impact of Rheumatoid Arthritis-associated
Polymorphism in ELMO1 on Neutrophil Functions.
2022: Shao-bin Wang (Department of Ophthalmology) – Roles of sterile DDX17/NLRC4 inflammasome in development of lupus nephritis.

Henry Rose Carter Research Award in Malaria or Public Health

This program, whose competitions are conducted intermittently, provides support for innovative research related to malaria or other public health problems. Proposals must have a clear link to human populations. Deadline: TBA (see RFP). Due its modest endowment, this award is offered every 2 – 4 years, no sooner than 2023. Program contact: Danny Burdine.

Recent Awardees

Thelma R. Swortzel Collaborative Research Award

This program, initiated in 2004, provides support for innovative research collaborations in the areas of ear, eye, heart, or cancer. Its goal is to support collaborative research that is translational, addresses unmet clinical needs, and leads to improvements in health care. Deadline: TBA (see RFP). Program contact: Danny Burdine.

Recent Awardees

2016: Jung-Bum Shin (Neuroscience), Alexander Klibanov (Medicine/CV Medicine), Richard Price (BME) – CRISPR/ Cas and focused ultrasound towards inner ear gene therapy.
2017: Francine Garrett-Bakelman (Medicine), Stefan Bekiranov (Biochemistry) – RBM47 functions as a tumor suppressor in acute myeloid leukemia relapse.
2018: Mark Roeser (Surgery) and Jennifer Charlton (Pediatrics) – The Next Step: Regadenoson mitigates ischemia reperfusion injury and is renal protective in a 48 hour porcine model of ECPR.
2019: David Kashatus (Microbiology) and Todd Bauer (Surgery) – A Novel Computational Approach to Explore the Role of Mitochondrial Heterogeneity in Pancreatic Tumor Growth.
2021: Yuh-Hwa Wang (Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics) Patrick Dillon (Medicine) and Christiana Brenin (Medicine) – Developing a DNA susceptibility test to identify breast cancer patients having high risk for
therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia.
2021: Saurabh Kulkarni (Cell Biology) and Aakrosh Ratan (Public Health Sciences) – Establishing Bench to Bedside Congenital Heart Disease Program at UVA Children’s.
2021: Brent French (Biomedical Engineering) and Craig Slingluff (Surgery) – Innovative Gene Therapy Strategy to Achieve Sustained Protection Against SARS-CoV-2.
2021: Mete Civelek (Biomedical Engineering) and Gloria Sheynkman (Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics) – Coronary Artery Disease-Associated Splice Variants in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells.
2022: John H. Bushweller (Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics) and Kwon-Sik Park (Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology) – Small molecule inhibitor targeting the KIX domain of EP300, a novel approach to therapy for SCLC.
2022: Sumit Isharwal (Department of Urology) – Role of MCM9 Loss in Prostate Cancer.
2022: Zequan Yang (Department of Surgery) and Brent A. French (Department of Biomedical Engineering) – Role of pDCs and cDCs in post-MI LV remodeling.