Four research teams at the UNC School of Medicine won $25,000 pilot grants with the goal of increasing collaborations throughout the neurosciences, as part of a UNC NeuroSpark event.
Four research teams at the UNC School of Medicine won $25,000 pilot grants with the goal of increasing collaborations throughout the neurosciences, as part of a UNC NeuroSpark event.
As part of the Forward Together Strategic Plan, the UNC School of Medicine committed $100,000 this year to fund pilot neuroscience research projects. The goal of this funding is to increase collaborations in the neurosciences and to incentivize faculty to generate pilot data for use in grants to the NIH and other external agencies. This is the first year of a five-year commitment for NeuroSpark from the school of medicine.
Eight neuroscience research teams at the school of medicine competed for four $25,000 pilot grants. Each team gave a 12-minute pitch to the audience. Following the presentations, the audience voted for the top four projects. The four teams that received the most votes were selected as winners.
The event was attended by more than 100 graduate students, postdocs, lab members, and faculty.
Congratulations to the winning teams:
“A Pilot PET/MR Study of Neuroinflammation in Autism”
Gabriel Dichter, PhD, associate professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry; Director, Clinical Affective Neuroscience Lab
David Lalush, PhD, associate professor in the UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering
Erin Walsh, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry
“Targeting Sleep Disruption in the Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease”
Graham Diering, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology
Todd Cohen, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Neurology
“Illuminating Organelle Dynamics in Alexander Disease”
Natasha Snider, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology
Sarah Cohen, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology
“Building a Resource of Genetically Diverse Human Post-Mortem Brain Tissue”
Jason Stein, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Genetics
Hyejung Won, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Genetics
Leigh Thorne, MD, professor in the UNC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Graham Diering, Todd Cohen, Natasha Snider, Jason Stein, and Hyejung Won are members of the UNC Neuroscience Center.