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 second 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. Following the presentations, attendees voted for the top four projects. The four teams that received the most votes were selected as winners.
The event was attended by graduate students, postdocs, lab members, and faculty.
Congratulations to the winning teams:
CLOZiPS: Mechanisms of Clozapine Response Using iPSC-derived Organoids
Rose Mary Xavier, PhD, assistant professor at the UNC School of Nursing
Jason Stein, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Genetics and member of the UNC Neuroscience Research Center
Advancing a Computational Tool to Measure Facial Grimacing Associated with Spontaneous Pain
Morika Williams, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine, and member of the UNC Neuroscience Research Center and the UNC Thurston Bowles Arthritis Research Center
Matt Laughon, MD, MPH, professor in the UNC Department of Pediatrics and member of the UNC Children’s Research Institute
Guorong Wu, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry
Michael O’Shea, MD, MPH, the C. Richard Morris MD Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and member of the UNC Children’s Research Institute
Measuring Brain-wide Responses to Neural Circuit Perturbations During Movement
Adam Hantman, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology and member of the UNC Neuroscience Research Center
Ian Yen-Yu Shih, PhD, associate professor in the UNC Department of Neurology
Tracking Arousal Responses with a BOP (Biometric Ocular Photometer)
Jose Rodriquez-Romaguera, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry and member of the UNC Neuroscience Center and the Carolina Institute for Development Disabilities
Nicolas Pegard, PhD, assistant professor of applied physical sciences at the UNC College of Arts and Sciences
Rebecca Grzadzinski, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry and member of the Carolina Institute for Development Disabilities
Anthony Zannas, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry