Listing of recent competitive grant awards to SOM faculty
The following is a list of new grants awarded to SOM faculty with project start dates in June and July of 2025 (the awards listed have a total award amount greater than $100,000):
| PI | Project Title | Sponsor | Award Amount | Project Begin Date |
| Wheeler, Stephanie | Understanding and Addressing Cancer Disparities Among American Indians in North Carolina: Youth and Young Adult Cancer Risk Factors | V Foundation for Cancer Research | 100000 | 01-Jun-25 |
| McCarty, Dana | Immersive Physical Therapy in the NICU: Comparing Delivery Models to Improve Infant and Parent Outcomes | Foundation For Physical Therapy Research | 100000 | 01-Jun-25 |
| Malik, Ankit | Epithelial IRF-1 signaling controls intra-epithelial T cell residency and associated protection from IBD | Kenneth Rainin Foundation | 150000 | 01-Jun-25 |
| Miller, Adam | Neural networks underlying preteen social motivation: A novel risk factor for preteen suicide | Foundation of Hope for Research and Treatment of Mental Illness | 200000 | 05-Jun-25 |
| Muenzer, Joseph | Outcomes of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Individuals with Mucopolysaccharidosis II (Hunter Syndrome) | Project Alive | 163938 | 19-Jun-25 |
| Stringer, Jeff | Regulatory advancement and commercial preparation of AI-assisted obstetric ultrasound | NCInnovation | 500000 | 30-Jun-25 |
| Dellon, Evan | Porcine Related apprOach to Multidisciplinary cOllaborative Translational ModEl Research (PROMOTER) | NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) | 768064 | 15-Jun-25 |
| Schworer, Stephen | T2-skewed basal cells promote small airway mucus plugging in asthma | American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) | 300000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Talati, Asha | Identifying Equity Focused Strategies to Implement Reproductive Genetic Care | American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Foundation (AAOGF) | 120000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| O’Brien, Lori | Redefining kidney developmental origins | NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) | 427625 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Kahkoska, Anna | OA-TECH: An individualized CGM integration program for older adults with diabetes | American Diabetes Association (ADA) | 200000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Thaxton, Jessica | The Cellular Response to Stress as a Mechanism of ICI Resistance | V Foundation for Cancer Research | 800000 | 15-Jul-25 |
| Damania, Blossom | Novel therapy for EBV-positive lymphomas | Lymphoma Research Foundation of America | 195000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Gray, Simon | Immunologic and Microbial Mechanisms of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Therapy Failure | American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) | 300000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Brenner, Erica | Safety and Effectiveness of Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in Women with Crohn’s Disease | American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) | 450000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Frerichs, Leah | Preventing serious mental illness among rural Black youth by integrating appealing and culturally relevant mind-body interventions into physical education | Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation | 200000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Savoldo, Barbara | REVOLUTIONIZING PEDIATRIC BRAIN TUMOR TREATMENT WITH OFF-THE-SHELF CAR-NKT CELLS | Department of Defense (DOD) | 621920 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Ashkin, Evan | FIT Community Health Grant – Year 3 | NCDHHS Office of Rural Health | 149588 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Bryan, Miles | Potentiated CHIP variants as therapeutics to alleviate tau pathology and neurodegeneration | DOD DA Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity | 509979 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Cohen, Todd | Potentiated CHIP variants as therapeutics to alleviate tau pathology and neurodegeneration | DOD DA Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity | 489065 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Cohen, Todd | CHIP/STUB1: A New Frontier in Tau Chaperoning and Alzheimer’s Disease Therapeutics | BrightFocus Foundation | 300000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Jewell, Vanessa | Feasibility of the REAL-Fam to Support Diabetes Self-Management, Family Participation and Child Health | American Occupational Therapy Foundation | 100000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Li, Zibo | Development of Radiofluorination Methods and Prosthetic Groups Suitable for Quick Iterative Constructions of PET Tracer Analogs in Rapid Radiopharmaceutical Development and SAR Study | NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) | 122260 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Conlon, Sarah | Elucidating the role of fimbriae in Klebsiella pneumoniae-mediated liver abscess formation | NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) | 427625 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Loeser, Richard | A Novel Drug Discovery Approach for Preventing Post-traumatic Osteoarthritis | Department of Defense (DOD) | 500000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Fisher, Jill | Challenging Fear of Anaphylaxis: An Ethical Framework for Implementing Oral Food Challenges in Allergy Clinical Practice Process | Greenwall Foundation | 232514 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Tilson, Hugh | NC Health Talent Alliance Support for Four Regional AHECs | Duke Endowment | 820000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Mungo, Chemtai | Characterization of the cervico-vaginal microbiome impact on HPV clearance among HIV-positive women in a Phase II trial in Kenya | American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) | 200000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Rittenhouse, Katelyn | Fetal Age and Machine Learning Initiative: Improving Pregnancy Evaluation in Low-Resource Settings | EQT Foundation | 115700 | 11-Jul-25 |
| Gupton, Stephanie | Defining the Substrates and Interactome of Focal Adhesion Kinase that Regulate Exocytic Vesicle Fusion | NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) | 413480 | 18-Jul-25 |
| Wang, Li | Knowledge-empowered Lifespan Neuroimage Analysis | NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) | 401155 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Knittel, Andrea | Justice Core: Improving maternal and infant health outcomes through jail diversion of pregnant people with substance use disorders | Duke Endowment | 869000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Muhlebach, Marianne | 2025 Clinical Fellowship – Research Award | Cystic Fibrosis Foundation | 105000 | 01-Jul-25 |
| Kram, David | Developing a Functional Predictive Biomarker for an mRNA-LP Cancer Vaccine Clinical Trial Using Each Patient’s Own Living Tumor Tissue | National Pediatric Cancer Foundation (NPCF) | 315114 | 01-Jul-25 |