DERC P&F GRANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Pilot and feasibility projects in endocrinology and diabetes
As part of the UCLA/UCSD DERC grant, a mechanism to fund innovative new projects that will explore the feasibility of novel testable concepts and enhance the endocrine/diabetes research scope within the institutions is again available. The Pilot and Feasibility grant program is putting out a request for applications that will support 3-4 grantees at approximately $20,000 - $30,000 per year. A special emphasis on promoting promising junior faculty involved with diabetes research is key to the UCLA/UCSD P&F mission. It is expected that P&F studies will generate preliminary data that will be used by these investigators in diabetes/endocrinology-related RO1 applications in the years following their award. A report on each pilot and feasibility study conducted will be requested from investigators at the end of the study period and annually for 4 years. Funded P&F investigators will be expected to attend the annual DERC retreat and present the results of their work in the year immediately following their award.

Timetable for applications
An electronic letter of intent should be emailed to Dr. Pinchas Cohen (hassy@mednet.ucla.edu) by February 21st 2005. Grants will be due by email on March 8th with an anticipated start date on June 1st 2005.

P&F grant format
A strict requirement for the grant format will be implemented this year. Failure to meet this requirement will lead to an administrative disqualification of the proposal. The P&F grant applications should include: (a) a face page with the title of the grant, the name, academic title, and institution of the PI, the names of any additional personnel and collaborators and a 200 word abstract. (b) Biosketches for the PI and other key personnel. (c) The scientific proposal (5 page limit). (d) References. The entire grant must be submitted as a single emailed pdf file less than 1 megabite in size. If the grant includes high-resolution images, these must be reduced to meet the size requirement. Failure to provide a single pdf file or a file that is too big will result in disqualification. No budget is required, but the scope of the work should be appropriate for 1-year project and the funds can not be used for the PI salary.

Eligibility
All eligible investigators must have faculty appointments (of clinical instructor and above) at UCLA or UCSD and be independent investigators. A joint appointment at an affiliated institution is allowed. Investigators eligible for pilot and feasibility funding generally will be expected to fall into three categories:

  • (Category 1) New investigators without current or past non-mentored NIH research support as a principal investigator (current or past support from other sources being modest).
  • (Category 2) Established investigators with no previous work in diabetes that wish to apply their expertise to a problem in this area.
  • (Category 3) Established investigators in diabetes/endocrinology research who propose testing innovative ideas that represent clear departure from ongoing research interests.

Interactions with other DERC components
It is expected that junior faculty will be able to rely on the advice and support of a senior DERC investigators and will have a priority access to DERC Cores, including an opportunity to discuss their projects in depth with the core directors in order to receive maximum benefits from their services. Similarly, investigators with no previous experience in diabetes/endocrinology research will be expected to have a DERC collaborator. P&F grantees will be encouraged and expected to utilize DERC core resources.

Notification procedure
After approval of the funding decisions by the DERC executive committee, funded and un-funded investigators will be notified and, when appropriate, the reviews will be sent to them by email.

Final report and presentation at the annual retreat
A report on each pilot and feasibility study conducted will be requested from investigators at the end of the study period and an update will be requested yearly for four years after the completion of the award. These brief reports will contain professional career status at the time of the award and at the time of the report; an overview of the project including its significance and salient results; a list of resulting publications; and peer-reviewed subsequent funding in the same or related areas. Funded P&F investigators will be expected to attend the annual DERC retreat and also present the results of their work in the year immediately following their award.

PILOT AND FEASIBILITY PROJECT (2003-2004)

In the In the 2003-2004 period, the UCLA/UCSD Pilot and feasibility program awarded three $40,000 wards to the investigators listed in the original proposal. While we listed five investigators at the time, the budget for the P&F component was reduced from $200,000 to $120,000. We will continue to track these individuals throughout the period of the DERC grant in terms of academic positions, additional funding and publications.

  1. P.I.: Nai-Wen Chi, M.D., Ph.D. “Angiotensin-4 signaling in 3T3-L1 adipocytes”
  2. P.I.: Mark A. Lawson, Ph.D. “Interaction of Insulin and Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Signaling in the Pituitary Gonadotroph”
  3. P.I. Susanne B. Nicholas, M.D, Ph.D. “Investigation of the Role of V1b Receptor in Diabetic Nephropathy”

PILOT AND FEASIBILITY (2004-2005)

In November of 2003 we circulated a bi-campus wide announcement for a P&F RFA that was due on the 15th of December. We received 19 proposals, all of exceptionally high quality. These were sent for review and each was assessed by two internal reviewers and one external reviewer. Our external reviewers this year included Drs. Andrew Hoffman from Stanford, Nir Barzilai from AECOM and Charles Roberts from OHSU. All of the P&F committee members and several additional UCLA/UCSD investigators served as internal reviewers. The P&F committee met and went over the reviews and decided to award five grants. Three grants were awarded for $30,000 and two grants for $15,000. The awardees were:

  1. K.W. Lee, MD, PhD (UCLA - $30,000) "The role of IGFBP-3 in adipogenesis and insulin resistance"
  2. A.L. Hevener, PhD (UCSD - $30,000) "Tissue specific PPAR gamma knock-out mouse and insulin resistance"
  3. R. Perfetti, MD, PhD (Cedars-Sinai - $30,000) "Development of GLP-1 transgenic mouse"
  4. D. Bruemmer, MD (UCLA - $15,000) "Regulation of osteopontin expression by peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors"
  5. U. Jhala, PhD (UCSD - $15,000) "Role of MLK3 in pancreatic beta cell death"

All of the unfunded grant proposal writers were contacted and received constructive criticism based on the reviewers’ comments. Funding will begin in May 2004.

The UCLA/UCSD Pilot and feasibility Grant Core Committee is compose of Dr. Pinchas Cohen (UCLA), Dr. John Adams (CSMC), Dr. Pamela Mellon (UCSD) and Dr. Robert Henry (UCSD).