CAO Pilot Grants Awards More Than $1 Million to Boston Researchers

Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have been awarded more than $1.1 million in funding from CAO Pilot Grants, a new hospital program which supports “translational” studies. The money is to be divided among 12 research projects that will focus on a variety of subjects such as HIV vaccination, diabetes, breast and ovarian cancer, traumatic brain injury, and more.

“The promotion of interdisciplinary translational innovations is a major strategic research priority for BIDMC,” Chief Academic Officer Vikas P. Sukhatme said in a statement. “The CAO Pilot Grants have been carefully designed to bring together scientists from a wide variety of disciplines throughout the medical center to collaborate on investigations that have direct applications to human health and clinical medicine.”

The grants will range between $50,000 and $100,000 and will be dispersed over a period of six months to two years. Below are the 2014 CAO Pilot grant winners via BIDMC:

Shift Work and Shift Work Sleep Disorder in the Pathophysiology of Obesity and Diabetes
Vetrivelan Ramalingam, PhD, Neurology and Young Bum Kim, PhD, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, (Medicine)

Testing the Benefits of Intensive Hemodialysis in ESRD Patients with High Carbamylated Albumin Levels
Anders H. Berg, MD, PhD, Pathology, Ananth Karumanchi, MD, Nephrology, (Medicine)

Eosinophils in the Immunopathogenesis of Crohn’s Disease
Lisa A. Spencer, PhD, Allergy and Inflammation (Medicine) Adam S. Cheifetz, MD, Gastroenterology (Medicine)

Neutrophil-Endothelial Interactions in Sepsis: A “Bedside to Bench” Approach
William C. Aird, MD, Molecular and Vascular Medicine (Medicine); Christopher V. Carman, PhD, Molecular and Vascular Medicine (Medicine); Nathan I. Shapiro, MD, Emergency Medicine

Cardiac MR Imaging Biomarkers of Cardiac Toxicity in Breast Cancer
Reza Nezafat, PhD, Cardiology (Medicine); James Chang, MD, Cardiology (Medicine); Warren Manning, MD, Cardiology (Medicine); Nadine Tung, MD, Hematology/Oncology (Medicine); Steve Come, MD, Hematology/Oncology (Medicine); Guerberg Wulf, MD, Hematology/Oncology (Medicine)

Proline Isomer-Specific Tau Antibodies in Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury
Kun Ping Lu, MD, PhD, Hematology/Oncology (Medicine), Xiao Zhen Zhou, MD, Hematology/Oncology (Medicine)

How Monoclonal Antibodies Directed Against SLAMF Cell Surface Receptors Modulate Signal Transduction Networks That Result in Apoptosis of CLL Cells Using CyTOF Technology
Cox Terhorst, PhD, Immunology (Medicine); David Avigan, MD, Hematology/Oncology (Medicine); Maria Kontaridis, PhD, Cardiology (Medicine)

A Novel Multimodal Molecular Imaging of BRAFV600E-Targeted Therapy with Vemurafenib in Preclinical and Translational Models of Human Papillary Thyroid Cancer
Carmelo Nucera, MD, PhD, Pathology; Sean Clohessy, PhD, Cancer Genetics (Medicine); John Asara, PhD, Signal Transduction (Medicine)

Epigenomic and Transcriptional Basis of Human Insulin Resistance
Evan Rosen, MD, PhD, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism (Medicine); John Rinn, PhD, Pathology; Samuel Lin, MD, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

A Novel Therapeutic Option for Ovarian Cancer
Jack Lawler, PhD, Pathology; Stephen Cannistra, MD, Hematology/Oncology (Medicine); Sean Clohessy, PhD, Cancer Genetics (Medicine)

Anisotropy Restoring Femoroplasty: A Novel Device and Technique System
Edward K. Rodriguez, MD, PhD, Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery; Ara Nazarian, PhD, Advanced Orthopaedic Studies

High-Throughput Sequence-Based Immune Profiling of HIV Vaccine Ad26.ENVA.01
Ramy Arnaout, MD, DPhil, Clinical Pathology; Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, Vaccines and Virology (Medicine)