Fall 2023 Awardees

Academic Senate Awardees (AS)

Family Support Award

Sabra Inslicht, PhD
Orexin: A Novel Treatment Target for PTSD
SOM: Psychiatry

Pilot for Early Career Investigators

Joline Fan, MD, MS
Network effects of transcranial low intensity focused ultrasound on the centromedian thalamus using magnetoencephalography
SOM: Neurology

Jennifer Rosenbluth, MD, PhD
Breast Organoids as Models for Cancer Interception
SOM: HDFCCC

Pilot for Established Investigators

Deborah Dean, MD, MPH
Assessing Neisseria gonorrhoeae antimicrobial resistance using Nanopore technology among high prevalence Pacific Islander populations in Fiji
SOM: Pediatrics

Soo-Jeong Lee, RN, PhD, ANP
Effect of disinfectant exposure on the gut microbiome of cleaning workers
SON: Community Health Systems

David Pearce, MD
Role of mTORC2 in the aldosterone paradox.
SOM: Medicine

JiWon Choi, RN, PhD
INFORMED: Brain Health Project for Korean American Dementia Caregivers
SON: Institute for Health & Aging

Shared Technology Awards

Zev Gartner, PhD
Quantifying Live Tissue and Biomaterial Mechanics with a Shared-Use Nanoindenter
SOP: Pharmaceutical Chemistry

The Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC)

Alzheimer Disease Research Center (ADRC) Developmental Projects

Tanisha Hill-Jarrett, PhD*
A multilevel framework to assess and address Black/African American participant recruitment barriers at the University of California San Francisco Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (UCSF ADRC)
SOM: Neurology
* Diversity Supplement Awardee

Sarah Kaufman, MD, PhD
Identifying the Molecular Mechanisms that Underlie Tau Aggregation and Neurotoxicity Across Distinct Tau Strains
SOM: Neurology

Emily Paolillo, PhD
Determining utility of passive smartphone-based digital endpoints in Alzheimer’s disease
SOM: Neurology

Cancer Center- Cancer Center Support Grant (CC-CCSG)

Pilot for Early Career Investigators

Katherine Wai, MD
Defining the Immune Response to Checkpoint Inhibition in Head and Neck Cancer
SOM: Otolaryngology

Cancer Center- The Precision Imaging in Cancer & Therapy (CC-RBI)

Pilot Award in Precision Imaging of Cancer and Therapy

Arpita Desai, MD
Investigation of Hyperpolarized 13 C MRI to assess treatment response in metastatic kidney cancer

UCSF Center for AIDS Preventive Studies (CAPS)

CAPS-HIV Innovative Grants

Catherine Koss, MD
Formative behavioral research to advance engagement in cure-related studies for persons who acquire HIV on prevention modalities
SOM: Medicine

UCSF - Gladstone Institute of Virology & Immunology Center for AIDS Research (CFAR)

Mentored Scientist Award Program in HIV/AIDS

Katerina Byanova, MD, MS
CAPTURE study: CAuses and Predictors of post-TUberculosis REstrictive lung disease in people with and without HIV in Uganda
SOM: Medicine

Neia Prata Menezes, PhD
Characterizing delivery preferences and opportunities for implementing long-acting injectable cabotegravir and event-driven PrEP for transgender women in Sāo Paulo, Brazil venues in Lusaka, Zambia
SOM: Medicine

Saate Shakil, MD, MS
Early Structural Cardiovascular Disease and HIV in East Africa
SOM: Medicine

Lauren Suchman, PhD
Understanding Provider Management of Menopausal Symptoms for Women Living with HIV: A Qualitative Study in East Africa
SON: Institute for Health & Aging

Research Resource Program (CORE-RRP)

Institutional Matching Instrumentation Award (IMIA-RRP)

Jennifer Fung, PhD
High content screening system - Perkin Elmer Opera Phenix Plus
SOM: Obstetrics, Gynecology & Rep Sci

Vinh Nguyen, BS
Image-enabled Full Spectral Flow Cytometer Cell Sorter
EVCP: Specialist

Renuka Sriram, PhD
Replacement of an Obsolete Pre-clinical DNP Polarizer to Enable Higher Throughput and Improved HP 13C MR Studies
SOM: Radiology

National Center for Excellence in Women’s Health (NCOEWH)

Pilot for Established Investigators

Kimberly Baltzell, RN, PhD, MS
Measuring the mechanisms of antenatal confidence in the context of culturally centered, racially concordant midwifery care in Memphis, Tennessee
SON: Family Health Care Nursing

UCSF Pancreas Center Program

Pilot Award for Pancreas Cancer

Gregory Allen, MD, PhD
Establishing new more rigorous pancreatic tumor models for pre-clinical evaluation of next-gen CAR T cell designs
SOM: Medicine

Research Evaluation & Allocation Committee SOM (REAC)

Pilot for Early Career Investigators

Qili Liu, PhD
Cellular and molecular basis of sugar-specific appetite
SOM: Anatomy

Erin Reilly, PhD
Testing Changes in Learning and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor as Processes Driving Clinical Change in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa
SOM: Psychiatry

Pilot for Established Investigators

Manish Aghi, MD, PhD, MAS
Skull Bone Marrow Contributes Antigen Presenting Hybrid Neutrophils to the Glioblastoma Microenvironment
SOM: Neurological Surgery, Weill Institute for Neurosciences

Aaron Diaz, PhD
Targeting ZSCAN4 mediated telomere repair in pediatric brain tumors
SOM: Neurological Surgery, Weill Institute for Neurosciences

Mohsen Malekinejad, MD, MPH, DrPH
Project Identify: Digital Exposure Notification Priorities for Global Outbreak Response
SOM: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Anjana Sharma, MD, MAS
Patient and Community Engagement in Residency Selection - A Pilot Study
SOM: Family Community Medicine

Neel Singhal, MD, PhD
Targeting PATJ to improve neuro-recovery following ischemic stroke
SOM: Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences

Shared Technology Awards

Yan Li, PhD
Dual-tuned 1H/2H Head Coil for 7T MRI
SOM: Radiology

Team Science Grant

Joanne Engel, MD, PhD
Host-pathogen EM2Gen: bringing multi-scale molecular understanding to Chlamydia hijacking of its host
SOM: Medicine

Debbie Madhok, MD
Early Identification and Triage of Neurologic Causes of Cardiac Arrest for Precision Resuscitation
SOM: Emergency Medicine

Philip Rosenthal, MD
Impacts of antimalarial preventive therapy during pregnancy on the gut microbiome
SOM: Medicine

Under-represented Faculty in Clinical & Translational Research

Patience Afulani, PhD, MD, MPH
Development of a Person-Centered Postnatal Care Scale
SOM: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Center for Tuberculosis

Mentored Scientist Award in Tuberculosis

Jonathan Budzik, MD, PhD
Determining the Mechanism of M. tuberculosis Growth Restriction in TAX1BP1-deficient alveolar macrophages
SOM: Medicine

Suzanne Dufault, PhD
Identifying the Optimal Durations of TB Therapeutics: Implementing Candidate Dose-Ranging Methods to Efficiently Model the Treatment Duration-Response Curve
SOM: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Weihao Zhang, PhD
Epitranscriptomic regulation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in macrophages
SOM: Medicine

Team Science Grant for Tuberculosis Research

Mohamad Dandan, PhD
How does kasugamycin inhibit protein translation initiation in a context-specific fashion in Mycobacterium tuberculosis?
SOM & SOP: Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences