Our DRC emphasizes the pilot and feasibility grant program as an important mechanism to augment diabetes research and promote the next generation of research leaders. The P&F process taps a rich tradition of such programs at UAB. University-wide centers have long provided pilot funding opportunities to junior faculty and to senior faculty entering new areas of research. The P&F program will foster new research programs in diabetes and support a broad base of basic, clinical, translational, and prevention and control projects.
The process for applying for the DRC Pilot and Feasibility Grant is meant to mimic, in some ways, the application process for an NIH Grant. The idea is to give experience and practice for those who haven’t written yet or who have written a few NIH proposals. Examples of the necessary documents with pertinent UAB specific information are below. A very thorough Resources section for all of our DRC Cores is in the example. The UAB Office of Sponsored Programs website, Researcher’s Toolkit has information such as the Finance & Administrative rate agreement (Indirect Cost rate) and Fringe Benefit rates which change frequently.
Office of Sponsored Programs, Researcher’s Toolkit
RFA for Diabetes Pilot Grant Program 2024 (PDF)
Eligibility
In October of every year a campus-wide request for applications (RFA) is sent to seek proposals from (i) junior investigators; (ii) established investigators in fields other than diabetes research that seek to bring expertise to issues relevant for diabetes for the first time; (iii) investigators in diabetes-related research who propose high-impact/high-risk projects to test truly innovative ideas that clearly depart from ongoing research interests; and (iv) a special category for multidisciplinary projects, added in part by leveraging institutional support for pilot projects that involve both basic and clinical scientists who combine efforts in "translational" research protocols. Awardees have used P&F funding to develop preliminary data sufficient to pursue larger, more comprehensive funding initiatives.
Our aims are to:
- Identify and support new outstanding and innovative research projects for pilot funding, intending that resulting data will facilitate larger longer-term extramural support and develop news line of investigation.
- Support promising junior faculty in career development through funding of outstanding pilot research.
- Augment the breadth and quality of DRC research through highly innovative projects of established researchers in fields other than diabetes who bring valuable expertise to the study of diabetes, or of established diabetes investigators testing new high-impact hypotheses distinct from their usual investigation.
- Increase the number of independent investigators funded by NIH to conduct diabetes research
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2023 Awardees
Principal Investigator P.I. Department Clinical or Basic Project Title Dollars Awarded Plaisance, Eric, PhD Associate Professor, Depart. Nutrition Sciences Basic Role of exogenous ketone esters on hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism $45,000 Bril, Fernando, MD Assistant Professor, Endocrinology & Diabetes Clinical Hyperglycemia-induced Hepatic Mitochondrial Dysfunction Explains Worse Liver Histology in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Type 2 Diabetes $45,000 Arthur, Edmund, OD, PhD, FAAO Assistant Professor, Department of Optometry and Vision Science Clinical Quantifying Differences in the Retinal Peripheral Capillary Free Zones in Diabetic Retinopathy $45,000 He, Ming, MD, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology Basic Histone H3 O-GlcNAcylation in Endothelial Cells Contributes to Diabetes-accelerated Atherosclerosis $45,000 Nanda, Vivek, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology Basic Role of Lmod1 in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Impaired Ischemic Neovessel maturation $45,000 -
2022 Awardees
Principal Investigator P.I. Department Clinical or Basic Project Title Dollars Awarded Bibb, James, PhD Professor and Vice Chair, General Surgery Gastrointestinal Section Basic Antibiotic Treatment of Stress-High Sugar Diet-Linked Anxiodepression $50,000 Grant, Maria B., MD, FARVO (PI) Professor, Department of Ophthalmology Basic The role of hypothalamic somatostatin in the regulation of the brain-adipose axis in the high fat diet (HFD) mouse model $50,000 Ramanadham, Sasanka (PI) Professor, Department of Cell, Developmental, and Integrative Biology Basic Lipid-Signaling to Novel Epigenetic Transcriptional Events (Yr02) $50,000 Schmitt. Jessica, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Clinical Use of Continuous Glucose Monitors to improve outcome in Youth with Pre-Diabetes. $50,000 Wajapeyee, Narendra, PhD Professor and Vice Chair, Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics Basic Chromatin modifiers as Regulators of Insulin Signaling and Insulin Resistance $50,000 -
2021 Awardees
Principal Investigator Department Project Title Dollars Awarded Paula Chandler-Laney, PhD Professor, Department of Nutrtion Sciences Identifying cardiometabolic biomarkers of executive dysfunction in children $50,000 Scott Ballinger, PhD Professor, Department of Pathology, Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology Podocyte-specific Insulin Receptor Deficiency in Ischemic Acute Kidney Injury $50,000 Andrew Hardaway, PhD Associate Professor, Psychiatryand Behavioral Neurobiology Insulin Receptor Modulation of the Central Amygdala $50,000 Carrie Howell, PhD Clinical Research Scientist, Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive Medicine Social Determinant of Health (SDoH) Phenotypes and Type 2 Diabetes: Harnessing Data to Develop Targeted Interventions $50,000 Sushant Bhatnagar, PhD Assistant Professor, Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism Identify Secreted Protein Regulators that Affect Islet Function in Human Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) using Network Analysis on Combined Public Omic Data Sets $50,000 -
2020 Awardees
Principal Investigator Department Project Title Dollars Awarded Grant, Maria, MD Ophthalmology Identifying cardiometabolic biomarkers of executive dysfunction in children $50,000 Marshall, Caroline B., MD Medicine, Division of Nephrology Podocyte-specific Insulin Receptor Deficiency in Ischemic Acute Kidney Injury $50,000 Gorbatyuk, Marina, PhD Optometry and Vision Science Target validation for diabetic retinopathy $50,000 Williams, Jessica, PhD Health Services Administration Clinician Implicit Bias and Perceived Barriers to Medication Intensification: A Pilot & Feasibility Study $50,000 Xie, Min, MD, PhD Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Disease HDAC Upregulation by Chronic Beta-Hydroybutyrate Exposure Exacerbates Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury During Diabetes Mellitus $50,000 -
2019 Awardees
Principal Investigator Department Project Title Dollars Awarded Gowey, Marissa, PhD Med - Pediatrics Identifying cardiometabolic biomarkers of executive dysfunction in children $50,000 Li Li, MD, PhD Psych - Behavioral Neurobiology Characterize Cardiometabolic Risks in Adolescents: Impact of Early Life Stress $50,000 Mehta, Tapan, PhD, MSEE Health Services Administration Cardiometabolic Disease Staging System to Improve Medical Management of Obesity and Diabetes in Primary Care Settings: A Feasibility Study. $50,000 Presley, Caroline, PhD Preventive Medicine Mindfullness, Emotional Distress, and Diabetes Self-management Behaviors in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes. $50,000 Ramanadham, Sasanka, PhD
Hunter, Chad, PhD
Wende, Adam, PhDCell, Developmental and Integrative Biology Linking Novel Lipid-Signaling with Transcriptional Events $50,000 -
2018 Awardees
Principal Investigator Department Project Title Dollars Awarded De Miguel, Carmen, PhD Medicine/Division of Nephrology The roles of miR-150 and miR-145 in adipocyte lipid metabolism and glucose homeostasis $48,000 Nagareddy, Prabhakara R. PhD Nutrition Sciences Mechanisms of S100A8/A9 regulation in diabetic neutrophils $48,000 Peterson, Courtney, PhD Nutrition Sciences Effect of whole fruit on glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes $48,000 Thirumalai, Mohanraj, PhD Health Services Administration An artificial intelligence assisted telehealth intervention to promote self-management in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus $48,000 Willig, Amanda PhD Medicine/ Division of Infectious Diseases Improving the quality of food assistance for people living with HIV and diabetes $48,000 -
2017 Awardees
Principal Investigator Department Project Title Dollars Awarded Banerjee, Ronadip R., PhD Medicine - Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Molecular Mechanisms of Pancreatic β-cell Metabolic Adaptation During Pregnancy $40,000 Bhatnagar, Sushant, PhD Medicine - Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism The role of C1ql3 secreted protein in insulin secretion from pancreatic islets. $40,000 Chen, Ching-Yi, PhD Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics The roles of miR-150 and miR-145 in adipocyte lipid metabolism and glucose homeostasis $20,000 -
2016 Awardees
Principal Investigator Department Project Title Dollars Awarded hevde-Samant, Lalita, PhD Pathology Investigating the nexus of diabetes and Hedgehog signaling in triple-negative breast cancer $25,000 Xu, Guanlan Medicine - Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Role of miR-204 in regulating beta cell unfolded protein response and apoptosis in diabetes $45,000 Yang, Qinglin, PhD Nutrition Sciences Define a novel approach preserving pancreatic beta-cells in diabetes $45,000 Goss, Amy Miskimon, PhD, RD Nutrition Sciences Carbohydrate restricted diet to reverse fatty liver in adolescents with obesity $45,000 -
Previous Awardees 2008 - 2015