Research News - February 5, 2016

Have you ever gone through the hassle of importing a mouse strain only to find out later that your neighbor at MGH already had the same mouse?

The MGH MouseShare Resource enables investigators to post and search for genetic mouse strains within the Partners research community to help avoid unnecessary importation of mice from outside sources.  Link to it from the MGH Research Intranet under Animal Care, or click here https://bioshare.mgh.harvard.edu (must be accessed behind Partners firewall).

Email ECOR (ecor@mgh.harvard.edu) if you have any questions or need help entering strains into the system.

Enterprise Research Infrastructure & Services (ERIS) has identified a few Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) vendors that meet the business and security requirements for Partners Healthcare workforce members focused on scientific laboratory research. We are now seeking feedback from the research community for technical and feature requirements.

Vendors will present their solutions on the following dates:
February 16th (BWH, Carrie Hall Conference Room) 2:00 – 4:00 PM
February 18th (MGH, Simches Room 3.110) 2:30 – 4:00 PM
February 24th (MGH, Simches Room 3.110) 2:30 – 4:00 PM

Researchers should evaluate the products based on their laboratory workflow requirements. ERIS will gather end-user requirements, use cases, and identify labs interested in piloting the selected service. Follow-up round-table discussions will be planned for early March.

Please attend all sessions to evaluate all vendors. Remote meeting details (WebEx) will be sent to registered participants who cannot attend the onsite meetings. We will record the sessions for those that cannot attend at the specified times.

Replacing paper lab notebooks with ELNs has many advantages: ELNs streamline the documentation and protection of intellectual property, help scientists collaborate, and make scientific data and observations associated with experiments easier to search, find and use. However, adoption of ELNs at Partners HealthCare has been slow due to a number of barriers including access and cost.

Contact Jillian Tonelli with questions.

Along with its new name the Partners Clinical Trials Office (CTO) mailbox for the PHS research community to contact the CTO for information has a new name as well.  The dedicated CTO Help Line
617-954-9392 remains the same.

The new mailbox address is CTOmailbox@partners.org.  The PHS research community may use this for information, assistance and answers to questions related to industry-sponsored clinical research contract and budget negotiation and approval, fund activation, Medicare Coverage Analysis and Medicare device petition issues.  

The CTO Help Line 617-954-9392 and CTO Mailbox CTOmailbox@partners.org  are listed on the Navigator.

Experienced CTO staff with knowledge of industry-sponsored clinical research contract and budget negotiations and approval, fund activation, Medicare Coverage Analysis, Medicare device petition and, institutional policies and procedures will respond to calls and emails within one business day.

In February the deal making portion of the Partners Innovation team will move to its new home in Kendall Square – the global center of life science discovery and application. The new location at 215 First Street in Kendall Square will allow us to take direct advantage of the record density of pharma/biopharma leaders, investors, entrepreneurs and scientists in this neighborhood. We will be located in the historic Athenaeum building with dozens of early stage companies (including PHS spin-offs), investors and entrepreneurs – directly adjacent to new BMS, Bluebird, Biogen, Genzyme and IBM facilities, among others – and a walk or short ride to MGH and BWH. We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge. For more information, visit our revitalized website at innovation.partners.org

Please click here to read the latest update from the NIH Office of Extramural Research.

Please click here to read the latest news from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Thursday, February 11, 2:00 -3:00 pm, Ether Dome

“A Research Trajectory with Preterm Infants: Improving Outcomes for Infants and Families”
Jacqueline M. McGrath, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN
Associate Dean, Research and Scholarship
U. Connecticut, School of Nursing, Storrs, CT
Director, Nursing Research, Connecticut Children’s Medical Cente, Hartford, CT

For more information: Call 617-643-0431 or e-mail llyster@partners.org

Tuesday, February 9, 4:00 -5:00 pm, CNY 149, Room 2.204

Redox Regulation of Cardiomyocyte Renewal
Hesham Sadek, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center

The Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) is accepting applications for the April 1st deadline for the Deliberative Interim Support Funding.  April is the 2nd of three standing deadlines for these awards in Fiscal Year 2016.  The next deadline will be August 1, 2016.  

What are they?
Deliberative Interim Support Funding
This is open to Principal Investigators during a lapse or delay in their research funding from the NIH or another Federal agency (e.g., the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense).  Investigators must have applied for independent, long-term support (R01, R21, U01 and P01).  The Deliberative Interim Support process is open to:

1. Investigators whose grants were not scored or whose scores were not translated into a percentile ranking.
2. Investigators whose grants received scores >20th percentile.
3. Investigators who have already received Formulaic Bridge Funding or Deliberative Interim Support on their A0 grant application and are now requesting support for their A1 or A0 resubmission.  Investigators in this category must apply through the Deliberative Interim Support process for their A1 and A0 resubmission regardless of the score they received on their resubmitted grant.

When is the deadline?
Friday, April 1, 2016 - 5:00 PM

How do I learn more and apply?
Deliberative Interim Support Funding - Click here

Intent to apply due March 4, 2016

The NIH ORIP's Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) program supports the purchase of research equipment in the $50,000 to $600,000 price range. Examples of instrumentation supported by SIG funding include nuclear magnetic resonance systems, electron and confocal microscopes, mass spectrometers, protein and DNA sequencers, biosensors, X-ray diffractometers and cell sorters. For research equipment exceeding the $600,000 price range, investigators may apply for the High-End Instrumentation (HEI) Grant Program.

The MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) has again committed funding to provide institutional support this year for Shared Instrumentation Grant and High-End Instrumentation (HEI) Grant proposals. ECOR has made this commitment because it recognizes that institutional support greatly increases the likelihood that a SIG or HEI application will be funded.

Several required application components for submitting an S10 grant to the NIH were changed in 2014 for this call and ECOR will be preparing this information and including it with the institutional letter of support.  The changes include:

• The institution must now explicitly state a commitment to provide financial support for the proposed financial plan should a shortfall be experienced due to a lack of other grant funding or chargeback/volume fluctuations (see Sect. IV).
  • A separate communication will be sent directly to department chiefs addressing the support of financial plans for submitted applications.
• The institution must also provide a Letter of Support that includes a table that provides information about instrument performance of all previous S10 awards for instruments awarded or installed within the past five years.
  • To meet this requirement, any recipient of an S10 award from 2011-present will be asked to provide specific details that will be used to support all shared instrumentation grants going forward. A separate email will be sent directly to the PIs to which this applies.

How to Apply
Due to increased administrative components required for these grants to be submitted for review going forward, we ask that any investigator who will be seeking institutional support to email their intent to apply to ecor@partners.org no later than Friday, March 4. This email should simply be a statement of intent to apply with the contact information for the PI intending to apply as well as their administrator. Once we have received this email, we will contact you with next steps on how to proceed.

If you have questions, please contact MGH ECOR at ecor@partners.org or call Erin McGivney at 617-643-6471.

Four Year Award for Investigators who are Underrepresented in Academic Medicine*

*Basic, Clinical, Translational, and Health Services investigators are all eligible

Applications for grants are invited by the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) and the Executive Committee on Research (ECOR). 

What is the Award?
The MGH Physician and/or Scientist Development Award (PSDA) is designed for MD and/or PhD investigators at MGH who are considered underrepresented in academic medicine (URM). This Award is intended to provide transitional funding for support in the development of physicians and scientists underrepresented in academic medicine, and thereby increase opportunities for URM researchers to advance to senior positions in academic medicine at MGH.  The CDI will evaluate the need for this Award on a regular basis.

Am I URM (Underrepresented in Medicine)?
For the purposes of the PSDA, MGH follows the definition of underrepresented in medicine and biomedical research (URM) of the NIH and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  URM groups may include Latino/ Hispanic (including Brazilian), African-American/Black, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Natives, among others. Please note that Asians are not considered URM, UNLESS they are underrepresented relative to the population MGH serves, e.g., Cambodian or Laotian.

How much is the award?
A maximum of $120,000.00 will be awarded to be spent over a three or four-year period, with a maximum of $40,000.00 per year of funding in direct costs, plus 15% for indirect costs.

When is the deadline?
Friday, March 18, 2016 – 4:00 PM

How do I learn more and apply?
Click here to read more and apply online

Partners HealthCare Innovation and Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) are pleased to announce a Partners-wide call for proposals for projects leading to the development of novel large molecule therapeutics. The proposed large molecule therapeutics could include either antibodies, proteins, peptides, ADCs or fusion proteins. The CTI program supports collaborative research in focus areas of oncology, inflammation and Immune disorders, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and rare monogenic genetic diseases. The deadline for submitting a 2-3 page, non-confidential pre-proposal to Partners Innovation office is Friday, February 26, 2016.  Additional information, including a flyer and the pre-proposal template, are available here: http://innovation.partners.org/about/special-programs. If you have additional questions or to submit the pre-proposal, please contact Seema Basu at ssbasu@partners.org

The Center for the Human Immunology (CHI) is a multidisciplinary program funded by NIAID.  CHI promotes the research of both basic and clinical scientists in areas related to the persistence of hepatitis C virus infection. 

These include, but are not limited to:

• Immune and Inflammatory Responses to Pathogens (including innate immune recognition and antigen presentation)
• Viral Pathogenesis (including virus-host cell interactions, but related to the immune response)

GOALS:  Funds have been made available to support Pilot/Feasibility Study grants consistent with the overall goals of the Center.  The goals of the CHI Program are to support:

• Young investigators (junior faculty or senior fellows*) working in areas that will improve our understanding of basic processes relevant to viral persistence. 
• Established investigators initiating a new area of research in their laboratories relevant to mechanisms underlying viral persistence.

The objective of a Pilot/Feasibility Study grant is to enable an investigator to complete sufficient preliminary studies to enable successful application for more substantial funding from other sources.  Pilot/Feasibility Study grants are not intended to supplement ongoing or currently funded projects.  

FUNDING:  The CHI will be funding grants of up to $50,000 direct costs through this program.  Pilot/Feasibility Study awards are made for a one-year period; a second year may be considered on a competing basis. 

APPLICATIONS:  May be obtained by sending a request to Barbara Steele via telephone at 617-724-7554 or via email at bsteele@mgh.harvard.edu.  The deadline for receipt of applications is March 4, 2016.

* Fellow must be in the final year of training and must have a documented commitment to a faculty appointment by the sponsoring unit or department.  

Please contact Corporate & Foundation Relations in the Office of Development at devcfr@mgh.harvard.edu if you wish to submit a proposal in response to any of these funding opportunities.  Note that proposals are still routed through the standard InfoEd/Research Management process.

• Program to Accelerate Clinical Trials (PACT), Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF)
• International Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship Program, American-Italian Cancer Foundation (AICF)
• Suzanne and Bob Wright Trailblazer Award Program, Autism Speaks (AS)
• Research Grants, Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation (CBTF)
• Damon Runyon-Sohn Pediatric Cancer Fellowship Award, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
• Clinical Fellowship Training Program, Dystonia Medical Research Foundation (DMRF)
• FIRST Research Grant Program, Foundation for Ichthyosis and Related Skin Types (FIRST)
• Edmond J. Safra Core Program for PD Research - Target Advancement Program - Target Optimization Awards, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF)
• Edmond J. Safra Core Program for PD Research - Target Advancement Program - Target Validation Awards, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF)
• Policies for Action:  Policy and Law Research to Build a Culture of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
• Center Support, Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine
• Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation

Please click here for further details on these funding opportunities.

We ask that all MGH Investigators interested in applying for any limited submission award submit a Letter of Intent (see detailed instructions below) to the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) by the deadline indicated for each award to be considered to receive an institutional nomination.

Process
Submit a one- to two-page Letter of Intent (LOI) to the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) via email to ecor@partners.org.  In addition to your LOI, please include an NIH Biosketch.

The letter of intent should include:

• Name of the Principal Investigator with appropriate contact information
• A descriptive title of the potential application
• Brief description of the project
• Brief description of why you specifically should be selected to receive institutional nomination for this award

In the event that there is more than one MGH investigators interested in applying for each limited submission award, the LOIs will be used to assess candidates and a review and selection process will take place.

Current Limited Submission Funding Opportunities
Please click here for more information and for our internal deadlines.

• International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (U19)
• 2016 Hyundai Hope On Wheels Pediatric Cancer Research Funding
• Cohort Study to Assess Population Impact of Current and Evolving Chronic Viral Hepatitis Treatment – NEW!

If there is a limited submission funding opportunity you do not see listed above or you have any additional questions, please contact Erin McGivney at 617-643-6471.

For the latest National Institutes of Health notices, requests for applications, and program announcements, follow this link: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/WeeklyIndex.cfm

MGH ECOR Formulaic Bridge Funding Support
Application Deadline: February 7, 2016; 7th day of each month

2016 Partners HealthCare $1 million Innovation Discovery Grants Program (IDG)
Application Deadline: February 19, 2016

The Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard (NORC-H) Pilot Feasibility Project Grants in Nutrition, Obesity, or Related Research Fields
Application Deadline:  April 1, 2016

KL2 Catalyst Medical Research Investigator Training (CMeRIT) Award
Application Deadline: April 14, 2016

Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC) Accepting PILOT & DRIVE Grant Pre-Proposals

SAVE THE DATE! SAC 2016 - April 6 & 7

Innovation at Partners HealthCare: Fall Newsletter

Information Systems News - Fall 2015

Partners Office for Interactions with Industry’s FY15 Annual Report

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