Research News - June 23, 2017

As a service to patients, visitors, and employees, Partners HealthCare provides complimentary shuttle rides to sites across the health system and the Greater Boston area. Partners serves 2.5 million riders each year, helping them to get the care they need, as well as reach educational sites and other offices.

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

Is there an innovation that is making work and life in the lab more productive or efficient? Or one that has allowed for an entirely new line of inquiry? We at The Scientist want to hear about it. Whether you work for a company that makes a new gadget that is poised to revolutionize life science or you use an innovation-driving tool or technology in your lab, your insight could help us recognize the hottest new products and earn them a coveted spot in The Scientist’s annual Top 10 Innovations list. But your tool, tech, or method can’t win if you don’t submit.

Last year, our judging panel highlighted single-cell Western blot platforms, new CRISPR reagents, a high-powered camera, a SMRT sequencer, and more. As we’ve witnessed from years past, winners don’t just make a splash when they come on the scene, they make a long-lasting and profound impact on research.

We can’t wait to see what products our readers bring to our attention, and with our streamlined submission process, we’ve made it even easier to submit an innovation.

Just make sure that the product you’re entereing was released after October 1, 2016, complete a brief questionnaire, and your submission will be entered in the competition.

Click here to submit!

To learn more about the history of our Top 10 Innovations competition, read all about previous years’ winners.

June 27, 4:00 – 5:00 pm, CNY 149, Rm 2.204

The AMPK/ULK1/p27Kip1 axis regulates cell survival in aged muscle stem cells
James White, PhD
Assistant Professor
Duke University Medical Center

Thursday, June 29, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Garrod/Mendel Conference Room
Clinical Research Coordinators, What would you have liked to know when you started your job? What difficult and challenging situations have you encountered? Please come and share your wisdom to help the Division of Clinical Research create a course for future coordinators. Lunch will be provided.
Course Facilitators: Karen K. Miller, MD and Andrew A. Nierenberg, MD

Registration is required. Please contact Tiereny Morrison-Rolfs at tmorrison-rohlfs@partners.org with any questions.

Thursday, July 6, 5:00-7:00 pm, Charlestown Navy Yard, CNY 114 lawn

Sponsored by the Graduate Student Division, the Post Doctoral Division and the Mass General Post Doc Association (MGPA).

Come join the GSD, PDD and the MGPA at this outdoor event where you can meet and socialize with other graduate students and postdocs. Lots of fun and food are guaranteed!

GSD, PDD, and MGPA Networking BBQ

*Open to Graduate Students and Research Fellows only*

Thursday, July 13, 10:00am – 12:00pm, Simches 3.120

Sponsored by the MGH Division of Clinical Research and the MGH Office of Research Compliance

Pamela Richtmyer, Senior Research Compliance Associate, MGH Research Compliance

This presentation will provide a basic overview of clinical research billing.  Attendees will gain a general understanding of the clinical research billing process including:

• Developing a study budget that will cover all costs
• Epic research billing responsibilities
• Determining what is billable to insurance
• Routing charges appropriately
• Insight Patient Care Correction process
• Maintaining financial health of study
• Understanding relevant regulations and requirements
• Available resources

The Clinical Trial Billing Education Series is provided by MGH Research Compliance for the MGH Division of Clinical Research.

This course is geared towards investigators, research nurses, study coordinators, project managers, and all other study staff.

This program meets the requirements of the Board of Registration in Nursing, at 244 CMR 5.00, for 1 contact hour of nursing continuing education.

Registration is required. Contact Tiereny Morrison-Rohlfs with questions.

Wednesday & Thursday, July 12 - 13, The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115

On behalf of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard, we would like to extend registration to our 18th Annual Symposium, which will take place in July. Please consider registering, as this is a very educational event to attend. Registration is free and we welcome everyone- students, physicians, community members, academic faculty, etc. Click here to register.

Contact: HarvardNORC@mgh.harvard.edu with any questions.

Thursday, October 5

On Thursday, October 5, MGH will celebrate the 15th Annual Clinical Research Day. The Division of Clinical Research invites investigators from across the hospital to submit abstracts at https://crp2017.abstractcentral.com/login by the July 10th deadline.

Please note that submissions must be about clinical research conducted at MGH and may include manuscripts published or submitted for publication between September 2016 and July 2017.

MGH awards for best abstracts:

• $5,000 Team Award (Nominations by chiefs required)
• $1,500 Translational Research Award, sponsored by the Department of Molecular Biology
• $1,000 Individual Award
• Departmental Awards for clinical researchers include: Anesthesia, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Medicine, Neurology, Ob/Gyn, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pathology, Pediatric Surgery, Pediatrics, Performance Analysis and Improvement/Practice Improvement, Psychiatry, Radiology, and Surgery

Clinical Research Day will begin at 8 a.m. with the keynote address delivered by Dr. Daniel J. Rader, Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Please contact Jillian Tonelli with any questions.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, September - October 2017, 5:00pm – 6:30pm, Potts Conference Room

Sponsored by the MGH Division of Clinical Research, the Division of Infectious Diseases, and the Department of Psychiatry

Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials is an intensive thirteen-session course offered from early-September through late October. Physicians with a serious interest in clinical trials will be introduced to theoretical and practical issues facing clinical researchers.  Course participants will learn how to envision, plan, develop and execute effective clinical trials. Study content includes research designs, protocols, ethical patient recruitment, informed consent, regulations, and clinical trial management.

The course is ideally suited for clinical fellows starting their research years, junior faculty pursuing careers in clinical research, and physicians with an interest in becoming more actively involved in clinical research.  All participants are expected to use the course curriculum to develop and present a trial design at the final session of the course. 

Enrollment is limited to facilitate interaction and individual attention. To ensure placement in the course, early application is recommended. All applications will be reviewed in mid-August.

To submit an application and/or view a course schedule, please go to: Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials. Contact Tiereny Morrison-Rohlfs with any questions.

The Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) is accepting applications for the August 1st deadline for the Deliberative Interim Support Funding.  August is the third of three standing deadlines for these awards in Fiscal Year 2017.  The next deadline will be December 1, 2017.  

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 for a previous submission of this grant and are now requesting support for the resubmission of the same grant.  Investigators in this category must apply through the Deliberative Interim Support process for this application regardless of the score they received.

When is the deadline?
Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - 5:00 PM

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

Preliminary applications are now being accepted by the Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) for the NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards.

What are they?
The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award Program supports exceptional investigators who wish to pursue independent research directly after completion of their terminal doctoral/research degree or clinical residency, thereby forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period and accelerating their entry into an independent research career.

MGH is eligible to nominate two candidates to apply to NIH for this award.

When is the deadline?  
MGH internal preliminary applications: Monday July 10, 2017 – 5:00 PM

How do I learn more and apply?
Click here to for more information and to apply for this award.

Submissions due July 13
Can you identify a human health problem that might be resolved with big data and a computational solution? Submit a problem that falls within clinical and translational research. Topics covered might include diagnostics, therapeutics, public health, technology, or outcomes. Examples include: applying human genomic data to solve a scientific challenge, using epidemiologic or other data to address a public health issue, and using image analysis to resolve a diagnostic or therapeutic issue. Please visit the website for more information and FAQs.

The Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine, presented by the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – honors a physician-scientist who has moved science forward with notable achievements in innovation, creativity and potential for clinical application.
This annual prize includes:

• An unrestricted $20,000 honorarium
• The Harrington Prize Lecture, delivered at the 2018 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting
• Participation at the Harrington Discovery Institute Annual Symposium
• A personal essay, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation

This prize requires Institutional Nomination; MGH is not limited in the number of nominees we can submit. If you are interested, please contact MGH ECOR at ecor@partners.org by July 15, 2017 to be considered.

The Translational Research Institute (TRI), led by Baylor College of Medicine, has been tasked by NASA to identify and fund groundbreaking research and development that can reduce the risks to the health and performance of humans on space exploration missions. TRI is also committed to developing a robust and well-trained workforce that can enable NASA’s missions. TRI is releasing a funding opportunity that seeks to support the nation’s brightest postdoctoral fellows in performing research related to human space flight. Two-year fellowships are available in any U.S. laboratory carrying out biomedical research.

Fellowships enable young scientists to train as independent investigators with their own research projects while continuing to learn from experienced faculty mentors. The program serves as a mechanism to strengthen the high-tech workforce of the future.

Applicants must submit research proposals together with an identified mentor and institution. Independent investigators with existing research grant support may request to be listed as possible mentors in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document for this program by contacting TRI@nasaprs.com no later than June 29, 2017. Prospective mentors may also apply directly with their postdoctoral candidate without being listed in the FAQ document. The FAQ list is for prospective mentors who have not yet identified a postdoctoral candidate for this opportunity.

Selected applicants will receive a stipend for salary support, allowance for health insurance, and travel funds for related scientific meetings. An optional, competitive third year of support is possible. Funds to support the research itself must be supplied by the mentor.

All categories of United States (U.S.) institutions are eligible to submit proposals (universities, federal government laboratories, the private sector, and state and local government laboratories).

The solicitation is available at https://www.bcm.edu/centers/space-medicine/translational-research-institute/funding. Full proposals submitted through nspires.nasaprs.com will be due on July 31, 2017. Technical questions should be directed to the NSPIRES help desk at NSPIRES-help@nasaprs.com or TRI@nasaprs.com. Programmatic or scientific questions may be directed to Dr. Dorit Donoviel, TRI Interim Director at donoviel@bcm.edu.

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The Translational Research Institute (TRI) is funded by a cooperative agreement from NASA to Baylor College of Medicine with consortium partners California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Institute’s mission is to lead a national effort in translating cutting-edge, emerging terrestrial research into applied space flight and to support human risk-mitigation for exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit.

Click here to be notified of future TRI solicitation announcements.

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

If there is more than one MGH investigator 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.

• Pediatric Early Phase Clinical Trials Network (UM1)
• Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network on Infant Mortality (IM CoIIN)
• Gabrielle's Angel Foundation
• NIAMS Rheumatic Diseases Research Resource-based Centers (P30)
• Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (P30)
• George M. O'Brien Kidney Research Core Centers (P30)

Please note that any grant that brings in less than 15% in indirect costs (IDC) will need to be supplemented up to the 15% equivalent by existing investigator or departmental sundry funds. Resolution of this issue must occur prior to submission of the award.

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.

Week of 6/23/17

• Grant Opportunities, Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation (ACCRF)
• Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Dream Team Translational Research Grant, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
• Career Development Bridge Funding Award:  K Supplement, American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/Rheumatology Research Foundation
• Research Scholar Award (RSA), American Gastroenterological Association (AGA)/AGA Research Foundation
• Research in Robotic Surgical Technology, American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS)/Research Foundation of ASCRS
• Roslyn Faculty Research Award, Association for Academic Surgery (AAS)
• Career Development Grants, Cerebral Palsy Alliance/Research Foundation of Cerebral Palsy Alliance
• Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF)
• Research Grants, Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation (DTRF)
• Research Fellowship Grant (RFG), Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER)
• Mentored Research Training Grants (MRTG), Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER)
• Research in Education Grants (REG), Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER)
• Gilead Sciences Research Scholars Program in Hematology/Oncology, Gilead Sciences, Inc./Gilead Sciences Pty Ltd
• Research and Education Grants (MedEvac Foundation Grant Program), MedEvac Foundation International
• Target Challenge Seed Award, New England Pediatric Device Consortium (NEPDC)
• Research Grants and Fellowships, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA)/Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) Research Foundation
• Independent Grants for Learning & Change (IGL&C): Request for Proposals (RFP) - Dermatology Fellowship, Pfizer, Inc. 
• Independent Grants for Learning & Change (IGL&C): Request for Proposals (RFP) - Quality improvements in the Management of Atopic Dermatitis, Pfizer, Inc.
• Independent Grants for Learning & Change (IGLC): Track 2 - Call for Grant Applications (CGA) - Vaccine Preventable Diseases in the IBD Patient, Pfizer, Inc.
• Harrington Rare Disease Scholar Award Program, Takeda Foundation

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

HHMI Announces New Investigator Competition
Application Deadline: June 27, 2017

MGH ECOR Formulaic Bridge Funding Support
Application Deadline: July 7, 2017; 7th day of each month

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