Dear Colleagues,

The research newsletter is back after a brief summer pause. We hope that the Fall quarter is off to a great start for your research programs. We want to support UCSF's efforts to shorten activation time for research studies requiring IRB review and contracts. One of the ways that we can help is for those faculty with the necessary experience to offer their expertise on the IRB. See below for a list of high priority areas. This month, we bring you a Q&A section on APeX Enabled Research or AER. If you work with or are considering a research effort that will use APeX data, scroll down to learn more. We also would like to congratulate the Career Development awardees and Dean’s Diversity Fund awardees below and recognize the incredible work they have been doing.

Wishing you a successful and fulfilling start to the academic year.

All the best, 

Diane and David

Diane Havlir, MD, Associate Chair for Clinical Research

David Erle, MD, Associate Chair for Biomedical Research

Ed Kuczynski has updated his list of IRB Additional Member Expertise Needed to include a clinical neurologist. Please contact Ed Kuczynski directly if you have questions or are willing to serve.

• Oncology (especially solid tumor, neuro-oncology, and breast subspecialists)
• Cardiology (preferably an interventional cardiologist)
• Gastroenterology (clinical neurologist, no particular subspecialty)

Outside of DOM, encourage any colleagues you know in theses areas:

• Clinical neurologist
• Radiology (especially a VA radiologist and an MRI subspecialist)
• Dental school faculty with clinical research experience

Lin Shen, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at UCSF Health, received a K08 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a project entitled, "Dissecting the Interactions Between TCR Signaling Strength and Inhibitory Pathways."

Richard Wang, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine at ZSFG, received a K23 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for a project entitled, "The Changing Epidemiology of Lung Health: Opportunities for Research on Cannabis and HIV Disease (The ORCHID Study)."

Congratulations

to the 2022 DOM

John A. Watson 

Faculty Scholars and recipients of the 

Dean’s Diversity Fund awards:

                                                                        (Pictured from left to right)

Ashraf Abugroun, MBBS, Assistant Professor

Division of Hospital Medicine, UCSF Health

William Brown, III, PhD, DrPH, MA, Assistant Professor

Division of Prevention Science, UCSF Health 

Ana Velazquez Manana, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor

Division of Hematology and Oncology, ZSFG

The UCSF School of Medicine Dean’s Diversity Fund was established in 2015 to support the recruitment and retention of faculty who share the University’s commitment to diversity and our belief that we have the responsibility to care for underserved and vulnerable populations. The awards provide faculty with three-year, $75,000 per year support to develop their academic interests, as well as pursue activities that contribute to the community.

Need APeX for your research?

Use the APeX Enabled Research Program

The APeX Enabled Research Program (AER) is at your service!  

AER supports the use of APeX for faculty-initiated projects by providing expert consultation and technical services. We help design your digital health intervention, prepare your grant, navigate governance steps, implement your ideas, and support your data safety monitoring activities. 

What’s already been done using AER services? 

Case Study: Dr. F developed an algorithm to help make treatment recommendations for patients with uncontrolled hypertension. He wanted to translate the algorithm into physician decision support and evaluate its efficacy in a randomized trial.  

The AER team helped Dr. F with: 

• Grant application, including budgets and letters of support 
• Design and development of the decision support tools and randomization schema 
• Servers, security, interoperability needed to translate the algorithm into APeX 
• Prototyping of the tools prior to use 
• Governance review to ensure the project is aligned with UCSF Health goals 
• Launch and evaluation 

How do you start?  

Fill out a simple form at researchsolutions@ucsf.edu. We'll contact you to set up a meeting to hear about your project and go from there.  

Do you need to pay for AER services? 

The AER team will meet with you to understand your project. After the AER team meets with you, they charge an hourly recharge.

What is one thing you would like the research community to know about AER?

Research projects utilizing APeX are fun and complex – so get ready to dig in! AER is here to help at every step of the way – from idea conception through grant submission to implementation and evaluation. For more information, contact us! Please also feel free to email Beth Berrean, Mark Pletcher or Andy Auerbach anytime. 

DOM PREPARE Program

Requests for grant reviews are accepted on an ongoing basis

Since 2019, the DOM PREPARE program has offered reviews for all of the award types shown below. Even if you don't see the award type you are applying for here, we suggest submitting it to the PREPARE team for assessment. To request a review of your own, click the button below. 

For more information about the program, click here.

UCSF CHIC K12 4th Cycle Now Open!

Application deadline is October 3

CHIC (Cardiopulmonary, Hematologic, and Immunologic Comorbidities of HIV) is a NHLBI funded K12 program at UCSF led by Laurence Huang, MD, and Priscilla Hsue, MD, that seeks to support MD, MD/PhD, and PhD scholars who are dedicated to independent research careers conducting clinical and translational research in HIV-related heart, lung, and blood comorbidities. The programs goal is produce the ‘next generation’ of researchers in HIV-associated heart, lung and blood diseases. The CHIC program will provide individualized and tailored research training and career development using an interdisciplinary, team-science, and team-mentoring approach that combines didactic training in research methods with supervised research under the guidance of an experienced faculty mentor and mentoring team.

CHIC Scholars receive (per year, for one year*):

•      $100,000 salary plus accompanying fringe benefits

•    Up to $30,000 for research and career development support that can be used for research personnel, equipment, supplies, tuition and fees for career development courses and activities, and/or travel related to research or career development

* At this stage of the CHIC program, funding is only available for 1 year.

Applicants must be planning an independent research career in HIV-related heart, lung, or blood research and possess an MD, PhD, or equivalent. For questions, contact Jessica Fitzpatrick. 

For more information, click the button below. 

2023 NIH Loan Repayment Program

Application deadline is November 17

The next application cycle opens September 1, 2022 and closes November 17, 2022. Each new LRP recipient can receive up to $100,000 to repay qualified educational debt in exchange for a two-year commitment to research. For those interested in applying, there will be several activities designed to help you prepare a successful application.

For more information, click the button below. 

Preliminary Data on Childcare Cost Support for National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellows

In April 2021, recognizing the high cost of childcare, NIH began allowing recipients of full-time National Research Service Awards (NRSA) fellowships to request support for childcare costs. Fellows could make these requests in new and continuation applications or as administrative supplements to existing awards. Each fellow is now eligible to receive up to $2,500 per budget period to defray childcare costs. One of NIH’s main goals continues to be ensuring that early career researchers can successfully complete their training and fully participate in the extramural research workforce.

For more information, click the button below.