Stanford School of Medicine
Research Management Group (RMG)

Stanford University Digestive Disease Center (DDC)
Pilot/Feasibility Studies on
Molecular Pathogenesis of Digestive Diseases

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***Funding Opportunity***

(sponsored by NIH-NIDDK Institute)

Internal Deadline: Dec. 10, 2007----revised  
(see letter of intent procedure below)

Amount of Funding:   $ $25,000 beginning March 1, 2008 for a period of one year.
We expect to award four-five Pilot grants. The total requested direct costs must not exceed $25,000 per investigator. The competition is a two-step application process that starts with a simple Letter of Intent (detailed below).

Contact information all applicants:
Linda Jacob, Digestive Disease Center administrator
Phone: 650-493-5000 x63349 email: lpjacob@Stanford.edu,
Alway Bldg., Rm. M211, Stanford, Mail code 5187.

Program Description:

The Stanford University Digestive Disease Center, sponsored by the NIH (NIDDK Institute), was established to enhance collaborations and to promote digestive disease research. The role of the Center is to provide means for integrating, coordinating and fostering interdisciplinary research on digestive diseases and related disorders.

Pilot/Feasibility (P/F) funds provide modest research support for one year to enable eligible investigators to develop new concepts or apply new techniques that will promote subsequent national-type funding such as R01, K08, R21 or Veterans Administration Merit Review and Career Development awards.

These P/F studies are used in four ways:
1) to provide initial support to new or junior investigators
2) to stimulate investigators from non-digestive disease related disciplines to use their expertise towards digestive disease research
3) to stimulate collaboration among researchers with interests in digestive disease
4) to allow exploration of possible innovative new directions for established investigators which represent a significant departure from on-going funded research and

The Center has several state-of-the-art Core services that provide support in a broad range of experimental tools (see Appendix I below). Pilot awardees will benefit from all the Core services offered by the Center, many of which are subsidized (see Center website:<http://ddc.stanford.edu> http://ddc.stanford.edu). Many of the Core services (e.g., FACS, Luminex, Tissue Microarrays, High-Throughput screening of compounds/siRNAs, Animal Imaging, Electron Microscopy and Tissue Histology) are part of existing Stanford University scientific facilities.

Eligibility: 

Members of the Stanford University Community who hold a Ph.D. and/or M.D. degree. 
Applicants may be: 
-- junior faculty (Instructor or Assistant Professor level investigators are particularly encouraged to apply)
-- senior trainees who will be applying for faculty positions within 1-2 years
-- faculty at any level who are proposing new pilot projects that will likely ultimately result in subsequent national funding (preference will be given to junior faculty)
Applications must have specific aims that are distinct from those of ongoing funded grants of the applicant or mentor (except for specific aims of a Career Development Award, e.g. K01, K08).
Preference will be given to junior investigators who have not yet obtained extramural support, or who have limited funding.
Those who have been awarded a pilot within the last 5 years are not eligible to apply.
US citizenship or permanent residence is not required.

Applicable areas for investigation:
Studies of host-microbial interaction in the GI tract and liver
Digestive disease models (mice or other simple organism models)
Digestive disease pathogenesis
Mucosal immunity
Digestive organ cancers 
Studies of the cell and molecular biology of digestive epithelia.
Projects can range from subcellular analysis to studies of whole organisms including human studies that have a molecular or cell biological basis.

Application Procedure: 

Phase ONE:  Letter of Intent Procedure:
By Dec. 10, 2007-revised, please send the following 4 items by ID mail (6 hard copies) AND electronically via email attachment to:
Linda Jacob, Digestive Disease Center administrator
Phone: 650-493-5000 x63349; email: lpjacob@Stanford.edu,
Alway Bldg., Rm. M211, Stanford, Mail code 5187.

(i) Title and an abstract of the proposal (300 word abstract that includes brief introduction, hypothesis, specific aims and significance).
(ii) NIH biosketch (including current, pending and funded grants and their specific aims).
(iii) One or two paragraphs describing your career plans, and how your proposed project fits with the investigative goals of your research program, and
(iv) If you are a trainee, a letter from your mentor regarding your projected independence.

Letters and any questions should be directed to Linda Jacob (see above contact information)

Phase TWO: Final Selection Process of Pilot/Feasibility Applications
8-10 selected candidates from Phase One will be notified by December 14, 2007 and invited to send a full application by Jan. 15, 2008. The final 8-10 applicants selected will need to work with their respective department's RPM in completing the SU-42 form (assuring that human and animal subjects and other institutional issues have been addressed). The ultimate P/F application will include 5 page research plan attached to an NIH PHS 398 form. Full application details will be provided to the selected candidates.

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Appendix I (DDC Core Services)

Core A: DDC Administrative Core
-- Named Investigator Program
-- Pilot Feasibility Program
-- Seminar Series Program
-- Annual Retreat
-- Annual Research Symposium

Core B: FACS/Immunoprobe
-- Flow cytometry
-- FACS vantage cell sorting
-- FACSCan and FACSCaliber analysis
-- Cell cycle analysis
-- Luminex system
-- Assistance with monoclonal antibody production, hybridoma fusion and subcloning

Core C: Cell Imaging and Tissue Microarrays
--  Transmission electron microscopy/ immunoelectron microscopy 
-- Assistance/ training in immunohistology
-- Laser capture microdissection
-- Tissue Microarrays

Core D: Proteomics/Genomics
--  DNA microarray
-- 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis
-- Mass spectrometry analysis
-- High-throughput screening - a) compound screening and assistance in developing high-throughput screens using a large commercial compound library (~130,000 compounds);
b) siRNA genomic library (targeting ~21,000 genes) screening and assistance in developing a screen.

Core E: Animal Imaging and Histology
-- In vivo whole animal optical or other molecular imaging or confocal imaging
-- CT, CT/PET, CT/SPECT, MRI animal imaging, ultrasound imaging/ultrasound guided injections
-- Tissue Histology

 

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