WHSC names 2016 Synergy Award recipients
Last spring, Woodruff Health Sciences Center researchers were invited to apply for internal grant funding through the first-ever cycle of WHSC Synergy Awards, created to support new collaborative research projects, from basic to clinical, among all disciplines in WHSC schools, centers, and faculty, from all levels of academic rank. Proposals had to include faculty with primary appointments in at least two schools as co-PIs and had to pertain to new research projects not yet funded or published. The awards would offer as much as $100,000 for one year, with potential carryover to a second year.
According to David Stephens, WHSC VP for research, the response was impressive. "Both the quantity and quality of the proposals we received were remarkable and emphasize the interest in opportunities for more collaboration in research."
The six winning proposals for 2016 have been announced, as follows:
- Relationship of the gut microbiome to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease: James Lah (neurology), Elizabeth Corwin (nursing), Viola Vaccarino (epidemiology)
- Evaluation of an intervention to increase post-abortion LARC Uptake: A randomized controlled trial of educational and financial counseling prior to clinical presentation: Kristin Wall (epidemiology), Lisa Haddad (gyn-ob), Victoria Phillips (health policy & management)
- Measuring fertility in reproductive-aged women diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus: Sam Lim (medicine), Penelope Howards (epidemiology)
- Does norovirus infection cause nutritional damage? A longitudinal analysis: Anne Williams (pediatrics), Ben Lopman (epidemiology), Parmi Suchdev (pediatrics)
- Advancing cancer screening and early detection among people living with HIV/AIDS: Theresa Gillespie (surgery), Jessica Wells (nursing)
- Optimizing screening mammography accuracy and adoption through improved recall rates: A multi-disciplinary investigation of the effects of human capital depreciation and fatigue on radiologist performance: Richard Duszak (radiology), Jason Hockenberry (health policy & management), Elizabeth Krupinski (radiology), Mary Newell (radiology), Margaret Fleming (radiology)