Pilot & Feasibility Grant Program

Pilot & Feasibility Awardees 2022

Maayan Levy, PhD

• "The impact of ketogenic diet on human intestinal epithelial biology"

 Sunni Mumford, PhD

• "A couples-based approach to evaluating the impact of dietary patterns and metabolomics on fertility"

Pilot & Feasibility Award RFA 2022

The mission of PenNSAM is to facilitate research in diet and nutrition-focused on promoting health and reducing disease through the integration of clinical data, dietary survey instruments, and nutritional biomarkers with the latest modalities in molecular profiling and data analytics.

PenNSAM is issuing a request for pilot and feasibility applications to the research community at Penn and CHOP for projects focused on the use of analytic datasets (either pre-existing or newly generated), combined with bioinformatic, biomedical informatic and/or computational analyses, to characterize the human response to diet and nutrition. Data may be collected using a wide variety of modalities including, but not limited to traditional or new: Dietary survey instruments, physiological assessments of nutritional status, neurocognitive and/or behavioral assessments, genomics, metabolomics, immune profiling, and radiographically-based image derived phenotyping. Epidemiologic studies that utilize administrative datasets, including those generated using an electronic health record are also permitted. Awards are for 1 year projects with a budget of up to $40,000.

Eligibility:

All faculty members (including Instructors and Research Associates) of the university scientific community at Penn and CHOP who meet the eligibility requirements in one of these three categories are invited to submit proposals:

1. New investigators who have never held extramural support at the level of a NIH R01

2. Established investigators in other areas of biomedical research who wish to apply their expertise to a problem in dietary and/or nutrition research.

3. Established dietary and/or nutrition investigators who wish to study an area that represents a significant departure from currently funded work.

Applicants must be a U.S. Citizen or have a permanent visa.

Proposal Preparation:

Submit a pdf via email to Wade Kirkpatrick (Wade.Kirkpatrick@pennmedicine.upenn.edu). Complete proposals are due by 5:00 pm, Monday, March 21, 2022.

See the PDF here for the RFA, which contains more information about eligibility, submission requirements, and award terms.

Contacts for questions:
Charlene Compher (compherc@nursing.upenn.edu)
or Gary Wu (gdwu@pennmedicine.upenn.edu)

Pilot & Feasibility Awardees 2022

“Predicting Subtypes Using Metabolomics in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (PUMA)” - Nadir Yehya, Vijay Srinivasan, Sharon Irving

“Microbiome and fecal metabolome in early premies vs growth velocity” - Sagori Mukhopadhyay, Kyle Bittinger 

 "A Placebo Controlled Exploratory Study to Identify Biomarkers in Food Intolerances” - Maria Mascarenhas, Terri Whitehorn-Brown, Kyle Bittinger, Lindsey Albenberg, Jessi Erlichman, Jonathan Spergel 

Pilot & Feasibility Award RFA 2020

The mission of PenNSAM is to facilitate research in diet and nutrition focused on the integration of clinical data, traditional dietary assessments, and nutritional biomarkers with the latest tools in molecular profiling and biostatistics. PenNSAM is issuing a request for pilot and feasibility applications to enable the research community at Penn and CHOP to learn more about how these new technologies can be applied to research in human nutrition.

Eligibility:

All faculty members (including Instructors and Research Associates) of the University of Pennsylvania scientific community. Applicants must be a U.S. Citizen or have a permanent resident visa.

Proposal Preparation:

1. Submit a pdf via email to Wade Kirkpatrick (Wade.Kirkpatrick@pennmedicine.upenn.edu). Complete proposals are due by 5:00 pm, September 15, 2020.

2. Format

• Cover page: Includes title, an abstract of up to 250 words, and the approved IRB protocol title and approval number for the clinical study pertaining to the proposed pilot.
• NIH biographical sketch
• NIH other support
• Sections for the main proposal include specific aims, background, preliminary results, and research plan
• Page limit for the main proposal: 4 pages total, including references

See the PDF here for the RFA, which contains more information about eligibility, submission requirements, and award terms.

Contacts for questions:
Charlene Compher (compherc@nursing.upenn.edu)
or Gary Wu (gdwu@pennmedicine.upenn.edu)