Zumberge Individual Grants have been awarded to the following faculty members: 

• Xiaoyi Gao
• Shuanglong Liu
• Shinwu Jeong
• Hsiao Huei (Juli) Wu
• Heather Volk
• Azin Shahryarinejad   

Zumberge Interdisciplinary Grants have been awarded to the following faculty members for their team proposals: 

• Chester Koh – “Center for Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics”
• Lihua Liu - “Americanized with Good Health – Helping Immigrants Keep the Healthy Edge”
• Giselle Petzinger – “Plasticity and Repair in Neurogenerative Disorders”
• Mitchell Gross –  “Integrated Micromechanical Platform for Spatially–Targeted Cancer Diagnosis and Therapeutics”
• Mark Humayun – “USC Center for Drug Discovery and Development"

A Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund seed grant was awarded to Jon Samet and his team for their proposal “Public Health in Africa: The Religious Dimension”.  

NIH on Friday delivered a Notice of Award to Dr. Peter Conti, Professor of Radiology committing $3,082,046 for purchase of a Cyclotron for the Molecular Imaging Program at USC. Dr. Conti is Director of the Keck School of Medicine's Molecular Imaging Center (MIC), which provides core services to research investigators across the University, supported by the Department of Radiology. The Center is located in the Clinical Sciences Center building (IGM) at  2250 Alcazar Street. The new instrument will replace MIC's existing cyclotron, which is used to synthesize established and novel probes for PET and multi-modal imaging, such as[18F]FDG, [18F]FHBG, [11C] and [18F]FMAU, [64Cu] and [18F]RGD peptides. Please click the link for additional information about  the Molecular Imaging Center and access to core services.

The Keck School of Medicine of USC is pleased to again offer INTD 500:  Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).  This one-week course satisfies NIH RCR training requirements and is open to all staff, postdoctoral fellows, masters and graduate students conducting research.  All PIBBS graduate students must complete and pass INTD 500 prior to advancing to candidacy.  Postdoctoral fellows and masters students auditing the course will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course. Click Here for full course information. To sign-up to audit the course, send an email to ResAdv@keck.usc.edu (postdoc and MS students only).

The USC Vice President of Research has announced the initial solicitation for the Ming Hsieh Institute for Research on Engineering-Medicine for Cancer.  This is an internal funding opportunity for faculty members who have an interest in translational research in nanomedicine.  Proposals are due on June 10. Please click here to view the full solicitation.

NASA has announced its Informal Education Program: Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums Plus Other Informal Education Institutions.   This competition is institutionally limited; USC has one slot.  KSOM can provide one team.  If you are interested in applying, please send 1-page summary plus CVs to Gigi Petrovich at gpetrov@usc.edu no later than April 18.  "The NASA Office of Education solicits proposals to support NASA-inspired space, science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (S-STEM) informal education projects, including exhibits and partnerships with K-12 schools to support inquiry-based education. Individual total award sizes will range approximately between $100,000 and $1,250,000, with a period of performance not to exceed five years." Click here for further details. NASA application deadline is June 29.

The Margaret E. Early Medical Research Trust was established to assist charitable organizations with substantial research facilities in the Los Angeles area conducting research into the causes, treatment and potential cures of cancer and related diseases. Grant proposals whose budgets, including overhead (20%), that do not exceed $75,000 will be considered.

Because the trust strictly limits the number of applications to ten (10) submitted by any one institution in the annual review cycle, all applications (including renewal applications if you are a current grant recipient) must be submitted for review by a faculty committee appointed by the director of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. This committee will select the proposals to be forwarded to the Margaret E. Early Medical Research Trust.

Please submit your biosketch and a one-page Letter of Intent (LOI) which should be a brief description of the research to be conducted no later than Friday, May 27, 2011 to Gracie Mercado at gracielm@usc.edu.  You will be notified if you have been selected for submission no later than Friday, June 17, 2011. At that time, you will be asked to submit a full proposal, completed signed PAR along with seven (7) copies of your proposal together with a CD Rom Disc.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations Program in Global Health supports hundreds of early-stage research projects – including many ideas that have never before been tested -- and scientists from any disciplines and regions. The initiative funds innovative ideas that could lead to new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, and other technologies targeting diseases that claim millions of lives every year. The program is currently soliciting applications for Round Seven, focusing on six topics:

1. The Poliovirus Endgame: Create Ways to Accelerate, Sustain and Monitor Eradication
2. Create the Next Generation of Sanitation Technologies
3. Create Low-Cost Cell Phone-Based Solutions for Improved Uptake and Coverage of Childhood Vaccinations
4. Design New Approaches to Cure HIV Infection
5. Explore Nutrition for Healthy Growth of Infants and Children
6. Apply Synthetic Biology to Global Health Challenges

For complete application details click here. All submissions are made online and are due May 19th.  

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality issued two Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) for new opportunities under its Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs). 

Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics Scientific Forum seeks applications for the establishment of a Scientific Forum (CS Forum) with the primary goal of ensuring research synergy and collaboration among the CERTs Research Centers with each other and with stakeholders and partners in the larger therapeutics research and education community.

Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics Research Centers seeks U19 Research Program Cooperative Agreement applications for CERTs Research Centers (RCs) that propose a body of work addressing a minimum of three of the five programmatic interest areas: (1)   comparative effectiveness, (2)   patient safety, (3)   tool development, enhancement, and/or validation, (4)   health care system interventions, and (5)   translation of research findings into practice or policy.

Letters of intent for these FOAs are due on April 20, 2011.  Applications are due on May 18, 2011.

The Lupus Research Institute (LRI) – founded to support highly promising, idea-driven, novel approaches to discover the cause, improve treatment, and cure lupus – invites applications for financial support for Novel Research Projects relevant to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Applications will be judged principally on novelty of the hypotheses, scientific quality, strength of approach, relevance to lupus, and likelihood of success.  Annual funding of up to $100,000 per year, for a term of up to three years, will be awarded for approved projects. Applications due by May 27, 2011.  For complete grant and application details click here.

The Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11) Defense Appropriations Act provides $150 M to the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) to eradicate breast cancer by funding innovative, high-impact research through a partnership of scientists and consumers. A summary of BCRP funding opportunities is provided here.  LOIs are due on Jun 7.

The DOD issued a pre-announcement for its Autism Research Program  last week to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications if funds become available.  Final program announcements and application instructions package will be made available on the Grants.gov website in the May/June timeframe.

Faculty, Staff and Students are invited to attend the Dean’s Translational Medicine Seminar Series on held Friday, May 20th at 4:00pm in the Aresty Auditorium of the Harlyn J. Norris Cancer Research Tower. Alan O. Trounson, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Monash University President from the California Institute of Regenerative medicine will be presenting a lecture entitled, “CIRM and Progress in Translational Medicine.” This event will be hosted by Dr. Martin Pera, Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. A Reception will follow the seminar at 5:00pm. Click Here to reserve your space online. Code: Trounson. Click Here to view the Live Webcast.

• Extramural Nexus (NIH Office of Extramural Research)
• National Postdoctoral Association POSTDOCket
• Academic Medicine Online
• Science Translational Medicine
• Science Magazine
  
  

• Weekly NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices
• Weekly Foundation RFP Bulletin
  

To download an event to your Outlook calendar, please click the relevant hyperlink and at the bottom of the new page choose 'export entry to V-calendar'.

For a comprehensive calendar displaying all research activities currently scheduled, please visit the online Calendar of Events.

Mon May 9th
12:00  – 1:00 PM – Dean’s Translational Medicine Seminar Series – Prof. Hung – Fat Tse, MBBS, PhD, William MW Mong Professor in Cardiology and Professor in Medicine, Department of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, will be presenting, “New Era of Regenerative Medicine for Cardiovascular Diseases.”  This Seminar will be Co-Hosted by Cardiovascular Medicine and be held in the Aresty Auditorium of the Norris Research Tower, LG. A light lunch will be served in the Atrium of the Auditorium, before the Seminar at 11:40. Click Here to RSVP. Code: Tse. Click Here to View the Live Webcast!  

Tue May 10th
12:00  - 1:00 PM – Children’s Hospital Los Angeles The Saban Research Institute, Tuesday Research Seminar Series – Di Tian, MD,PhD, Research Fellow, The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Howard Hughes Medical Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Attending Physician C.S. Kubik Laboratory for Neuropathology Department of Pathology Massachusetts General Hospital Instructor, Department of Pathology Harvard Medical School, Boston will be presenting, “The Long Noncoding RNA, Jpx, Regulates Xist Expression and X Chromosome Inactivation.” This event will be held in the Saban Auditorium and will be hosted by Alexander Judkins, MD, Pathologist-in-Chief Department of Pathology Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Lunch will be served to the first 60 attendees. For more information please contact Theresa Webster.

Wed May 11th
12:00 – 1:00 PM – ZNI Seminar Series – Alfredo Kirkwood, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience Johns Hopkins University, Mind/Brain Institute, will be presenting, “Maturation and Rejuvination of GABAergic Transmission in Visual Cortex.” This event will be held in the Herklotz Seminar Room / ZNI 112  Click Here to view the Webcast . Click Herefor further information on the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute.   

Thurs May 12th        
12:00 – 1:00 PM – House Research Institute Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series – Jennifer Stone, PhD, Research Associate Professor, Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, VM Bloedel Hearing Research Center University of Washington, will be presenting, “Factors Restricting Hair Cell Regeneration in the Mammalian Utricle.” This Seminar will be held in the Auditorium of House Research Institute, 2100 West Third St. Los Angeles, Ca 90057.  Click Here for more information.

Mon May 16th
12:00 – 1:00 PM – KSOM Research Seminar Series - Janos Peti- Peterdi, MD, PhD, Professor, Departments of Physiology and Biophysics, & Medicine, Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, will be presenting, “From Metabolic Stress to Disease: (Patho) Physiology of Succinate and GPR91.” This Seminar will be held in the Aresty Auditorium of the Norris Research Towers, LG. A light lunch will be served directly before the Seminar in the Atrium of the Aresty Auditorium at 11:40 AM.  Click Here to view the live Webcast! For more information contact Andrea Robles.

To keep up-to-date on available research funding opportunities, visit these institutions and organizations:

• The National Institutes of Health
• The National Science Foundation
• The Foundation Center
• California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
• Office of Research, University of Southern California
• Keck Office of Research Advancement
• Los Angeles Basin Clinical & Translational Science Institute
• Programs in Biomedical & Biological Sciences (PIBBS)
• Links to Professional Societies Promoting Biomedical Research