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Congratulations to the 38 Principal Investigators (PIs) selected by Clinical Science Research and Development (CSRD) service for the 2022 funding cycle! Twenty-nine studies were selected for Merit Award and nine studies were selected for the Career Development Award. The studies selected encompass diverse topics that impact the health of Veterans. Applications were released on Thursday, February 16, 2023, in eRA Commons Just-in-Time (JIT). Email notifications were sent to selected PIs and signing officials at local research offices.
The CSRD selectees for Fall 2022 cycle are:
- Abdel-Latif, Ahmed, MD, PhD, Ann Arbor – “Lysophosphatidic acid mediates cardiac inflammation and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction"
- Ulus Atasoy, MD, Ann Arbor -- "Molecular mechanisms of posttranscriptional gene regulation in asthmatic airway inflammation"
- Jihane Benhammou, MD, Los Angeles -- "A lipid signaling network through stearoyl Co-A desaturase regulates hepatocellular carcinogenesis through YAP/TAZ activity"
- Kyle J Bourassa, PhD, Durham -- "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Accelerated Biological Aging, and Veteran Health"
- Selma D. Carlson, MD, Minneapolis – "Evaluation of Left Bundle Branch Area Pacing As A Rescue Strategy for Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Non-response in Patients With Heart Failure: A Randomized Controlled Trial"
- Laura K Case, PhD, San Diego -- "RCT of a Weighted Blanket to Reduce Pain in Veterans with Chronic Pain"
- Herta Huey-An Chao, MD, PhD, West Haven, "Effects of ADT on motivation and emotion function in prostate cancer patients: longitudinal imaging and prediction"
- Steven M Dubinett, MD, Los Angeles -- "Evaluation of PARP7 dependency as a novel therapeutic target for non-small cell lung cancer"
- Anat Galor, MD, Miami -- "Eye Pain and Photophobia: Ocular Signs and Symptoms As Markers of Central Abnormalities in Gulf War Illness"
- Christina Gavegnano, PhD, Decatur -- "Leveraging Jak 1/2 Inhibition with Baricitinib Towards HIV Cure in the Veteran Population"
- Sarah George, MD, St. Louis -- "Durability and mechanisms of dengue vaccine and infection mediated immunity"
- Sascha Nilu Goonewardena, MD, Ann Arbor -- "Coordination of cardiac inflammation/remodeling in heart failure by myeloid catabolism of purinergic DAMPs"
- Kelly Harper, PhD, Boston -- "Expressive Writing to Reduce Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms Among Sexual Minority Veterans"
- Jessica Py Hua, PhD, San Francisco -- "Neuromodulation of Plasticity and Cognitive Functioning in Schizophrenia"
- Alison R Hwong, MD, PhD, San Francisco -- "Predicting Premature Mortality Risk for Aging Veterans with Serious Mental Illness"
- Arun Jose, MD, Cincinnati -- "Biomarker Discovery in Portopulmonary Hypertension"
- Jussuf Thomas Kaifi, MD, PhD, Columbia -- "Alveolar epithelial cell type 2 populations and single cell gene expressions in non-small cell lung cancer progression and drug resistance"
- Angelia Kirkpatrick, MD, Oklahoma City -- "Procoagulant platelets as biomarkers for post-COVID-19 cognitive decline"
- Milky Kohno, PhD, Portland -- "Sex differences in trauma, inflammation and brain function and the implications for treatment efficacy in alcohol use disorder"
- Eleanor D Lederer, MD, Dallas -- "Systems Biology Approach to the Management of Chronic Kidney Disease-Mineral Bone Disorder"
- Daniel Lee, PhD, Boston -- "Suicide risk interventions: A comparison of treatment dose and neural markers of treatment outcome"
- Jennifer A Lewis, MD. Nashville -- "Personalizing Veterans Lung Cancer Screening and Diagnosis"
- Roslyn B Mannon, MD, Omaha -- "An Exploratory Investigation of the Safety of Empagliflozin in Kidney Transplant Recipients (SEKTR)"
- Jennifer C Naylor, PhD, Durham -- "Investigating Novel Interventions for Low Back Pain in US Military Veterans: A Randomized Controlled Adaptive Phase II Trial"
- Kristen Marie Nishimi, PhD, San Francisco -- "PTSD and Autoimmune Disease: Towards Causal Effects, Risk Factors, and Mitigators"
- Gregory Allen Payne, MD, PhD, Birmingham -- "Extracellular matrix-derived chemokines mediate smoking-associated coronary atherosclerosis"
- Josef T Prchal, MD, Salt Lake City -- "Mechanism of thrombosis in two myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia"
- Sharon Irene Smith Rounds, MD, Providence -- "Effect of PDE5 inhibitor on respiratory symptoms in COPD complicated by pulmonary hypertension"
- Benjamin Joseph Seligman, MD, PhD, Los Angeles -- "Frailty and Influenza Vaccination Among Older Adults"
- Christine Nicole Smith, PhD, San Diego -- "Use of Novel Neuroimaging, Neuropsychological Methods, and Retrograde Memory Test to Detect Cognitive and Cerebral Disruption in Veterans with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury"
- Adam Christopher Soloff, PhD, Pittsburgh -- "Lung Cancer Susceptibility in Deployed Gulf War Veterans"
- Laura Su, MD, PhD, Philadelphia -- "Defining how microbes drive abnormal T Cell responses in rheumatoid arthritis"
- Yang Sun, MD, PhD, Palo Alto -- "Shedding Light on Glaucoma: Next Generation of Optogenetics for Aqueous Outflow Regulation"
- Diane Swick, PhD, Mather -- "Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Cognitive Function and Mental Health"
- Jason L Vassy, MD, Boston -- "The Prostate Cancer, Genetic Risk, and Equitable Screening Study (ProGRESS): A pragmatic trial of precision prostate cancer screening"
- Hongjun Wang, PhD, Charleston -- "Novel Cellular Therapy for the treatment of pain associated with chronic pancreatitis"
- Rebecca S Welles, AuD, Aurora -- "Pilot Study on the Impact of Extended-High-Frequency Hearing Loss on Auditory Functioning of Veterans"
- Qi Qi Zhou, MD, PhD, Memphis -- "Mechanisms of Gulf War Illness"
Selectees should note that guidance documents and templates are on the ORD JIT website: Just-in-Time Process to Release Funds (va.gov). Prior to uploading documents in eRA JIT, the Agency Comments and Agency Uploaded Files section of the various JIT areas should be reviewed for additional instructions and documents. To allow time for ORD to make decisions on documents submitted in eRA JIT, it is advised to send the documents incrementally. The PI Assurance, Other Support and other documents that do not need regulatory approvals should be submitted within 90 days post-JIT release to the stations. There is no need to wait! For JIT related questions or comments, send emails to: vhacoblcsrdjit@va.gov. Tuesday, August 15, 2023, will be the 180-day deadline for Fall 2022 cycle applications to clear eRA JIT.
For the Animal Subjects Research Review Just-in-Time (JIT) area, the station should not upload any ACORP documents into eRA. All of the processing for this JIT area is currently being handled outside of eRA via emails to Alice Huang (alice.huang@va.gov). An instructional email about this was sent out to all stations in VA JIT Document Manager in March 2022. Once the secondary review is completed, Dr. Huang will submit a record into eRA and approve the JIT area in eRA JIT.
To allow time for the secondary review process, you are encouraged to send the protocol to Dr. Huang as soon as it has been approved by the IACUC and the applicable certification statements have been signed.
The ORD Winter Wellness Walk on February 18 at the National Gallery of Art was so nice we are doing it twice! If you missed the February 18 walk and will be in the Washington, DC, area on Sunday, March 5, you will have a second chance. Please meet at 2 p.m. on March 5 in the lobby of the West Building (use entrance off of 4th St. NW). RSVP to Mario.Rinaudo@va.gov or Amanda.Garcia@va.gov. Photos of February 18 "walkers" are below.
 ORD Winter Wellness Walk participants pictured above on February 18 at the National Gallery of Art are (from let) Carole Woodle; Lina Kubli; Holly Krull, Arun Sharma, Masood Khan, Wendy Tenhula, Kristina Nord, and Mario Rinaudo.
 ORD Winter Wellness Walk participants pictured above on February 18 at the National Gallery of Art are (from left) Lina Kubli; Veronica Gittens: Amanda Garcia, Colton, and Eden; Wendy Tenhula, Kristina Nord, and Holly Krull.
March 8, 2023, is the recommended submission date for the Spring 2023 round for CSRD and BLRD. Submitting by this date ensures applicants will have 2 business days to correct errors identified by the system.
The last possible submission date is March 10 at 6 p.m. local time. Applications cannot be submitted after this date. If an application is submitted on this date and errors are identified by either Grants.gov or eRA Commons there may not be enough time to correct the errors, resubmit and have the application received and verified by eRA.
If the application is accepted by eRA with no errors, please do not withdraw the application during the 2-business day examination window unless there is sufficient time to resubmit by the March 10 submission deadline.
The TeleHealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer (THRIVE) center (Principal Investigators: Drs. Scott Sherman and Danil Makarov of the VA New York Harbor Health Care System, and Dr. Leah Zullig of the Durham VA ADAPT COIN) has just released its first Associate Investigator Program Request for Applications (RFA). This training program includes approximately $25,000 in funding for early career investigators (pre-major award such as CDA, R01, K) and an extensive mentorship and foundational curriculum in areas of teleoncology and health equity research. Applications are due March 14 and are relatively brief and straightforward. For those of you who have advanced beyond this point in your careers, please consider forwarding to mentees or junior investigators to whom the program might be of interest. For details regarding the RFA, please contact Navid Dardashti, navid.dardashti@va.gov.
In the very near future, THRIVE will create a distribution list that will be used for notifications of future opportunities, their newsletter, and other developments; those interested in receiving communications and joining the list once it is created may contact Navid as well.
The VA Office of Research & Development is pleased to announce two short funding opportunities for consideration:
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Support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training for Veterans Affairs Field Research Employees. This opportunity is open to all VA employees who are currently affiliated with an ORD program/service including Research Services, Programs, Centers, and VA investigators with current ORD-funded projects to request funds for education that will promote and support diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workforce.
- Budget: $5,000
- Due: April 3, 2023
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Applications must be submitted to the mailbox VHACOORDDEIWG@va.gov with the subject line “DEI Training” by April 3, 2023. Please include applicant and station name in the subject line.
- Leadership Development for VA employees Affiliated with an ORD Program/Service. ORD is seeking to promote professional development opportunities and grow future leaders that reflect the diversity of the Veterans VA serves.
- Budget: $10,000
- Due: April 3, 2023
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Applications must be submitted to the mailbox VHACOORDDEIWG@va.gov with the subject line “Professional Development Training” by April 3, 2023. Please include applicant and station name in the subject line.
Please disseminate to staff as appropriate. For more information please contact lina.kubli@va.gov and copy mailbox: VHACOORDDEIWG@va.gov.
--Announced on behalf of the ORD Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee
The Office of Research & Development, with funding through both HSR& and CSRD, has an established Suicide Prevention Research Center known as SPRINT (Suicide Prevention Research Impact NeTwork). One of SPRINT’s new priorities is to advance a precision medicine approach to suicide prevention. This priority is consistent with the aims of the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act, which builds upon VA’s already robust suicide prevention efforts.
SPRINT invites submissions in response to a special Request for Applications (RFA) that support its precision medicine initiative. The goal of this RFA is to support innovative and promising precision medicine approaches to suicide prevention among Veterans. Preference will be given for supplemental funding to add additional aims to already existing funded projects, however projects that will support the development of new ideas and/or new investigators will also be considered.
The following specific areas are priorities for this RFA, although other topic areas with direct relevance to precision medicine research on suicide prevention will also be considered: Predictive Analytics, Biomarkers, Assessment and Screening, Social Determinants of Health/Health Disparities, Preventative Interventions/Comparative Effectiveness Research.
Applications are due April 15, 2023. The full RFA can be found here: SPRINT Precision Medicine Special RFA Call for Submissions (va.gov)
The CSRD Data Monitoring Committee (DMC), that provides data and safety monitoring for CSRD funded projects, is seeking new members. For more information, please contact DMC Manager Tamara Paine, DBA. (Tamara.Paine@va.gov).
Career Development: VHACADEReview@va.gov
Clinical Trials: clin-review@va.gov
General Mailbox: VHABLRD-CSRD@va.gov (Please note this is a shared mailbox that should be used for general questions that will triaged by staff to the appropriate individual.)
Just in Time Mailbox: VHACOBLCSRDJIT@va.gov
Newsletter: Lucindia.Shouse@va.gov
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