Past Pilot Awardees

2018 Awardees

Award Date: April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Andrew Barleben, MD, MPH	Combined Computational-Experimental Approach to Evaluation of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms following Stent Graft Placement to Mitigate Endoleak and Late Graft Failure	UC San Diego Department of Surgery	Clinical
Rafael Bejar, MD, PhD	Pilot study of age-associated cellular and molecular markers in patients with MDS	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Leslie Crews, PhD	Targeting Interferon-responsive Transcripts to Prevent Malignant Regeneration in Multiple Myeloma	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Soumita Das, PhD	Targeting the Gut Barrier to Cure Inflammatory Bowel Diseases	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Clinical
Adam DeConde, MD	Investigation of the Lipomics of Aspirin-exacerbated Respiratory Disease	UC San Diego Department of Surgery	Clinical
Paul Kim, MD, FACC	Identifying an Immune-mediated Mechanism in Non-specific Allograft Dysfunction of Heart-Transplant Patients	UC San Diego, Division of Cardiology	Clinical
Kevin King, MD, PhD (Daniel T. O'Connor Award Recipient)	Clinical Pilot of Single Cell Analysis during Human Cardiac Ischemia and Infarction	UC San Diego, Division of Cardiology, and Department of Bioengineering	Clinical
Olivia Osborn, PhD	Metabolomic Signatures Associated with Antipsychotic-induced Food Intake	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Clinical
Bryan Sun, MD, PhD	Impact of Beckers Nevus-Associated ACTB Mutations on Hedgehog Signaling	UC San Diego, Department of Dermatology	Clinical
Niels Vande Casteele, PhD	Quantification of Denatured and Degraded Drug in Intestinal Tissue Samples from Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients Treated with Vedolizumab	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Clinical
Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD	Serum Bile Acid Pool of Patients with Hepatic Encephalopathy	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Clinical
Eileen Moore, PhD	Pharmacological Treatment to Improve White Matter Plasticity in FASD	San Diego State University, Department of Psychology	Life Course
Inna Fishman, PhD Mikaela Kinnear, PhD Community Partner: Richie Ploesch, MA, BCBA	Evaluating Clinical Outcomes of Improv Theater Intervention for Teens with Autism	Department of Psychology San Diego State University Department of Psychology San Diego State University National Comedy Theatre Unscripted Learning	Academic-Community
Sheila Mody, MD, MPH	Exploring the Layers of Logistics of Adoption: Utilizing the PRISM Framework-informed Implementation Intervention for Direct Provision of Emergency Contraception by Pharmacists	Department of Reproductive Medicine UC San Diego	Dissemination and Implementation Research

2017 Awardees

Award Date: April 1, 2017 through March 31, 2018

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Lori Daniels, MD, MAS	Kinetics of Cell-Cycle Arrest Biomarkers after Contrast Exposure in Patients at High Risk for Contrast-Induced Nephropathy	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
David Gonzalez, PhD	Characterization of the Mitochondria Proteome in Healthy and Diabetic Human Skeletal Muscle	UC San Diego Department of Pharmacology	Clinical
Suzi Hong, PhD	Pesticide Exposures and Risks of Adverse Motor and Cognitive System Health Effects Among Latino Residents of Imperial Valley, California	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Olivier Harismendy, PhD	Sharing Genetic Test Results	UC San Diego School of Medicine, Biomedical Informatics	Clinical
Jane J. Kim, MD	Linking the Gut Microbiome to Metabolism in Obese Children with Type 1 Diabetes	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Daphne (Yvette) LaCoursiere, MD	Placental Role in Biopsychosocial Risk for Childhood Obesity and Related Comorbidities	UC San Diego Department of Reproductive Medicine	Clinical
Jair Lage de Siqueira Neto, PhD	Zika Virus Drug Discovery	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Clinical
Carrie McDonald, PhD Jona Hattangadi-Gluth, MD	Integration of BOLD-FMRI and DTI into Radiation Treatment Planning for Sparing of Eloquent Brain Regions	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry UC San Diego Department of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences	Clinical
Shirley M. Tsunoda, PharmD	The Effect of the Microbiome on Drug Metabolizing Enzymes	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Clinical
Jillian Lee Wiggins, PhD	Pathways of Risk and Resilience: Neural Predictors of Irritability in At-risk Offspring of Mothers with Depression	San Diego State University, Department of Neurosciences	Clinical
Matthew Shtrahman, MD, PhD	Developing Two-Photon Calcium Imaging of Brain Activity for Human Subjects	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Innovative Technology
Michael Yip, PhD	A Robotic, Wristed Cupped Biopsy Forceps for Flexible Endoscopy	UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Electrical & Computer Engineering	Innovative Technology
Richard Haas, MD Gail Reiner, PhD	The Impact of Breastfeeding in High-risk Neonates with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy on Fetal Maternal Bonding and Neurodevelopmental Outcome	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences Azusa Pacific University San Diego Regional Center	Academic-Community
Sarah Rieth, PhD	Building Capacity for Evidence-Based Early Intervention in Imperial County: A Community Collaborative Approach	San Diego State University Department of Child and Family Development	Academic-Community
Elizabeth Twamley, PhD	Working to Improve Supported Employment Fidelity (WISE Fidelity)	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Dissemination and Implementation Research

2016 Awardees

Award Date: April 1, 2016-March 31, 2017

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Paula Aristizabal, MD, MAS	Factors affecting Parental Satisfaction, Anxiety and Comprehension of the Informed Consent in Pediatric Oncology Clinical Trials	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics/Rady Children’s Hospital	Clinical
Edward Chao, DO, MA	Studying the Effectiveness of Non-Invasive Glucose Sensors in Patients with Diabetes: The SENSOR Study	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Farhad Imam, MD, PhD	Untargeted, Large-Scale Metabolomics in Neonatology for Disease Biomarker Discovery	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Daniel Simpson, MD	Restriction Spectrum Imaging for Pre-surgical Assessment of Neoadjuvant Treatment Response in Rectal Cancer	UC San Diego Department of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences	Clinical
Eric Adler, MD	Preclinical Gene Therapy Study for the Treatment of Danon Disease	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Translational
Conor Caffrey, PhD	Rapid, Point-of-care Diagnosis of Schistosomiasis	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Translational
Soumita Das, PhD	The Link between MCP-1 and ELMO1: a New Marker in Inflammatory Diseases	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Translational
Anthony O’Donoghue, PhD	Rapid, Products of Conception (POC) Detection of Candidemia in Serum	Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences	Translational
Albert Remacle, PhD	Potent and Selective Fully Human Recombinant Monoclonal Antibody Against Pro-tumorigenic/Invasive Membrane Type-1 Matrix Metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP)	Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute	Translational
Fiza Singh, MD	Enhancing Gamma Band Response in Schizophrenia Patients to Improve Working Memory	UC San Diego, Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Alexandre Gingras, PhD	Identification of Small Molecule Inhibitors of Integrin Activation using Nanodiscs	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine	Innovative Technology
Shelley Lawrence, MD, MS	High-resolution Melt with Machine Learning for the Accurate Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis	UC San Diego, Department of Pediatrics/Rady Children’s Hospital	Innovative Technology
Amy Lansing, PhD Sacha Sykora, MA	School-based Trauma-Informed System (TIS) Implementation: Trauma-Responsiveness and Cognitive Capacity Building in Imperial County	UC San Diego, Department of Psychiatry SIA Tech HS	Academic-Community
Elizabeth Reed, ScD, MPH Argentina Servin, MD, MPH Zara Marselian, MA, FACHE Julia Macouzet	Microfinance Businesses to Prevent Obesity and Related Health Conditions among Latinos in San Diego, CA	UC San Diego, Department of Medicine, Division of Global Health La Maestra Community Health Centers	Academic-Community
Jeanne Huang, MD, MPH Javier Rodriguez, MD	Improving Pediatric Hepatitis B Screening in High-Risk San Diego Communities	UC San Diego Dept of Pediatrics La Maestra Community Health Centers	Dissemination and Implementation Research

2015 Awardees

Award Date: August 13, 2015-March 31, 2016

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Seema Aceves, MD, PhD	The Role of LIGHT in Esophageal Remodeling in Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Joshua Alexander, DO, MPH	The Role of Osteopathic Medicine in the Management of Post-traumatic Migraine	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Clinical
Joel Baumgartner, MD	Pilot Study of Postoperative Chemotherapy in High-Grade Appendiceal Adenocarcinoma with Peritoneal Carcinomatosis	UC San Diego Department of Surgery	Clinical
Tiffany Greenwood, PhD	Are Bipolar Brains Creative Brains? Investigation of Regional Activation and Neural Connectivity in Bipolar Patients and Artists Towards a Model of Creativity as a Positive and Evolutionarily Adaptive Trait within the Bipolar Spectrum	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Monica Guma, MD, PhD	Eicosanoids as Biomarkers of Psoriatic Arthritis	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Clinical
Sanjay Mehta, MD	Optimizing Vaccine Efficacy in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients	UC San Diego School of Medicine	Clinical
Hilary Roeder, MD	Evaluation of Placenta Growth Factor as a Diagnostic Marker for Late Preterm Preeclampsia	UC San Diego Department of Reproductive Medicine	Clinical
Paula Desplats, PhD	The Impact of Circadian Alterations on Brain Insulin Resistance and Alzheimer Disease Pathology	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Translational
Jeremiah Momper, PharmD, PhD	Regulation of Hepatic UGT1A9 by Sex Hormones: Implications for Mycophenolic Acid Exposure in Renal Transplant Recipients	UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Translational
Gerald Morris, MD, PhD	Defining Immunologic Effects of Reprogramming Human Tissue Precursors for Regenerative Therapy	UC San Diego Department of Pathology	Translational
Alysson Muotri, PhD	Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors as a Novel Therapeutical Approach for Neurological Autoimmune Disorders	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Innovative Technology
Joseph M. Cantor, PhD	CD98hc in Pancreatic Islet Allograft Rejection	UC San Diego Department of Medicine	Personalized Medicine
Amanda Gosman, MD Venessa Malcarne, PhD	Pediatric Facial Deformity Quality of Life (QoL) Questionnaire Development Study	UC San Diego Department of Surgery San Diego State University Department of Psychology	Academic-Community
Christina Holub, PhD, MPH Camille Nebeker, EdD, MS	Increasing Physical Activity through a Culturally Tailored, Community-led Intervention among Pacific Islanders: The Rawmana Fitness Pilot Study	San Diego Institute for Behavioral and Community Health; San Diego State University UC San Diego Department of Family Medicine and Public Health	Academic-Community

2014 Awardees

Award Date: April 2014-March 2015

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Carolyn Allard, PhD	A Pilot Test of the Effectiveness of a Pre-PTSD-treatment Emotion Regulation and Distress Tolerance Skills Building Group on PTSD Treatment Engagement and Effectiveness in Survivors of Military Sexual Trauma	UC San Diego Veterans Medical Research Foundation	Clinical
Luis Castellanos, MD	Pilot Study to Evaluate the Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Home-based Cardiac Rehabilitation Program in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease	UC San Diego Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology	Clinical
Inna Fishman, PhD	Neural Generators of Emotional Mimicry (and Lack Thereof) in Autism	San Diego State University	Clinical
Jane Kim, MD	Profiling Metabolomic Signatures in Children with Type 2 Diabetes	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Dawn Meyer, PhD	Is Platelet Hyperactivity the Key to Increased Stroke Recurrence in Post-Stroke Depression	UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences	Clinical
Charles Taylor, PhD	Positive Valence System Enhancement Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: Clinical Efficacy and Neural Changes	UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Taylor Doherty, MD	Regulation of Type 2 Innate Lymphoid Cells in Asthma	UC San Diego Department of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology	Translational
Sara Gianella Weibel, MD	Mechanisms of HIV Persistence	UC San Diego Center for AIDS Research	Translational
Jona Hattangadi-Gluth, MD	Quantitative Neuroimaging and Neurocognitive Assessment to Measure Radiation-Induced Brain Injury in Non-targeted Tissue: Implications for Cognitive Preservation	UC San Diego Department of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences	Translational
Ji Zhang, MD, PhD	Genetic Association Study of the Mitochondrial Phosphatase PTPMT1 in Metabolic Syndrome	UC San Diego Department of Pharmacology	Translational
Drew Hall, PhD	Smartphone-based Point-of-care Detection and Treatment Monitoring of Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) in Urine from HIV-associated Tuberculosis (TB) Patients in Remote Settings	UC San Diego Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	Innovative Technology
Wenxian Fu, PhD	Identifying The Initiating Factors in Type 1 Diabetes by Disclosing The Crosstalk Among Islet Vascular Inflammation, Immune Responses and β Cell Death	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Personalized Medicine
Louise Laurent, MD, PhD	Whole Exome Sequencing for Prenatal Diagnosis	UC San Diego Department of Reproductive Medicine	Personalized Medicine
Lawrence Prince, MD, PhD	Personalized Genomic Medicine in Preterm Infants	UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics	Personalized Medicine
Kate Murray, PhD	Improving Taxi Driver Health and Access to Health Care – A Community-Academic Partnership	UC San Diego Department of Family & Preventive Medicine	Academic-Community
Jamila Stockman, PhD	The Role of Peer Navigators and Social Support in the HIV Care Continuum: Perceptions of HIV-Positive Women	UC San Diego Division of Global Public Health	Academic-Community

2013 Awardees

Award Date: April 2013 - March 2014

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Dawn Schiehser, MD/PhD	Neurocognitive and neural changes associated with cognitive rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease	UCSD Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Pam Taub, MD	Effects of epicatechin on functional capacity, skeletal muscle structure and diastolic function in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF)	UCSD Department of Medicine (Cardiology)	Clinical
Adriana Tremoulet, MD	Immunoglobulin G sialylation in patients with treatment-resistant Kawasaki disease	UCSD & Rady Children's Hospital – Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Dean Acheson, PhD	Intranasal oxytocin as a putative facilitator of virtual reality-based exposure therapy for arachnophobia	UCSD Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Beatrix Bartok, MD	The novel role of YAP in regulating synoviocytes behavior in rheumatoid arthritis	UCSD Department of Medicine (Rheumatology)	Translational
Karen Christman, PhD	Novel biomaterial for preventing cardiac adhesions	UCSD Department of Bioengineering	Translational
Todd Costantini, MD	Taxonomically restricted gene expression in injured patients	UCSD Department of Surgery	Translational
Yo Suzuki, PhD	Using Yeast to Understand Malaria Drug Mechanisms of Action	J. Craig Venter Institute, Department of Synthetic Biology	Translational
Albert Remacle, PhD	Imaging of metastatic breast cancer cells via the active cell-surface proteinase	Sanford Burnham Research Institute – Cancer Center	Translational
Douglas Conrad, MD	Metabolites as biomarkers in Cystic Fibrosis	UCSD Department of Medicine (Pulmonary)	Personalized Medicine
Daniel O'Connor, MD	Natural human genetic variation and the metabolism: Studies in twin pairs	UCSD Department of Medicine (Nephrology)	Personalized Medicine
Gregory Light, PhD	Predicting Cognitive Enhancement Following Intensive Neuroplasticity-Based Training Intervention in Schizophrenia	UCSD Department of Psychiatry	Community
Monica Ulibarri, PhD	Assessment of risk factors for commercial sexual exploitation of high risk adolescent girls in San Diego County	UCSD Department of Psychiatry	Community
Hemal H. Patel, PhD	Membranes as a Regulator of Healthy Aging	UCSD Department of Anesthesiology	Pilot Project

2012 Awardees

Award Date: April 2012 - March 2013

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Jason Sicklick, MD	Innovative Targeting of Melanoma with Allosteric RAF inhibitors	Department of Surgery	Clinical
Jeannie Huang, MD, MPH	Neurobiology of Pain Processing in Children with Gastrointestinal Disorders	Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Xavier Soler, MD, PhD	Effects of Pulmonary Rehabilitation on sleep architecture, obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia and nocturnal hypoxemia in COPD	Department of Medicine	Clinical
Jared Young, PhD	Neurocognitive Effects of Nicotine Use in Schizophrenia: Parallel Human and Animal Studies	Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Michael McCarthy, MD, PhD	Pharmacogenetics in Treatment Refractory Depression	Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Sameh Ali, PhD	Markers of Oxidative Stress in Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid as Predictors of Sleep Disturbance in PTSD Subjects	Department of Medicine	Translational
Wesley Thompson, PhD	Improved Inferences in Dynamic Causal Modeling of Observational Data: Application to Breast Cancer Chemotherapy, Cognition and Sleep	Department of Psychiatry	Translational
Carl Stepnowsky, PhD	Research platform for remote monitoring of health parameters	Department of Medicine	Innovative
Scott Matthews, MD	Multimodal biomarkers of recovery from depression	Department of Psychiatry	Innovative
David Chang, PhD, MBA, MPH	Stronger Communities through Effective Mentorship and Trauma Prevention Program	Department of Surgery	Community
Jae Kim, MD, PhD	Premature Infant Nutrition Post-discharge Collaborative Project	Department of Pediatrics	Community
Carrie McDonald, PhD	Neuropsychological and Neuroanatomical Profiles of Children with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy	Department of Psychiatry	Community

2011 Awardees

PI Name	Title of Proposal	Department	Type of Grant Award
Lisa Eyler, PhD	Neurocognitive Effects of Nicotine in Bipolar Disorder: Parallel Human and Animal Studies		Clinical
Hal M. Hoffman, MD	Genetic and Molecular Basis of Familial Atypical Cold Urticaria	Department of Pediatrics	Clinical
Amy E. Lansing, PhD	Hearing Loss, Middle Ear Status & Auditory Processing Deficits in Detained Girls	Department of Psychiatry	Clinical
Randy A. Taplitz, PhD	The Role of Type 1 Interferon in Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant	Department of Medicine	Clinical
Jenny M. Kim, MD	Biomarkers of Human Sickle Cell Disease	Department of Pediatrics	Translational
Alessandra Sacco, MD	Role of telomere shortening in human Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy	Department of Orthopedics	Translational
Jean Wang, PhD	Targeted nanosomal delivery of Imatinib to ameliorate renal damage from cis-platinum therapy for cervical cancer	Medicine and Biology	Translational
Karen Christman, PhD	Injectable autologous scaffold for treating myocardial infarction	Bioengineering	Translational
James Hagood, MD	Lung-specific targeting of antifibrotic therapies	Pediatric Respiratory Medicine	Translational
Suzi Hong, PhD	Validation of Flow Cytometric Analysis of Beta-adrenergic Receptor Expression on Blood Leukocytes in the Healthy and Heart Failure Patients	Psychiatry	Translational
Victoria Risbrough, PhD	COMT val/met polymorphism effects on novelty-seeking: Developing a mouse model of Bipolar Disorder Abstract	Psychiatry	Translational
Dena Rifkin, MD	Real-time wireless blood pressure monitoring for kidney disease Abstract		Innovative
Steven J. Bark, PhD	Molecular Basis of Microglial Activation by the Fractalkine Receptor, CX3CR1 Abstract	School of Pharmacy/ Pharmaceutical Science	Innovative
Rebecca J. Theilmann, PhD	Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Assessment of Secretions in Cystic Fibrosis Airways	Department of Radiology	Innovative
William Song, PhD	Development of novel 4D imaging framework for liver cancer radiation therapy	Radiation Oncology	Innovative
Lisa Madlensky, PhD	Developing a Community-Based Cancer Genetics Research Project with the Chula Vista Community Collaborative	Department of Family and Preventive Medicine	Innovative