MNORC Pilot/Feasibility Grant Program
Fueling Obesity-Related Research Success through Funding & Support
MNORC offers funding and other support to promote research on the biological and behavioral determinants of obesity, and to develop interventions to reduce obesity and its disease sequelae using basic, clinical, or population approaches.
Our aim is to enable both new and established University of Michigan investigators (including post-doctoral students with mentor support) to generate sufficient preliminary information for a successful application for major research funding from NIH or other national granting agencies.
MNORC Pilot/Feasibility Grants
Promoting research on the biological and behavioral determinants of obesity, and to develop interventions to reduce obesity and its disease sequelae using basic, clinical, or population approaches.
Purpose
Purpose
The purpose of the MNORC Pilot /Feasibility (P/F) Grant Program is to promote research on the biological and behavioral determinants of obesity, and to develop interventions to reduce obesity and its disease sequelae using basic, clinical, or population approaches. The P/F program’s aim is to enable both new and established University of Michigan investigators (including post-doctoral students with mentor support) to generate sufficient preliminary information for a successful application for major research funding from NIH or other national granting agencies.
Grant proposals may be in areas of basic biomedical research or in clinical, epidemiological, or translational research, e.g. interventions in clinical or population-based setting. Animal or human models may be considered. Grant proposals involving cross-disciplinary expertise, Faculty from different UM schools, and that utilize the core laboratories of the MNORC are especially encouraged.
Translational research projects are encouraged and should focus on research advances into clinical practice or population-based interventions related to obesity and include identification of barriers to widespread adoption of new science and the testing of interventions to overcome these barriers.
Eligibility
Individuals who have full-time post doc, tenure, clinical or research faculty positions at the University of Michigan are eligible to apply as Principal Investigators of P/F proposals. Eligible applicants are a) new investigators beginning careers in research on nutrition and obesity; b) established investigators in areas of biomedical research who wish to focus their expertise on nutrition, obesity and related areas; or c) established nutritional sciences or obesity investigators who wish to take an entirely new direction from their usual work. This new direction cannot be an extension or outgrowth of research currently being undertaken by the applicant. Priority is given to investigators in category “a” followed by investigators in category “b”.
Successful applicants who receive funding will be required to acknowledge the MNORC funding (P30 DK089503) on all resultant publications, as well as reporting periodically on progress and attending the MNORC annual symposium to present the results of the funded project.
Funding
Up to $50,000
Timetable
We are not currently accepting applications for the Pilot/Feasibility program. Please check back later this year for more P/F opportunities.
For more information, contact Sandra Wankel at [email protected] or 734-763-9312.
Pilot & Feasibility Grants Past Awardees
Kira Newman, MD PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Int Med Gastroenterology
Fiber-rich diet for prevention of recurrent C difficile infection
($50,000)
Linkang Zhou, PhD, Assistant Research Scientist, Life Science Institute
Lipid-Associated Macrophage in Adipose Tissue Remodeling and Function During Obesity
($50,000)
Maroof Alam, PhD, Research Investigator, Internal Medicine, MEND
Nutritional Strategies to Prevent and Reverse Proinsulin Misfolding/b-cell ER Stress-driven Diabetes
($50,000)
Katherine Halloran, PhD, MS, Postdoc Fellow, Pediatric Endocrinology, "Developmental origin of MASLD in a sheep model of polycystic ovary syndrome and impact of postnatal obesity on its severity" ($49,833)
Bambarendage Perera, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Environmental Health Sciences, "DNA methylation-directed effects of Lead (Pb) exposure in the embryonic mouse brain and potential dietary interventions" ($50,000)
Erin Giles, PhD, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology: Translating a novel glucose-guided eating paradigm to rodents – a P/F study ($50,000)
Nadejda Bozadjieva Kramer, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Surgery: Vertical sleeve gastrectomy improves hepatic steatosis and fibrosis by increasing intestinal FXR-FGF15/19 signaling ($50,000)
Mathia Colwell, PhD, Postdoc Fellow Environmental Health Sciences: Intergenerational Epigenetic biomarkers of Metabolic Diseases Using an in utero Arsenic Exposure Mouse Model ($50,000)
Ramiah Jacks, PhD, Postdoc Research Fellow Department of Pediatrics: Regulation of adipose tissue T cells with rapid adipose tissue remodeling ($50,000)
Prashant Singh, MBBS, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine GI and Hepatology: A randomized controlled trial comparing clinical efficacy of Mediterranean diet and low FODMAP diet in patients with IBS ($49,500)
Andriy Myronovych, MD, PhD, Assistant Research Scientist of Surgery: Hepatic Steatosis and Liver Regeneration after Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy/Partial Hepatectomy in Diet Induced Obese Mice: The Role of FGF15 ($50,000)
Brigid Gregg, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology: Changes in human milk nutrition as a complication of diabetes in pregnancy ($50,000)
Monica Dus, PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, LSA: "Regulation of insulin biosynthesis and secretion by m6A mRNA Methylation." ($45,000)
Melissa Elafros, MD, PhD, Instructor in Neurology, Medical School: "The Flint Neuropathy Study." ($15,000)
Cristina Saenz de Miera Patin, PhD, Research Fellow, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Medical School: "Prenatal photoperiodic programming of the developing metabolic hypothalamus." ($45,000)
Sonya Wolf-Fortune, PhD, Research Fellow, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Medical School: "Dysregulation of keratinocyte/macrophage axis in obesity driven diabetic wounds." ($45,000)
2020
Eric Buras, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine MEND: "Thrombospondin-1 promotes fibro-adipogenic remodeling and contractile dysfunction of the diaphragm in obesity" ($45,000)
Kendrin Sonneville, ScD, Assistant Professor, Nutritional Sciences, School of Public Health: "Piloting the impact of an intuitive eating-based workplace wellness program" ($45,000)
2019
Erica Jansen, Research Assistant Professor, Nutritional Sciences: "Circadian gene DNA methylation as a predictor of 10-year BMI gains among women" ($25,000)
Alla Karnovsky, Research Associate Professor, DCMB: "Exploring Diet/Lipidome Interactions to Understand the Development of Adverse Cardiometabolic Phenotypes in the SWAN Cohort." ($25,000)
Laura Saslow, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing: "Piloting the impact of a carbohydrate-reduced eating pattern for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease" ($50,000)
2018
Daniel Lawrence, PhD, Professor, Internal Medicine – Cardiology: "Metabolic insults, the neurovascular unit and Alzheimer’s" ($50,000)
Yewei Ji, PhD, Research Investigator, Molecular and Integrative Physiology: "Toll-like Receptors Act as Brakes on Adaptive β-cell Mass Expansion" ($25,000)
Anna Mathew, MD, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine – Nephrology: "Metabolic approach to Understanding the Role of Eicosanoids in Salt Sensitivity in CKD" ($25,000)
2017
Charles Evans, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine – Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes: “Differentiating intrinsic and exercise training-responsible contributions to exercise capacity, obesity, and metabolic health” ($38,000)
Xin (Tony) Tong, MD, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology: “Role and mechanisms of E4BP4 in high-fat diet-induced liver steatosis” ($38,000)
Abhijit Naik, MBBS, Internal Medicine – Nephrology: "Effect of moderate caloric restriction on glomerular growth after kidney transplantation" ($23,441)
2016
Kanakadurga Singer, MD, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics: “Probing sex differences in diet induced inflammation through profiling of hematopoietic progenitors” ($45,000)
Marianna Sadagurski, PhD, Assistant Research Professor, Internal Medicine, Geriatric and Palliative Medicine: “Growth hormone receptor modulates glucose homeostasis in nutrient-sensing leptin receptor expressing neurons” ($10,000 small grant)
Raymond Trievel, PhD, Associate Professor, Biological Chemistry: “Characterization of the Molecular Functions of the Obesity-linked Protein Nocturnin” ($45,000)
2015
Jun Wu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Life Sciences Institute, Molecular and Integrative Physiology: “Beige fat-specific regulation in mice and humans” ($25,000)
Monica Dus, PhD, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB): “Metabolites as key regulators of feeding states” ($25,000)
Wei Perng, PhD, MPH, Research Assistant Professor, Nutritional Sciences: “Metabolomic patterns and development of metabolic risk in US and Mexican children” ($25,000)
Ingrid Bergin, DVM, MS, Assistant Professor, Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine: “Effects of calcium and multi-mineral supplementation on gut microbes and microbially-derived metabolites in patients at risk for colon cancer” ($25,000)
2014
Robert W O'Rourke, Associate Professor of Surgery, Medical School: "glutamine as substrate for de novo lipogenesis in adipocyte-pancreatic cancer metabolic crosstalk- a pilot study" ($33,000)
Christa Patterson, Research Investigator, Internal Medicine, Medical School: "Role of Atf3 in central leptin regulation of physiology and neuronal function" ($33,000)
Hiroyuki Mori, Research Investigator, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Medical School: "Role of Wnt11 as a mediator of HIF-1α effects in adipose tissue biology" ($33,000)
Elizabeth Speliotes, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Assistant Professor of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, Medical School: "NAFLD Metabolomics" ($25,000)
2013
Rebecca Hasson, PhD, Assistant Professor (School of Kinesiology): "Stress-induced eating behavior: implications for pediatric obesity disparities in Latino and African-American Youth" ($50,000)
Jun Hee Lee, PhD, Assistant Professor (Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology): "The role of Sestrin1 against obesity-associated muscle metabolic pathologies" ($50,000)
2012
Lei Yin, PhD, Assistant Professor (Dept of Molecular and Integrative Physiology): "Nutrient-dependent Regulation of Molecular Clock" ($50,000)
Shanti Eswaran, MD, Clinical Lecturer (Department of Medicine - Division of Gastroenterology): "Low FODMAP diet vs. usual care for patients with irritable bowel syndrom with diarrhea (IBS-D): a randomized, controlled trial and gastroinestinal microbiome analysis" ($50,000)
David P. Olson, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor (Pediatrics and Communicable Disease): "The Role of Vasopressin Neurons in Energy Balance" ($50,000)
2011
Ana Baylin, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology: "Fatty Acids and Risk of Overweight in School-Aged Children" ($50,000)
Siming Li, Assistant Research Scientist, Life Sciences Institute: "Dissecting transcriptional control of brown adipocyte development through genome-wide functional screen" ($50,000)
2010
Carey Lumeng, MD, PhD and Susan Woolford, MD, Assistant Professor, Pediatric and Communicable Diseases: "Inflammatory monocytes in childhood obesity" ($33,000)
Dana Dolinoy, PhD, Searle Assistant Professor, SPH Environmental Health Science: "In Utero BPA exposure: Effects on metabolic homeostasis mediated by epigenetic labile loci" ($33,000)
Jorge A. Iniguez-Lluhi, PhD, Associate Professor, Pharmacology: "Novel bifunctional glucocorticoid receptor ligands with favorable metabolic profiles through the display of novel chemical functionalities" ($33,000)
2009
David Lombard, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Dept of Pathology and Research Professor, Institute of Gerontology: "Role of acetylation in regulating the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex" ($50,000)
Julie Lumeng, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pediatric & Comm Diseases, Asst Research Scientist, Center for Human Growth and Development: "Diurnal salivary cortisol in association with cardiovascular risk markers and weight status in low-income preschool-aged children" ($25,000)
MNORC Small Grants Program
The Small Grants program is designed to allow investigators to obtain funds to perform experiments that will test a hypothesis, gather preliminary data to support grant applications, or to perform experiments that will allow submission of a new or revised manuscript.
Individuals who have full-time instructional, clinical or research faculty positions or post doc status at the University of Michigan are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to junior investigators, senior investigators who are investigating a novel area in their nutrition or obesity research program, and investigators who are new to the nutrition/obesity field.
Successful applicants who receive funding will be required to acknowledge the MNORC funding (P30 DK089503) on all resultant publications, as well as reporting periodically for progress reports.
Individual subaccounts will not be established with the recipient award; a short code will be provided for Core use (or supplies will be ordered if they use a Core which does not have a recharge).
MNORC Cores:
Nutrition, Exercise and Phenotype Testing (NExT) Jeff Horowitz
Molecular Phenotyping Core (MPC) Subramaniam Pennathur
Adipose Tissue Core (ATP) Ormond MacDougald
Life Course Obesity Research Informatics Core (LORIC) Joyce Lee
Weight Management Program (WMP) Amy Rothberg
We are not currently accepting applications for the Small Grants program. Please check back later this year for more Small Grant opportunities.
Aria Grabowski (NExT): "Integrating Nutrition, Inflammation, Adiposity and Activity/Sleep to Characterize Adolescent Cardiometabolic Risk"
Edward Ruiz-Narvaez (MPC): "Relationship of diet, ceramides, and dysglycemia in mid-life Mexican women"
William Hirsch (NExT): "Interventions in Functional Dyspepsia"
Maureen Devlin, PhD (Anthropology): "Metabolic markers of facultative thermogenic mechanisms in murine models"
Xin Tong, MD, PhD (Molecular & Integrative Physiology): "Identification of lipid perturbations in Chrebp knockout mouse liver in response to high-fructose diet"
Dina Hafez-Griauzde, MD (Internal Medicine – General Medicine): “A Mixed Methods Pilot Study of a Low-Carbohydrate Diabetes Prevention Program Among Individuals with Prediabetes”
Dave Bridges, PhD (Nutritional Sciences): “Tissue Specific Inhibition of Diet-Induced Thermogenesis”
Brian Callaghan, MD (Neurology): “Identifying the metabolites associated with polyneuropathy in obese populations”
Richard Dopp, MD (Psychiatry): “The WINNERS Project: Weight Increases Negated by New Exercise Routines”
Lauren Koch, PhD (Anesthesiology): “Identifying the metabolic benefit of exercise on aging and longevity”
Katherine Bauer, PhD (Nutritional Sciences): “Understanding weight control strategies among a contemporary adolescent cohort”
Jun Hee Lee, PhD (Molecular and Integrative Physiology): “Metabolic effects of Sestrin1 overexpression in muscle”
Martin Myers, MD, PhD (Internal Medicine - Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes): “Role of brainstem leptin action in exercise tolerance”
Julie Lumeng, MD (Pediatrics - Child Behavioral Health): “Identifying biomarkers for psychosocial stress in low-income children ”
Carol Elias, PhD (Molecular and Integrative Physiology): “Molecular basis of obesity induced placental dysfunction and poor pregnancy outcome”
Sung Choi, MD, MS (Pediatric Hematology/Oncology): “- Clinical Outcomes, Nutritional Status, Exercise and Psychosocial factors in pediatric hematopoietic cell Transplant (CONSEPT) ”
Kanakadurga Singer M.D. (Pediatric Endocrinology): “Alterations in hematopoietic cell fatty acid metabolism with obesity”
Monica Dus, PhD (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology): “The effect of diet-derived metabolites on the central regulation of feeding behavior”
Richard Dopp, MD (Psychiatry): “The NEW DAY Project (Nutritional and Exercise Wellness: Developing Attitudes in Youth)”
Daniel Teitelbaum, MD (Surgery): "TPN-Related Alterations in the Metabolome of the Humane Intestinal Lumen"
Ronald J Buckanovich, MD, PhD (Internal Medicine - Hematology/Oncology): “ALDH inhibitors as a cancer stem cell targeted therapeutic ”
Neal Blatt, MD, PhD (Pediatrics - Nephrology): “Citrate Modulation of Inflammatory Responses”
Jerome Kalifa, MD, PhD (Internal Medicine - Cardiology): “Role of myocardial-ischemia related biofactors in atrial fibrillation initiation and maintenance”
Simon Evans, PhD (Psychiatry): “Nutritional Components of Psychiatric Disease and Treatment Response”
Gary Luker, MD (Microbiology & Immunology): “Intersection of Nutritional Inputs and Chemokine Receptor Signaling in Breast Cancer Metabolome”
Almudena Veiga-Lopez, DVM, PhD (Molecular & Integrative Physiology): “Impact of Testosterone Excess on Maternal/Fetal Free Fatty Acid Homeostasis”
Daniel H. Teitelbaum, M.D. (Surgery): “Alterations in the mucosal metabolome and association with microbiome change in mice receiving total parenteral nutrition”
Katarina Borer, Ph.D. (Kinesiology): “Amino Acid Measurements”
Catherine Kim, MD, MPH (OBGYN): “Correlations between amino acids, glucose, and fasting insulin among women histories of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)”
Joyce Lee, MD, MPH (Pediatrics - Endocrinology): “Metabolomic Predictors of Pediatric Prediabetes”
Key Personnel
Director
Kanakadurga Singer, MA, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Associate Dean for Faculty
Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology
Medical School
For more information, contact:
Sandra Wankel, MSA
Program Manager, MNORC
Phone: 734-763-9312
Email: [email protected]
