Pilot Awardees

PI: Abigail Elmes, PharmD, Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy
Co-Investigators: Antonio Jimenez, Jordan Vold, Jennifer Jarrett, Sarah Messmer, and Niranjan Karnik
Meeting Patients Where They Are: Expansion of Mobile Low-Threshold Buprenorphine and Van-Based Harm Reduction Services into Nonurban Settings

PI: Marwah Farooqui, MD, Assistant Professor, College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Lewis Hsu, Gelila Goba
Adaptation and Implementation of Sickle Cell Specific Menopause Screening Tool

PI: Mary Khetani, ScD, Professor, College of Applied Health Sciences
Co-Investigators: Julie Thompson Bobitt
Preparing to test implementation of an electronic assessment option for early intervention service plan quality

PI: Randi Singer, PhD, CNM, Assistant Professor, College of Nursing
PI: Natasha Crooks, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor, College of Nursing
Co-Investigators: Geri Donenberg, Karen Cotler
Centering Black Women: Development of a Group PrEP Care Model

PI: Guy Adami, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Dentistry
Co-Investigators: Zhengjia Chen, Nicholas Callahan, and Joel Schwartz
Photonic Resonator Absorption Microscopy Detection of those at High Risk for Oral Cancer

PI: Alice Hemenway, PharmD, MPH, Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy – Rockford
Co-Investigator: Mark Biagi
Association of race or ethnicity with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production in E.coli

PI: Liang Hong, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Medicine
Co-Investigator: None
Translational studies of ethnic-specific SCN5A mutations linked with long QT syndrome in African-Americans

PI: Julie Maslowsky, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Public Health
Co-Investigator: Karen Bernstein and Jonathan Klein
Improving statewide adolescent health and healthcare in Illinois

PI: Ece Mutlu, MD, MBA, Professor of Medicine, College of Medicine
Co-Investigator: Pradeep Dudeja
Steroid hormone metabolism by intestinal bacteria

PI: David Tofovic, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine
Co-Investigator: Dawood Darbar, Hua Yun Chen, Brenikki Floyd, Jalees Rehman, and Salman Khetani
The Role of Health Disparities in Dilated Cardiomyopathy

PI: David Perkins, MD, PhD, Professor, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Richard Novak, Zahraa Hajjiri, and Yang Chen
Investigation of PASC in Immunosuppressed Patients

Timothy Koh, PhD, Professor, UIC College of Applied Health Sciences
Co-Investigators: Richard Minshall and Zhenlong Chen
Role of CCL28/CCR10/eNOS Signaling in Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Stephanie Torres, PhD, Bridge to Faculty Postdoctoral Research Associate, UIC College of Education
Co-Investigators: Yamile Molina, Geri Donenberg
Pilot Testing of a Structural Racism Intervention for Latinx Immigrant Families: Blending of Implementation Science and Community-Engaged Research

Joy Hammel, PhD, Professor, UIC College of Applied Health Sciences
Co-Investigators: Jessica Kersey, Emily Kringle, and Janet Smith
Improving the Health and Social Participation of People with Disabilities from Underrepresented Groups post COVID and in Public Health Emergencies.

Mohammad Islam, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Broadly effective ACE2 decoy receptor engineered to bind wild type and SARS CoV-2 spike (S) protein variants of concern (VOC)

PI: Margaret Wardle, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Co-Investigators: Brittany Rudd and Nicole Gastala
Motivating Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) – Implementing Contingency Management in MOUD

Eben Alsberg, PhD, Richard and Loan Hill Professor, Departments of Bioengineering, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Orthopaedics and Pharmacology, UIC Colleges of Medicine and Engineering
Rui Tang, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering, UIC College of Medicine

Engineering an in vitro high-throughput drug discovery platform for COVID-19

Claire Laurier Decoteau, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, UIC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Co-Investigators: Amanda Lewis, Patrisia Macias-Rojas, Anna Guevarra and Gayatri Reddy

Social Autopsy of COVID-19 in Chicago

Beatriz Penalver Bernabe, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering
Co-Investigators: Barbara McFarlin and Pauline Maki

The Role of Maternal Microbial Communities and Mental Health in spontaneous Preterm Birth

Steven Roth, MD, FARVO, Michael Reese Endowed Professor of Anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology
Co-Investigators: Sriram Ravindran, Yang Dai and Biji Mathew

Novel engineered extracellular vesicles for retinal diseases

Kyle Schachtschneider, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Ron Gaba and Grace Guzman

Genomic Variation Underlying Differential Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment Responses Across Ethno-racial Patient Populations

Kurt Smith, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, UIC College of Applied Health Sciences
Co-Investigators: Tracy Baynard, Cemal Ozemek, Shane Phillips and Richard Severin

Weathering the Storm: Lung, Heart, and Brain Vascular Rehabilitation for COVID-19

Michael Caffrey, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigator: Igor Paprotny

Real-Time Sensing of COVID-19

Petr Kral, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemistry, UIC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Co-Investigators:  Lela Vukovic and Seungpyo Hong

Systematic design of complementary libraries of peptides with a high affinity to the mutating SARS-CoV-2 spike protein

Beth Marks, PhD, Research Associate Professor, Department of Disability and Human Development, UIC College of Applied Health Sciences
Co-Investigators: Jasmina Sisirak and Matthew Janicki

Virtual Coach: Health Matters Google Classroom to Support Frontline Staff to Protect People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Heather Prendergast, MD, Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Dawood Darbar, Pavitra Kotini-Shah, and Amer Ardati

Racial, Ethnic and gender disparities Among a COVID-19 hyperTensive population (REACT)

Andrew Trotter, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Christian Ascoli, Scott Borgetti, Andrew Boyd, Houshang Darabi, William Galanter, Bhrandon Harris, Ravishankar Iyer, Min Joo, Karl Kochendorfer, Martha Menchaca, Richard Novak, Natalie Parde

 Artificial Intelligence Modeling for COVID-19 Disease (AIMCOVID) to define COVID-19 clinical disease severity stages, improve clinical management decisions and develop a clinical outcome prediction model

Leslie Aldrich, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Co-Is: Drs. Dr. Stephanie Cologna, Swetha Gowrishankar and Mary Jo LaDu

Autophagy regulation as a therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases

Erin Berenz, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Co-Is: Drs. Craig Lamb and Katie Thorrud

Advancing Translational Science in Community Residential Addiction Treatment     

Katie Burkhouse, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine
Co-Is: Drs. Benjamin Van Voorhees, Rachel Caskey, Jonathan Stange and Jennifer Suor

Pathways Linking Maternal Depression to Mental and Physical Health Outcomes among Offspring during Early Childhood

Marina Del Rios, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine
Co-Is: Drs. Houshang Darabi and Sara Heinert

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Improve Survival in Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest (AIM to Survive)

Steve Dudek, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine
Co-I: Dr. Srgei Danilov

Predictive Role of ACE phenotyping in Extrapulmonary Sarcoidosis

Christina Nicholas, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Orthodontics, College of Dentistry
Co-Is: Drs. Afsar Naqvi, Sloan Williams, Sahar Alrayyes, Giamila Fantuzzi, Ghadeer Thalji and Pamela Whyms

The Effects of Food Insecurity on the Oral Microbiomes of Children in Chicago

Elizabeth Papautsky, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, College of Applied Health Sciences
Co-Is: Drs. Ian Papautsky, Linda Forst and Robert Strouse

User-centered approach to developing an interface for a point-of-care blood metal analysis system

Jenny Parvani, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine
Co-Is: Drs. Kent Hoskins, Huiping Liu, Rajyasree Emmadi and Li Liu

The influence of Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC) on immune-checkpoint inhibition in African American patients with triple negative breast cancer

Amynah Pradhan, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine
Co-Is: Drs. Irina Gaisina and Gregory Thatcher

The development of HDAC6 inhibitors for the treatment of opioid induced hyperalgesia

Jagadeesh Ramasamy, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine
Co-Is: Drs. Alan Diamond and Robert Molokie

Impact of selenium and selenoprotein levels on hemolysis and pain in SCD

James Swartz, PhD, Professor, Department of Social Work, Jane Addams College of Social Work
Co-Is: Drs. Marya Lieberman, Mary Ellen Mackesky-Amiti and Antonio Jimenez

Adaptation of a Paper Analytic Device for Use as a Drug-Checking Technology for Street Drugs to Reduce Opioid Overdoses and Related Fatalities

Keriann Uesugi, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health
Co-Is: Drs. Angela Odoms-Young and Alisa Velonis

Breastfeeding Support for All: Advancing Breastfeeding Equity with Implementation Science

Jessie Chin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical and Health Information Science
Co-Investigators: Drs. Kelly Quinn, Naoko Muramatsu, and David Marquez

Promoting Physical Activity With Conversational Agents For Sedentary Older Adults              

Gus Cho, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Drs. Hui Chen, Victor Gordeuk, Xiaoping Du and Joseph Italiano

Ero1alpha-PDI signaling in sickle cell vaso-occlusion          

Kharma Foucher, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, College of Applied Health Sciences
Co-Investigators: Drs. Mark Gonzalez and Najia Shakoor

Impact of obesity, fatigue, and strength on physical activity in people with knee OA     

Heide Klumpp, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Drs. Susan Hong and Katie Burkhouse

Behavioral and Neurophysiological Assessment of Hot and Cold Memory and Executive Function in Treated Breast Cancer Patients  

Amy Lasek, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine
Co-Investigator: Dr. Gregory Thatcher

Degradation of brain estrogen receptors to reduce harmful alcohol drinking      

Ann Marie Lobo-Chan, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, College of Medicine
Co-Investigator: Dr. Deepak Shukla

Novel biomarkers and therapeutics in herpetic eye disease             

Pauline Maki, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine
Co-Investigator: Dr. Jennifer Duffecy

Implementation of an Evidence-Based E-Health Intervention for Perinatal Depression         

Salvador Nares, Professor, Department of Periodontics, College of Dentistry
Co-Investigators: Drs. Lin Tao and Afsar Naqvi & OncoImmune, Inc., Rockville, MD

Evaluating the Anti-Inflammatory Effects of CD24Fc in Periodontal Disease     

Barbara Jung, MD, Associate Professor, Chief, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Drs. Paul Grippo, Cemal Yazici and Giamila Fantuzzi

Delineating mechanisms of health disparity in acute pancreatitis   

Tara Mehta, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Drs. Marc Atkins & Angela Walden with Mr. Andy Neilson

Building multi‐level support for recreational staff members to infuse mental health promotion into everyday practices  

Thomas Royston, PhD, Professor, Department of Bioengineering, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigator: Dr. Robert Molokie

The ability of acoustic signals to predict the Acute chest syndrome in sickle cell disease    

Laura Sanchez, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, UIC College of Pharmacy
Co-Investigator: Dr. Joanna Burdette

Utilizing protein signatures from heterogeneous cell populations for disease diagnosis      

Robert Sargis, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine: Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Drs. Alan Diamond, Maria Argos and Craig Hanis

Arsenic‐Induced Diabetes Risk and its Modulation by Selenoproteins         

Olusola Ajilore, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Alex Leow and Philip Yu

Capture And Modulation of Emotion Regulation Inferred from Connectivity Analysis    

Amy Christison, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Illinois College of Medicine- Peoria
Co-Investigators: Peter Gyarmati and Yajing Song

Composition and Collection Feasibility of Gut Microbiota in Children With and Without Obesity

Lyndon Cooper, DDS, PhD, Associate Dean for Research, Head of the Department of Oral Biology, UIC College of Dentistry
Co-Investigators: Timothy Koh and Ghadeer Thalji

Monocyte/Macrophage Control of Induced Bone Repair  

Dennis Grayson, PhD, Professor of Molecular Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Alessandro Guidotti, and Alan Kozikowski

Better DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) inhibitors to correct the behavioral and molecular endophentoypes of an animal model of psychosis        

Jan Kitajewski, PhD, Professor and Head, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Kent Hoskins and Arakadiusz Dudek

Jagged1 as a Therapeutic for Breast Cancer in Diverse Patient Populations

Orly Lazarov, PhD, Professor, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, UIC College of Medicine
Co-Investigators: Richard Minshall, Laura Pedelty, Jacob Haus and Marcelo Bonini

Mechanisms of cognitive deterioration in Type 2 diabetes

Laurie Quinn, PhD, RN, Professor, Department of Biobehavioral Health Science, UIC College of Nursing
Co-Investigators: Joan Briller, Bilgay Balserak, Ulf Bronas, Eileen Collins, Cynthia Fritschi, Chang Park

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Influencing Metabolic and Cardiovascular Outcomes through Physical Activity