On April 3rd, five young researchers presented their grant proposals to GIRF’s Associates Board for projects ranging from using an app to improve patient compliance for colonoscopies to basic research using cutting edge technologies to identify pathogens. The Associates Board members were so impressed with all the proposals that they approved all the projects, awarding a total of $36,000 in grants.. This funding will support these scientists in the early stages of their careers as they continue their work helping those with GI issues. Below are the five grants GIRF awarded:
- Noa Cleveland, MD, received a $700 grant based on her presentation “Assessment of Colorectal Compliance and Sensory Perception in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis”. Her mentor is Dr. David Rubin.
- Dejan Micic, MD, received a $6,000 grant to help his work in predicting hospital readmission in ulcerative colitis using novel machine learning techniques. His mentor is Dr. David Rubin.
- Yue Shan, PhD, received a $9,850 grant to help her work in identifying genetic elements responsible for the emergence of harmful bacteria from commensal microbiota. Her mentor is Dr. Eugene Chang.
- Bill Watterson, PhD, received a $10,000 grant to help his work in creating a high-throughput microfluidic platform for rapid identification and cultivation of low-abundance pathogenic microorganisms from ulcerative colitis patients with ileal-pouch anal anastomosis. His mentor is Dr. Savas Tay.
- Adjoa-Anyane Yeboa, MD, Bianca Chang, MD, Matthew Stier, MD, and Yunwei Wang, MD, received a combined $9,500 grant to help their work in using a digital navigation system to improve the quality and performance of colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening – a randomized, controlled, quality improvement study. Dr. Neil Sengupta is their mentor.
We are excited to see how these young GIRF researchers will change the way we prevent and treat digestive diseases. To learn more about GIRF-funded research, visit our Innovate page here.