13 Sep ITHS Announces Winners of Pilot Funding to Accelerate Translational Science
ITHS is pleased to announce the winners of its Translational Science Acceleration Awards. Leaders of the awarded projects will receive pilot funding to support planning and development of approaches that aim to address significant roadblocks in clinical and translational research.
Project awardees:
- Taran Gujral, PhD, Associate Professor, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch, Project Title: Bench-to-bedside: Using AI and patient tissues to identify personalized therapies for rare, relapsed, and refractory cancers – $50,000
- Ayokunle Olanrewaju, PhD, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering, University of Washington, Project Title: User-centric microfluidics for decentralized therapeutic drug monitoring – $50,000
- Co-PIs: Kerryn Reding, PhD, MPH, RN, Associate Professor, University of Washington; Weichao Yuwen, PhD, RN, Associate Professor, University of Washington Tacoma; Maggie Ramirez, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Washington, Project Title: Promoting diversity and inclusion of research study participants through developing linguistically and culturally tailored virtual study assistants using generative artificial intelligence (AI) – $70,000
We are thrilled to support these future-facing projects in an effort to accelerate the pace of translational research
Dr. John Amory, ITHS Principal Investigator
The selection process began in early 2024, and once semi-finalists were chosen from a large pool of applicants, they were asked to present for the ITHS Steering Committee. Feedback was collected and each project was assessed for its potential to tractably advance translational science. In June, the top six projects were presented to our External Advisory Board, composed of national leaders in the field. Their feedback, combined with that of the ITHS Executive Committee, helped decide which projects were most congruent with the goals of the funding opportunity.
Funding began on or before September 2, 2024, and will conclude on February 28, 2025. Awardees will provide a final report on the pilot project to the Steering Committee in Spring 2025. The Executive Committee plans to select one or more projects for further development, demonstration, and/or dissemination of their translational science innovations, with support from ITHS. If successful, the project(s) will yield new tools, platforms, or methods that can enhance the speed, efficiency, rigor, reach, and/or impact of clinical and translational research broadly across disciplines and diseases.
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This project was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through Grant Number UL1 TR002319.
