Pilot Projects

The VICB designates funds each year to support new projects in members’ laboratories.  All VICB members as well as research faculty in member laboratories may apply.  Applications are accepted each spring for awards to be distributed in July of that year.  The deadline for submission is June 1, 2010.

Application
Applications for Pilot Project Grant Awards are being solicited from the laboratories of VICB members.  Projects can be submitted by VICB members or junior faculty at the rank of research instructor or higher who are members of their laboratories. Budgets of up to $45,000 per year can be requested.  The major purpose of the Pilot Project Program is to stimulate research in chemical biology, not to support ongoing projects or to bridge lapses in funding. Therefore, projects should be innovative and not currently supported in the Member’s laboratory.

Interested individuals should submit a one-page Letter-of-Intent to the VICB office by June 1, 2010, outlining the project and its relevance to chemical biology. Projects deemed appropriate for the Program will be identified and full proposals solicited. Proposals should contain an abstract, a budget, and a narrative research plan. The description of the project should be no more than five pages in length excluding references.  Further details of proposal submission will be communicated to investigators if a positive decision is rendered on the Letter-of-Intent.

Funding is anticipated to begin by September 1, 2010. 

Information may be obtained from Anne Lara in the VICB Administrative Office (896 Preston Building; telephone: 936-3881) or email:  anne.b.lara@vanderbilt.edu

Past Awards

2010 Awards:

Ash Jayagopal      Targeted Nanocarriers for Imaging and Therapy of Atherosclerosis

Carl Johnson        Screening for Compounds that Modulate Plant Photoperiodic Flowering

John McLean        Cryogenic Structural Mass Spectrometry for Chemical Biology

Eric Skaar              A Small Molecule Activator Of Heme Sensing In Bacterial Pathogens

Tao Zhong              Roles of Cardionogen Small Molecuels in heart development and regeneration

2009 Awards:        

Tina Iverson         Molecular Basis for Carbohydrate Selectivity by Streptococcal Adhesins

Borden Lacy        Small Molecule inhibitors of Clostridium difficile cytotoxins

2008 Awards:

Alex Brown           Analysis of alkyne-derivatized glycerophospholipids in cellular extracts

Lou DeFelice       Novel  Drugs to Excite the Channel Mode of Serotonin Transporters

Eva Harth            Transport of Proteins and Antibodies across Cellular Membranes

Tina Iverson       Transition states of G-protein signaling

John McLean     Quantitative analysis tags for proteomic and glycomic analysis by structural mass
                              spectrometry

2007 Awards:

Carl Johnson         Screening for Chronotherapeutics Applied to Circadian Clock and Sleep Disorders

Craig Lindsley      Novel Approaches for the Treatment of Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Diseaase: 
& Jeff Conn            Allosteric Potentiators and Allosteric Agonists of M1 Muscarinic Receptors

Jens Meiler           Virtual QSAR approach to identify novel leads for therapeutics

Dave Weaver       Discovery and Characterization of GLP-1 Receptor Modulators for the Treatment of Diabetes
                                and Obesity