Pilot Program:

YCCI Pilot Projects Utilizing YCCI Core Technologies

Increasingly, both translational and clinical research requires access to core facilities that are equipped with expensive instrumentation and operated by highly-trained staff members. Well run core facilities not only contribute to the quality and productivity of the research but also ensure patient safety. The YCCI and the School of Medicine have therefore invested funds for the expansion of existing core facilities and for the acquisition of new technologies for clinical and translational research.  An important goal of YCCI is to enhance clinical and translational research by encouraging and supporting collaboration between experts in cutting-edge technologies and clinical/translational researchers who need access to those technologies.  In support of this goal, YCCI is offering pilot funds to support work needed for clinical and translational research projects, particularly projects that are likely to lead to extramural support based on the preliminary data.

Scope:

This support can only be used to pay for core resources. The goal is to provide funds for to conduct pilot studies and generate data that will support the development and submission of extramural proposals. Projects that have not received extramural funding, but are in the final stages of completion but which require additional data are also eligible for these funds.

Eligibility requirements:

Full-time Yale faculty may submit proposals.  Multiple Principal Investigators and interdisciplinary projects are encouraged. These funds are not intended for and cannot be used to support work done completely within the PIs own laboratory. Pre-clinical studies must include collaborations with clinical faculty who will help with the ultimate application of the preclinical research to understand, diagnose or treat human disease.  The project must either facilitate translation from studies in animal model systems to testing in humans or facilitate translation of clinical studies into the broader community.

Funding and years of support:

 Funding will be available for up to $15,000 in total costs for a 12-month period beginning July 1, 2008.  The awards are not renewable or transferable. The number of awards to be made will depend upon the number of proposals received and the caliber of projects submitted. These funds are designed to provide you with the pilot data needed for the preliminary results section of your proposal for extramural funding, or to complete an initial, unfunded study.

Review Process:  Important elements in the review process will be:

• Scientific merit:  Is the research proposed important and innovative? 
• Interdisciplinary nature:  Does the research meet the criteria for being a new interdisciplinary disease-oriented program? 
• Funding:  Is the research likely to establish the basis and rationale for a larger project and to result in a successful application for extramural funding by this larger project?  Could the research be accomplished without funds from this RFA?

Selection criteria and process:

Your application will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

Significance. How might your project lead to improved treatment or prevention of a specific disease  or improve the health of the general population? Will this research lead to a better understanding of the basic mechanisms of a disease? How will the endpoints in the proposed research move your project from the bench to the bedside? If the research is exploratory rather than hypothesis-driven (often the case with genomics and proteomics research), why is current knowledge insufficient to justify pursuing exploratory research rather than testing a specific hypothesis?

Approach. What are the specific aims and hypotheses, and what methods will be used to address them (please do not provide unnecessary details of laboratory methods)? What is the rationale for the proposed experimental approach as opposed to other potential strategies? How will the data be analyzed? What are the expected outcomes, and what would be done next if the expected outcomes are observed? What would be done next if the expected outcomes are not observed?

Preliminary data. This is less important than significance and innovation, especially for junior investigators. However, preliminary data can be important if you are proposing an untested method or if the hypothesis has very little support in the literature.

Need for support. The goal is to use these funds to initiate promising new projects, not to support ongoing research that already has extramural support. We recognize that “K” awards have limited non-personnel budgets and welcome applications from those with such awards. If you have other support, what is unique about the proposed project compared to the funded project(s)?

Submission

Candidates MUST use the application and budget templates provided by the YCCI.  The elements of the application are listed below:

Submission Process

Application Form

Budget Template

Eligible YCCI Cores:

1. Yale MR Research Center

Contact: Douglas Rothman or R. Todd Constable

douglas.rothman@yale.edu

todd.constable@yale.edu

2. Yale PET Center

Contact: Richard E. Carson, PhD, Yu-Shin Ding, PhD, or Henry Huang, PhD

richard.e.carson@yale.edu    203-737-2814

yu-shin.ding@yale.edu            203-785-4297

henry.huang@yale.edu            203-785-3193

http://petcenter.yale.edu/research/collaborators.html or by email pet.center@yale.edu

3. Center for Cell & Molecular Imaging

Contact: Michael H. Nathanson or Al Mennone

michael.nathanson@yale.edu

al.mennone@yale.edu

4. Psychiatry SPECT Imaging

Contact: Julie K. Staley, PhD

203-932-5711x3324 or julie.staley@yale.edu

5. Electron Microscopy Facility, Center for Cell and Molecular Imaging (CCMI)Contact: Marc Pypaert marc.pypaert@yale.edu , Phone 785 3681

6. The CINEMA Laboratory

Contact: Derek Toomre

derek.toomre@yale.edu

7. Immune Monitoring

Contact Person: Lesley Devine, PhD (lesley.devine@yale.edu )

http://info.med.yale.edu/labmed/imcf/

8. Flow Cytometry Facility

Contact: Mark Shlomchik

mark.shlomchik@yale.edu

9. Keck Lab

Contact: Ken Williams

kenneth.williams@yale.edu

10. Yale Pathology Tissue Services

Contact: David Rimm

David.Rimm@Yale.edu

http://www.yalepath.org/YPTS/index.htm

11. Center for Chemical Genomics

Contact: Janie Merkel, Ph.D.

janie.merkel@yale.edu 432-5930

http://cgp.yale.edu/chemical/chem_info.html

12. Biostatical Support of YCCI

Contact: James Dziura

james.dziura@yale.edu

13. Biomedical Informatics Core

Contact: Perry Miller or Pradeep Mutalik
perry.miller@yale.edu

pradeep.mutalik@yale.edu

14. Core Laboratory of YCCI 

Contact: Li Wen or Ralph Jacob

li.wen@yale.edu

ralph.jacob@yale.edu  

Additional Requirements:

The abstracts and the names of all investigators funded through the Pilot and Collaborative Studies Program will be posted on the national CTSA website.  In addition, all investigators must provide a progress report to the YCCI and must acknowledge the YCCI CTSA base operating grant in any publications resulting from the supported studies.  The YCCI also requires that results of studies supported through the program be posted on the Yale YCCI website once the data have been published.