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NIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Abstract Western Washington University (WWU) seeks BRE-SPAD funding to strengthen its research infrastructure and expand faculty and student engagement in biomedical research. As a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution (PUI) with a strong commitment to liberal arts education, WWU has seen steady growth in research activities in the past several years. Research expenditures have almost doubled in less than a decade from $8.5 million in 2014 to $15.9 million in 2023. Yet, WWU’s biological, biomedical, and health sciences R&D expenditures were only $864,000, representing just 5% of total institutional R&D expenditures. WWU will use BRE-SPAD funding to address several institutional challenges, including high teaching loads, lack of key research equipment, limited pre- and post-award administrative support, no central system for recruiting students into undergraduate research opportunities, and a lack of dedicated research development programming. The proposed SPAD initiative at WWU will enhance research capacity through the following specific aims: 1) Improve sponsored programs administration capacity by hiring a new research administrator, training all pre- and post-award staff on NIH proposal submission and award management best practices, and learning from an external evaluation process to improve overall research administration and research development services. 2) Enhance WWU’s research environment by establishing the Viking Biomedical Research Institute (VBR), hiring a program manager, purchasing key biomedical research equipment and supplies, training biomedical faculty in effective NIH research design and proposal writing, incentivizing faculty to develop new course- based undergraduate research experiences (CURES), and creating a centralized mentoring hub for students interested in pursuing biomedical research. and 3) Launch a pilot research project funding program by offering pilot awards, providing faculty release time to focus on research activities, providing resources for undergraduate student participation in the research projects, and enabling faculty to collect data and conduct preliminary analyses that will make subsequent NIH proposals more competitive. By achieving these aims, WWU expects to catalyze a significant increase in the number of faculty – and faculty from a wider range of disciplines – who submit NIH proposals, growth in biomedical research expenditures, increased student participation in biomedical research, an increase in the number of students who graduate with biomedical and health-related degrees and qualifications to enter the regional biomedical workforce, and the establishment of a sustainable and robust biomedical research enterprise.

NICHD - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

PROJECT ABSTRACT Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region dominated by low-resource communities and relatively poor families, is experiencing rising HIV prevalence among adolescents and youth (AY). Household economic hardships heighten the risk for AY’s engaging in health-compromising behaviors and their poor engagement with care. This increases their risk for contracting and transmitting HIV and non-adherence to ART treatment. Economic empowerment (EE) interventions have demonstrated substantial promise in reducing HIV-related risk-taking behaviors, and improving ART treatment adherence and mental health outcomes. Based on 10+ years of research utilizing savings-led EE interventions focused on HIV prevention, care and support for AY affected by HIV [AYaAIDS] (including AY living with HIV [AYLHIV]; and AY orphaned by AIDS [AYoAIDS] in SSA, our group has demonstrated the effectiveness of a multi-component EE intervention, Bridges, in four NIH-funded randomized control trials (RCT) in Uganda (R01 HD070727, R01HD074949, R34MH081763, R01MH113486), and one foundation-funded study in Kenya. Bridges involves: 1) financial literacy training (FLT) and mentorship; 2) family income-generating activities (IGA); and 3) incentivized savings via a matched Youth Development Account (YDA). Bridges has demonstrated robust effects on HIV-related risk-taking behaviors, ART adherence, mental health, psychosocial outcomes, educational achievement, family economics, and family cohesion. Yet, scaling EE interventions has been a challenge, signaling the need to identify and test scale-up strategies and examine determinants of implementation and sustainment. In Bridges2Scale, we will compare two multifaceted strategies (standard vs enhanced) for scaling Bridges in a two-arm Hybrid III effectiveness-implementation cluster RCT. The standard implementation strategy has been applied in our prior RCTs and involves educational meetings that prepare staff to deliver Bridges with minimal disruption to site workflow. This will be compared to an enhanced strategy that will be developed using Implementation Mapping. We will use the public school system to recruit 1440 AYaAIDS (ages 13-17 years) from 48 schools in the Greater Masaka region of Uganda, a region with 11.7% HIV prevalence. Schools will be the unit of randomization (n=24 schools per arm; n=720 students per arm). Four specific aims guide our study: Aim 1. Compare the implementation effectiveness of the standard implementation strategy vs. an enhanced implementation strategy; Aim 2. Determine the clinical effectiveness of Bridges implemented via a standard vs. enhanced implementation strategy; Aim 3. Explore implementation processes, mechanisms, and determinants; and Aim 4. Compare the cost and cost-effectiveness of the two implementation strategies. The study will address a critical challenge: how to best support the implementation, scale-up, and sustainment of EE interventions, which have been proven to be highly efficacious in improving youth-focused HIV prevention, care, and support outcomes, but are yet to be widely scaled up.

City Of Bristol

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City Of Bristol

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Friends of Hiawatha

The Friends of Hiawatha will engage in street activation thru art at 843 Hiawatha Pl S that will include the side streets of S. Charles and Dearborn Ave corners. The activation includes tree lighting for beautification, and culminating with a winter celebration on February 7, 2025 on First Friday Artwalk. The event is free and open to the public.

Fish and Wildlife Service

The National Wildlife Refuge Association proposes to work with the National Wildlife Refuge System through a Cooperative Agreement to invest $1 million of construction funding in four urban refuges. The refuges have been selected because they are developing innovative urban outreach programs, have a level of readiness to be able to maximize capital investments, and are in cities that America looks toward to set trends. The Refuge Association will assist the Service in developing state-of-the-art infrastructure projects at each of the four refuges, and the Association would seek to complement capital investments by the Service with capital and program capacity funding to bring these facilities alive with programs for urban families experiencing our National Wildlife Refuge System and the mission of the USFWS.

The Eli's Park Project

Initiated and designed by the community it will serve, the Eli's Park Project at the Burke Gilman Playground Park, located at 5201 Sand Point Way NE, will renovate an underutilized green space into a park that is fully accessible to people of all ages, abilities and identities. This phase of funding will complete the art elements partially funded in the previous cycle and includes the fabrication and installation of 5 permanent art features. All contractors qualified through community hiring panels and public art calls. This project will be completed by December 30, 2022.

The Eli's Park Project

Led by Site Workshop and our design team, The Eli's Park Project will continue our partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation in design development for the Burke-Gilman Playground Park located at 5201 Sandpoint Way NE. This phase will result in design documents including civil engineering reports and integrated art elements. This phase is estimated to be completed by February 2020.

Think Big, Wedgwood

The Think Big, Wedgewood community group, purpose for the project is to create a sense of unity in their neighborhood through art that communicates that Wedgwood welcomes all. Think Big Wedgewood will have a public design process and fabricate and hang light pole banners that will be non-commercial in nature & beautify the neighborhood. There will be roughly 25 banners along the 35th Ave business district between 75th & 95th in Wedgwood. The banners will be installed by SuperGraphics with the guidance of the Seattle Dept of Transportation Directors Pole Banner Permitting Guidelines, or the appropriate recommended contractor.

Calgary Foundation

Calgary Foundation provides grants for community well-being in the Calgary area including arts, education, environment, health, and social services.

California Arts Council

California Arts Council provides grants to support arts and cultural programming, artist fellowships, arts education, and community-based arts projects across CA.

California Arts Council

Artists in Schools (AiS) provides direct arts education experiences by placing professional artists in K-12 schools and community settings throughout California.

California Arts Council

The Organizational Support Program (OSP) provides multi-year general operating support to California arts organizations, strengthening their capacity to deliver arts and cultural programs statewide.

California Community Foundation

California Community Foundation provides grants to Los Angeles County nonprofits in areas including housing and homelessness, civic engagement, immigrant integration, and arts and culture.

Cambridge Hip-Hop Collective

Cambridge MA Arts Grants Grant #352

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Project summary/abstract Despite effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), people with HIV (PWH) continue to have chronic inflammation and comorbidities driven by low-level viral transcription from integrated HIV proviruses. Silencing this residual HIV activity could reduce immune activation and improve long-term health. Our long-term goal is to develop therapies that suppress HIV expression and inflammation in PWH on ART. Topotecan (TPT), a Camptothecin analog that inhibits Topoisomerase I, potently suppresses HIV transcription in latently infected T cells. Notably, TPT appears to inhibit HIV independent of its Topoisomerase I activity, suggesting an alternative mechanism of action. We will evaluate new Camptothecin analogs as HIV “block- and-lock” agents. Our central hypothesis is that these compounds can stably suppress HIV without harming host cells. We will pursue three aims: 1) Determine the mechanisms by which TPT inhibits HIV gene expression; 2) Identify new Camptothecin analogs with HIV inhibitory function; 3) Determine the longevity of Camptothecin analog-induced HIV suppression and validate their function using samples from PWH ex vivo. First, we will define how TPT blocks HIV by mapping epigenetic changes at the viral promoter (via CUT&RUN), testing Tat dependence, and assessing post-transcriptional effects like RNA stability and nuclear export (Aim 1). Second, we will screen Camptothecin analogs—with and without Topoisomerase I activity—to identify compounds that suppress HIV at low doses without cytotoxicity. Lead candidates will be validated in primary cells, and their mechanisms and off-target effects will be characterized (Aim 2). Third, we will test whether these compounds can durably silence HIV in latency models and in cells from PWH ex vivo (Aim 3). Completion of these studies will clarify how Camptothecin analogs suppress HIV and assess their therapeutic potential. We expect this work will enable the development of novel “block-and-lock” drugs that reduce persistent inflammation and improve health outcomes in PWH on ART.

Canada Council for the Arts

Engage and Sustain supports arts organizations to strengthen their artistic practice, organizational resilience, and engagement with communities.

Canada Council for the Arts

The Canada Council invests $300M annually in arts. Explore and Create supports artistic practice and the creation, production, and dissemination of art across all disciplines.

Canadian Heritage

Canadian Heritage supports heritage conservation, cultural development, and promotion of arts and culture. Includes programs for museums, festivals, and cultural events.

National Institutes of Health

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The over-arching goal of this NCI R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nations biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Courses for Skills Development. Applications are encouraged that propose innovative, state-of-the-art programs that address the cause, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of cancer, rehabilitation from cancer, or the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer patients.

National Institutes of Health

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The over-arching goal of this NCI R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nations biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Curriculum or Methods Development. Applications are encouraged that propose innovative, state-of-the-art programs that address the cause, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of cancer, rehabilitation from cancer, or the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer patients.

National Institutes of Health

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The over-arching goal of this NCI R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nations biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Curriculum or Methods Development. Applications are encouraged that propose innovative, state-of-the-art programs that address the cause, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of cancer, rehabilitation from cancer, or the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer patients.

National Institutes of Health

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The over-arching goal of this NCI R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nations biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Research Experiences. Applications are encouraged that propose innovative, state-of-the-art programs that address the cause, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of cancer, rehabilitation from cancer, or the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer patients.

NCI - National Cancer Institute

PROJECT SUMMARY Multiple myeloma (MM) remains an incurable malignancy in most patients, who will eventually relapse and become refractory to existing therapies. There is thus a critical need for therapeutic innovations that maintain remission and preserve patient quality of life. The tumor microenvironment (TME) of MM is within hypoxic bone marrow, which is intriguing because membrane biogenesis for proliferation is limited by available cholesterol. The synthesis of cholesterol is energy- and oxygen-intensive, and limited supply leads to resource competition between constantly dividing tumor and hematopoietic cells. This nutrient tug-of-war between tumor and nontumor cells in the MM-TME is evidenced by high rates of anemia and infection in MM patients. Separately, altered immune cell behavior results in immunosuppression, which is common in advanced and relapsing MM, and therapeutically underserved. Epidemiolocal studies indicate that low levels of plasma cholesterol are linked with MM progression, likely reflecting the high demand for sterols in the TME. All cells can rapidly increase cellular sterol levels and stimulate membrane biosynthesis through uptake of cholesterol-rich low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Most recently, it has been published that LDL also transport small RNAs that promote macrophage polarization by activating an endosomal sensor of RNA, toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8). Researchers demonstrated that pharmacologic antagonism of TLR8 shifted the immune landscape within atherosclerotic plaques and reduced disease burden in hyperlipidemic mice. Taken together, LDL is a nutrient-dense particle capable of supporting cell proliferation, and a source of extracellular sRNA capable of modulating immune cell function. The goal of this Stephen I. Katz Early-Stage Investigator Grant is to 1) determine whether LDL’s canonical functions in lipid transport directly enable MM growth, progression and therapeutic resistance, and 2) investigate whether LDL’s transport of small RNAs indirectly enables MM progression through activation of TLR8 in host leukocytes to create an immunosuppressive TME. In agreement with the funding mechanism, this proposal represents an ambitious new direction for our laboratory supported by rigorous work in the literature and an ensemble of experienced collaborators and clinicians that reflect the tremendous environment for translational MM research at our institution. We will harness this translational power by using innovative approaches to humanize lipoprotein metabolism in proven pre-clinical models of MM, and by combining state-of-the-art bioinformatic, imaging, and single-cell immune profiling approaches, to test the therapeutic synergy of safe, effective, and FDA-approved, LDL-lowering drugs with standard-of-care chemotherapy. Mice are used in this study because it is not possible to fully recapitulate the complex patho-physiological state of myeloma disease, which involves multiple cells, tissues and organs, using cultured cell models. The validity of mice as an animal model for studying the pathophysiology and treatment of myeloma disease has been supported by extensive literature showing that cellular and molecular features of myeloma disease in mice are similar to those in humans. Upon completion, this award will fill a critical gap in knowledge of how LDL contributes to a pro-malignant TME, and more specifically how lipoprotein disequilibrium contributes to immunosuppression in MM. We envision that these data will be leveraged to open many new research opportunities for diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for MM, and perhaps, other malignancies.