Funding opportunities offered by NYU Langone’s Ion Channels and Transporters in Immunity Research Program provide investigators with resources to pursue cutting-edge research.

Pilot Grants for Collaborative Research on Ion Channels and Transporters in Immunity

We invite applications for Pilot Research Grants to conduct basic and translational research in the areas of ion channels and metabolic transporters in immunity.

The next application deadline will be in the fall of 2022.

Background and Purpose

Ion channels and metabolic transporters are important regulators of immune cell function and immune responses to infection, tumors, and in inflammation. However, most of the hundreds of ion channels and transporters in the mammalian genome have remained unexplored regarding their role in immunity, representing a large gap in our basic understanding of channel and transporter physiology and a missed translational opportunity to develop new therapeutics.

The purpose of the pilot research grants is to stimulate research in the field of channels and transporters in immunity, regardless of specific disciplines (neuroimmunology, cardioimmunology, etc.). We invite applications from immunologists who do not typically study channels and transporters, or channel/transporter biologists who are new to the field of immunity, or joint applicants from the two fields. The hope is that data obtained from these pilot grants can be used to develop extramural grant applications, such as from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Funding

The Pilot Research Grant provides funding for 1 year in the amount of $50,000 with the option for renewal based on progress and priorities. Services from the Ion Laboratory, NYU Langone’s electrophysiology core facility, will be available at discounted rates to awardees.

Eligibility

This funding opportunity is available to tenured and tenure-track faculty in all departments at NYU Langone.

Expectations

Awardees are expected to participate in Ion Channels and Transporters in Immunity Research Program activities, such as seminars and works in progress meetings, and to report progress on the aims of the pilot awards at these meetings.

Preliminary data are desirable, but not required. Pilot grants will be awarded based on projects’ scientific merit, concept, likelihood of success of proposed research, and the potential for collaborations with other labs in the ion channels, transporters, and immunity research field at NYU Langone.

Projects aimed to generate preliminary data for collaborative extramural grant applications will be prioritized.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit a single PDF file that includes the following materials:

• a two-page proposal stating rationale and hypothesis, specific aims, brief experimental approach, future plans, and collaborative potential. The two-page limit includes figures but not references.
• NIH biosketches
• budget and brief budget justification

Please email your application to Caterina Berti, PhD, assistant director of research operations, at caterina.berti@nyulangone.org. Questions should be addressed to Stefan Feske, MD, program director, at stefan.feske@nyulangone.org.

Funded Research Projects

Title: Discovery of KCa3.1 channel potentiators as vaccine adjuvants
Researchers: Timothy J. Cardozo, MD, PhD, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology; Stevan R. Hubbard, PhD, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology; William A. Coetzee, DSc, Departments of Pathology, Neuroscience and Physiology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

Title: Characterizing mechanosensitive Piezo-1 macrophage signaling during aging
Researcher: Bhama Ramkhelawon, PhD, Departments of Surgery and Cell Biology

Title: Structure and inhibition mechanism of the human S1P transporter SPNS2
Researchers: Da-Neng Wang, PhD, Department of Cell Biology; Shohei Koide, PhD, Perlmutter Cancer Center and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology;
Susan R. Schwab, PhD, Department of Pathology

Title: TTYH2 as a SARS-CoV-2 related myeloid regulator for STING pathway
Researcher: Jun Wang, PhD, Department of Pathology