EID/CMI Innovation Research Awards Program

The first seed grant competition for the Emerging and Infectious Disease Program was held on March 3rd. It was a successful event attended by 30 faculty members representing North Carolina State University, Duke University and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. A total of six grant proposals were presented and three $10,000 grants were awarded at the end of the event after everyone present was allowed to vote. We partnered with the Triangle Center of Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM) from Duke on one of the successful proposal.

The key aspect of this events is that all the three proposals that were funded represent faculty who are going to collaborate with each other for the first time. This is what CMI is about: To bring faculty with different expertise together under the same roof and get them talking!

The three proposals funded:

1) Surveillance of antimicrobial resistant enteric bacteria in human and animal waste and wastewaters and nearby ambient waters and their evolutionary trends over time and space Collaborators: Mark Sobsey from Environmental Science and Engineering at UNC, Cristina Lanzas and Megan Jacob from Population Health and Pathobiology at NC State. Funded by CMI/TriCEM.
2) Biosynthesis, virtual screening, and testing of solithromycin analogues Collaborators: Gavin Williams and Denis Fouches from Chemistry at NC State and Megan Jacob from Population Health and Pathobiology at NC State
3) Approaches to Developing Novel Therapies for Cryptosporidium Collaborators: Jody Gookin from Clinical Sciences and Joshua Pierce from Chemistry at NC State.