— College of Medicine — Department of Internal Medicine — Internal Medicine Research — Grant & Research Awards Information — Scientist Development Award

Scientist Development Award

This award is designed to support promising Department of Internal Medicine faculty making the transition from fellowship/post-doctoral training or as early faculty into a career as an independent researcher. The purpose of the award is to provide support for faculty, at the Instructor or Assistant Professor level, during which the applicant would participate in a mentored research-training program. It is anticipated that most, but not all, applicants will be senior fellows or in the first two years of a faculty appointment at the time of submission.

This mentored program provides support for salary as well as research and/or education costs for one year of research training in an environment where awardees will interact with more established investigators in the Department of Internal Medicine and their collaborators. Up to one award will be made annually. The goal of funding at this level is to provide an opportunity for young scientists to embark on focused research and research training that will allow them to be competitive for the next level of career development awards (e.g. NIH K Award, VA Career Development Award, or equivalent foundation award). It is expected that the awardee will demonstrate significant productivity during the one-year funding period including but not limited to serving as the PI on external grant applications, first-author manuscript submissions, and/or participation in meaningful professional development (e.g. research training) activities. Through this award, the Department provides a means for ensuring more qualified, highly-trained investigators at UNMC.

Submit the 2025 application by December 5, 2024.

Award Amount: Up to $100,000 in total funds for 1 year

Prior Award Winners

2024 Award Winner

Bo Liu, PhD, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

Proposal titled "Multifunctional zwitterionic hydrogels loading S100A9 inhibitor for postoperative abdominal adhesion prevention."

Amber Brown Keebler

2023 Award Winner

Amber Brown Keebler, MD, Division of General Internal Medicine

Proposal titled “Impact of Obesity and Depression on Patient Reported Disease Severity and Financial Toxicity in Psoriatic Arthritis.”

2022 Award Winner

Lindsay Helget, MD, Division of Rheumatology and Immunology

Proposal titled “Opioid Use Among U.S. Veteran’s with Gout”.

2021 Award Winner

Christopher D'Angelo, MD, Division of Hematology & Oncology

Proposal titled "Prebiotics to Improve Gut Microbiome Diversity After Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma and Lymphoma: The PRIMAL Trial."

2021 Award Winner

Dustin Krutsinger, MD, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine

Proposal titled "Exploring the Impact of Unengaged Stakeholders and Intra-Family Conflict in Critical Care Surrogate Decision Making."

Dr. Douglas D. Franz

2020 Award Winner

Doug Franz, MD, Division of Nephrology

Proposal titled "Predictors of clinically significant kidney function decline in patients receiving long-term left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support."

2019 Award Winner

Richard Hankins, MD, Division of Infectious Diseases

Proposal titled “Prospective, Crossover, Comparative Study of 2 Methods of Chlorhexidine Bathing.”

thomes

2018 Award Winner

Paul Thomes, PhD, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Proposal titled “Mechanisms of Autophagy in The Pathophysiology of Alcoholic Liver Disease.”

2017 Award Winner

Bryant England, MD, PhD, Division of Rheumatology and Immunology

Proposal titled “Enhancing the Identification of Rheumatoid Arthritis Associated Lung Disease.”

2016 Inaugural Award Winner

Anery Patel, MD, Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism

Proposal titled “BMX-001 as a Radio-Protector Agent for Untoward Effects of Radioactive Iodine Treatment in Thyroid Cancer.”