The University of Wisconsin Skin Disease Research Center (UW SDRC) is pleased to announce it has released two awards as part of the Pilot and Feasibility (PF) program. The PF program received multiple proposals in response to the first Request for Applications, released in October 2014. This program, led by Department of Dermatology Professor Nihal Ahmad, provides pilot funding for skin disease projects in early stages of development, as a mechanism to mature these projects into applications for federal funding.
The two projects selected for funding are for:
–Deeba Syed, Ph.D., Assistant Scientist, Department of Dermatology: “Role of YB-1 in Human Squamous Cell Carcinoma”. Dr. Syed hopes to identify the unexplored role of YB-1 in human squamous cell carcinoma, and its association with disease progression.
–Sundaram Gunasekaran, Ph.D., Professor of Biological Systems Engineering: “Detecting and Enumerating Circulating Melanoma Cells”. Dr. Gunasekaran hopes to use his expertise in biosensing techniques to develop a simple, rapid and highly sensitive electrochemical immunosensing method to measure circulating tumor cells in blood.
Dr. Ahmad anticipates another Request for Applications will be released in the near future.
Support for this first round of PF program funding was provided by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (P30AR066524), as part of the UW SDRC.