News

Notice Number: NOT-OD-13-126

Release Date: October 1, 2013

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Purpose

I am very pleased to announce a new cycle of funding opportunities for pilot projects in cancer research under an Institutional Research Grant to the University of Kentucky from the American Cancer Society.  This grant is awarded to the University "... to provide 'seed' money awards for the initiation of promising new projects [in cancer research] by junior faculty members (Assistant Professors or their equivalent, not currently funded), so they can obtain preliminary results that will enable them to compete successfully for national research grants." 

It’s now possible for those without SAP access, including PIs, to track the routing status of eIAFs.  Here is the announcement distributed in last week’s Grants Bulletin by the Office of Sponsored Project Administration.  

Investigator eIAF Tracking Report Instructions

The bodies of mammals, including humans, respond to injury by releasing endogenous opioids — compounds that mitigate acute pain. A team of researchers, led by those at the University of Kentucky, has uncovered groundbreaking new information about how the body responds to traumatic injury with the development of a surprisingly long-lasting opioid mechanism of natural chronic pain control. Remarkably, the body develops both physical and physiological dependence on this opioid system, just as it does on opiate narcotic drugs.

Attention Investigators

The University of Kentucky Gill Heart Institute and the UK Saha Cardiovascular Research Center will host the 16th Annual Gill Heart Cardiovascular Research Day, Oct. 11, at the Lexington Convention Center. Gill Heart Insitute Cardiovascular Research Day annually attracts preeminent speakers in the field of cardiology and cardiovascular research. It also features a symposium for trainee researchers, a scientific poster session, and the presentation of the annual Saha Awards for medical and nursing education. This year, speakers include Dr.

NIH offers a large a variety of social media outlets to help investigators stay informed.  Follow this link to a summary page of the many outlets NIH is using to increase communication.   

From NIH Email - NIH eSubmission Items of Interest - August 21, 2013

Are you ready for our move to updated electronic application forms (FORMS-C)?

We’ve been busy preparing for our transition to updated application forms for most grant programs (NOT-OD-13-074). Our FOAs now have FORMS-C application packages and old B1 and B2 packages have been set to expire.

Here are some updated resources you may want to check out:

The NIH webinar, “Using ASSIST to Prepare and Submit Multi-Project Applications to NIH,” as presented on August 13 is now available for viewing at the following link:  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/webinar_docs/webinar_20130813.htm.  If you are thinking of submitting a multi-project application for an upcoming deadline, take some time to view this presentation and/or the associated PowerPoint slides also available at this link.  NIH will require electronic submission for all P01, P20, P50 and U19 appl

You may not know the human metapneumovirus by name, but chances are that you have met somewhere before.

HMPV, as it's known to virologists, is a common respiratory virus that new studies suggest is second only to influenza in the number of viral pneumonia cases it causes worldwide every year. Especially dangerous for small children, the elderly, and anyone with a compromised immune system, the virus strikes almost 100 percent of people on Earth at some point in their lives.

Is your NIH grant about to end? Three reports are required to properly close out a grant – a Federal Financial Report (FFR), which is submitted by Sponsored Projects Accounting; and two items which require PI involvement -- a Final Invention Statement and Certification, which is required even if there were no inventions and they were reported previously; and a Final Progress Report. These items are all due within 90 days of the project period end date.

As a PI, you can delegate certain functions and processes to other registered users within NIH eRA Commons. To make this easier, a new “Delegation” tab has been added within the “Admin” tab after logging in as PI. Refer to item 11in the directions documents "eRA Commons:  How to Basic Tasks Step by Step".
 

Members of the public interested in participating in research related to aging and Alzheimer's disease are invited to a town hall-style meeting to be held on Monday, Aug. 19, in Lexington. The meeting, sponsored by the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Fayette County Extension Office, 1140 Red Mile Place. During the town hall, participants will have the chance to hear from physicians and scientists currently engaged in research to find a cure or preventive measures for Alzheimer's disease.

What if we could pinpoint a hereditary cause for Alzheimer's, and intervene to reduce the risk of the disease? We may be closer to that goal, thanks to a team at the University of Kentucky. Researchers affiliated with the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging have completed new work in Alzheimer's genetics; the research is detailed in a paper published today in the Journal of Neuroscience. Emerging evidence indicates that, much like in the case of high cholesterol, some Alzheimer's disease risk is inherited while the remainder is environmental.

Over the next year, NIH will begin requiring an eRA Commons ID for all individuals in graduate and undergraduate roles who participate in NIH-funded projects for at least one month or more. To read more about this change in policy, click here.

As previously announced, NIH will require electronic submission for all P01, P20, P50 and U19 applications intended for due dates on or after September 25, 2013. NIH will hold a webinar on Tuesday, August 13, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m., to help potential applicants get acquainted with ASSIST, NIH’s system for electronic submission of multi-project applications.

As a native Kentuckian, the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center's Dr. Susanne Arnold understands many of the health issues our state faces — and focusing on the problems that hit hardest close to home has kept her motivated in her work.

"I got into research in Appalachia because I'm an eighth-generation Kentuckian, and my father, who was also a doctor and researcher, was a seventh-generation Kentuckian," Arnold said. "I learned a very valuable lesson from him — that we can't make progress in the treatment of diseases without being invested in the research that we do."

The NIH has posted announcements for the following Extramural Loan Repayment Programs (LRP):

Dr. Michael R. Dobbs, associate professor and interim chair of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine's Department of Neurology and director of the UK HealthCare/Norton Healthcare Stroke Network, has edited and published the latest edition of "Psychiatric Clinics of North America" titled “Psychiatric Manifestations of Neurotoxins.” Building on work that he had done with co-editor Dan Rusyniak of Indiana University for Neurologic Clinics, this compilation addresses cognitive and behavioral aspects of neurotoxic exposures.

 Laboratory notebooks should err on the side of completeness. Someone from outside your lab should be able to read what was done without your verbal interpretation.  General guidelines for lab notebooks include:

•  Permanently bound book (not spiral), with acid-free paper
•  Pages should be consecutively numbered 
•  Dated entries 
•  Signed entries 
•  Record entries chronologically 
•  Recorded in English 
•  Each entry should stand on it's own