P2PE STEM Targeted Initiatives
SIF176 Prominence-to-Preeminence (P2PE) STEM Targeted Initiatives Fund
Approved: December 2020
Project Dates: 3/01/2022 – 2/28/2027
Total Funding: $19,000,000
Impact:
This award provides funding to support four STEM-related research projects selected in 2021 through a Request for Proposals:
SIF176A Contagion Science: An Integrative Science Program in Pandemic Science and Response
SIF176B Climate Science: Bridging Global and Community Scales
SIF176C BIG Steps Forward
SIF176D Immunology and Informatics for Precision ImmunoMedicine (iPRIME) in Cardiovascular Disease
This award provides funding to support four STEM-related research projects selected in 2021 through a Request for Proposals:
SIF176A Prominence-to-Preeminence (P2PE) STEM Targeted Initiatives Fund
Contagion Science: An Integrative Science Program in Pandemic Science and Response
Project Managers: Madhav Marathe
Approved: November 2021
Project Dates: 3/01/2022 – 2/28/2027
Total Funding: $5,000,000
Executive Summary
In the past year, the Contagion Science Program (CSP) continued to build and enrich relationships across Grounds by reaching new groups and individuals, deepening existing connections, and forming coalitions to pursue future collaborative funding opportunities. The program hosted workshops and events that sparked re-search conversations among faculty. To increase program engagement CSP partnered with the ECE department on the existing seminar series.
Through its preexisting work relationship with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), CSP members expanded upon and developed tools and analytical capability as part of the Pathogen Genomic Surveillance Center of Excellence (VA PGCoE).
The CSP made significant strides towards long-term program sustainability through applying for external funding. Teams housed under the CSP umbrella submitted research proposals for a total of approximately $52.5 million USD. Through these team efforts, the program brought together researchers from the Schools of Medicine, Computer Science, Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Biocomplexity Institute (BI). External partners included those based in industry and at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Virginia Department of Health, and universities including Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Washington State, Texas A&M – San Antonio, Virginia Tech, West Virginia University, the University of Maryland-College Park, University of Maryland -Baltimore, the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, and Howard University.
As projected in the previous annual report, CSP successfully recruited three diverse Contagion Science Post-doctoral Associates to support core operations in computational Epidemiology, Network Science, and Computer Science. Based on the experience in CSP, one of our postdoctoral associates was able to move to a position at the CDC starting in April. In addition to rehiring for the postdoctoral role in computational epidemiology, the program aims to hire one additional postdoctoral associate with a background in computational humanities, in-tended to engage more directly with different communities across Grounds.
The faculty hiring process has been reinitiated across Grounds; we expect to make good progress on this front this year. CSP successfully collaborated with the College and Graduate School for Arts and Sciences (A&S) to move Contagion Science faculty hiring forward. A&S is currently finalizing the hiring process. Promising conver-sations with school and department leadership in early 2024 make us optimistic to see swift hiring progress in this academic year.
BI has undergone a significant reorganization, starting January 2024. This process will be complete by April 2024. Nevertheless, the University has strongly supported the continuation of CSP. All the positions within the CSP program have been retained. We thank the University for their continued support in this matter. We hope to resolve one outstanding issue, namely hiring a tenure track faculty member in BI with joint appointment in one of the departments on Grounds.
P2PE: Climate Science
SIF176B Prominence-to-Preeminence (P2PE) STEM Targeted Initiatives Fund
Climate Science: Bridging Global and Community Scales
Project Manager: Karen McGlathery
Approved: November 2021
Project Dates: 3/01/2022 – 2/28/2027
Total Funding: $3,800,000
Executive Summary
Researchers in the Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI) have partnered with the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Data Science, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science on an initiative bridging global-scale climate dynamics with regional/local processes and systems to guide decision-making for equitable climate resilience and sustainability outcomes. This is a critical knowledge gap in creating actionable solutions to climate change, and one in which UVA is uniquely poised to become a preeminent leader. The initiative’s research objectives are organized around three overarching themes: utilizing downscaling and model-data fusion to make advances in climate science more actionable and equitable at the local scale; leveraging cyber-physical systems (CPS) to advance our ability to monitor energy and water flows within communities, reduce energy consumption at the building scale, and mitigate global climate change impacts to infrastructure systems; and exploring how engineering and nature-based approaches to decarbonization be realistically integrated at the regional scale to cut emissions in line with global climate goals.
Progress:
The SIF176B “Climate Science: Bridging Global and Community Scales (G2C)” Initiative aims to dramatically advance the University of Virginia as a world leader in climate change analysis and solutions research.
We focus on bridging global-scale climate dynamics with community-scale processes and systems to guide decision-making for equitable climate resilience and sustainability outcomes.
The project’s broad aims include:
a. Strengthen our capacity to understand and project climate dynamics and impacts at scales that matter for communities (i.e., regional/local and years/decades);
b. Use these enhanced projections in combination with local-scale data (e.g., real-time environmental sensing) to improve regional and global scale quantification of energy and carbon dynamics; and
c. Drive actionable natural and engineered solutions to climate change (e.g., land-use changes, infrastructure, decarbonization).
Milestones have been achieved to advance the goals of SIF176B. Following the establishment of important foundations in year-1, including hiring a Program Manager, creating an official website, and recruiting the first postdoc, the initiative accomplished additional milestones in year-2. These include:
• The successful recruitment of 5 postdoctoral research associates (1 in year 1 and 4 in year 2) to work with 7 full-time UVA faculty across 7 disciplines, in line with the 5 pillars of the post-doctoral program, including diversity, impact-oriented research, interdisciplinarity, working as a cohort, and mentorship.
• The postdoc search in year-2 attracted a diverse applicant pool of 96 unique applicants; postdocs recruited come from 4 countries on 3 continents.
• The Institute is ahead of schedule to recruit three (3) new postdocs to be funded in year-3 under SIF176B. All three (3) incoming year-3 postdocs have accepted their offers and are expected to start between June and August 2024.
• Two (2) postdocs hired with SIF176B funds in year-2 but could not start in year-2 due to immigration challenges will join the year-3 cohort, bringing the total of P2PE postdocs to 10. Apart from these 10 postdocs, the Institute works with four (4) other postdocs funded under SIF187D.
• 5 published scholarly articles resulting from the work of recruited postdoctoral research associates, reflecting the project’s commitment to increasing UVA’s focus on using innovative approaches such as Machine Learning, Agent-based Modeling and Climate Modeling for climate research; two (2) more journal articles under review. One postdoc publication was featured on the cover of Science Magazine.
These accomplishments align with SIF176B’s five-year vision to significantly advance the University of Virginia as a world leader in climate change analysis and solutions research, by bridging global-scale climate dynamics with community-scale processes and systems to guide decision-making for equitable climate resilience and sustainability outcomes.
Our year-2 accomplishments build on the foundation laid in the first year. As the foundational strategies set out in year-1 took shape in year-2, the Institute’s engagement with several UVA faculty, schools, and departments, has already resulted in the identification of new projects for which postdocs have been recruited for funding in year-3. In furtherance of the preparing recruited postdocs for fulfilling future positions, the Institute also engaged with UVA entities focused on professional development to help equip them with skills they need to become effective, well-rounded climate researchers and faculty advancing climate research.
Buoyed by the advancements made in year-2, the Institute looks forward to making further strides toward meeting and exceeding the set goals of this initiative in year-3.
P2PE BIG Steps Forward
SIF176C Prominence-to-Preeminence (P2PE) STEM Targeted Initiatives Fund
BIG Steps Forward
Project Manager: Tajie Harris
Approved: November 2021
Project Dates: 3/01/2022 – 2/28/2027
Total Funding: $4,700,000
Executive Summary
The overarching research theme of BIG Steps Foward is advancing the understanding of neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuroinflammation research at the University of Virginia is a nationally- and internationally-recognized interdisciplinary research strength. Researchers within the center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) are uniquely poised to address how the immune system impacts the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The predominant goal of BIG Steps Forward is to accelerate the development of research in this area by providing key resources that will generate applications from UVA BIG more competitive for prestigious external funding. There is a dire need for new therapies to treat Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and the UVA BIG center will rise to preeminence as we tackle this complex and devastating disease.
Progress:
The Prominence to Preeminence (P2PE) Award, BIG Steps Forward, has the goal of establishing research excellence at the University of Virginia (UVA) in the area of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. To achieve this goal, we have successfully recruited a basic science faculty member, Dr. Sarah Flowers, to the center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG). Dr. Flowers has expertise in the biochemistry of APOE. Apoe4 is a risk factor for the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, making the insights gained from her research relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
We have also funded seven laboratories to perform exciting new projects through our seed grant program. Each funded group is using a unique approach to understand neurodegenerative processes using a variety of models. Importantly, several principal investigators associated with this program have published collaborative papers and submitted NIH grants to support their research. The submitted papers and grants will be essential for providing evidence of successful collaborations that will be the basis of a NIH Program Project (P01) application that will fund this program in the future.
We have also purchased new equipment that is allowing for cutting-edge experimentation by our researchers. The acquisition of a spatial transcriptomics platform and a high-parameter flow cytometer have allowed for the generation of datasets that will lead to a better understanding of how neuroinflammation contributes to or protects the brain in neurodegenerative diseases. To assist with the analyses of the complex data sets generated by this instrumentation, we have hired a staff Data Scientist, Dr. Maureen Cowan. Dr. Cowan has been instrumental for our spatial transcriptomics program. She is currently using AI to optimize critical steps in the analysis pipeline. We have also made progress towards the establishment of an Alzheimer’s disease model core that will serve as an essential resource for our investigators.
Lastly, we had an inaugural event in 2022 that brought senior graduate students from across the country to UVA to visit the BIG center and Charlottesville. The event was highly successful in building connections with these rising leaders in the field. In the upcoming year, we will continue our efforts to recruit a clinician scientist to UVA and continue to perform collaborative, innovative, and ground-breaking research.
P2PE iPRIME
SIF176D Prominence-to-Preeminence (P2PE) STEM Targeted Initiatives Fund
Immunology and Informatics for Precision ImmunoMedicine (iPRIME) in Cardiovascular Disease
Project Manager: Coleen McNamara
Approved: November 2021
Project Dates: 3/01/2022 – 2/28/2027
Total Funding: $5,500,000
Executive Summary
In collaboration with the Schools of Medicine, Engineering and Applied Science, Nursing, and Data Science, the goal of implement Precision ImmunoMedicine (iPRIME) is to designate UVA as the premier location for targeting the immune-system for research, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) using cutting edge technology, advanced clinical imaging, and innovative, sophisticated artificial intelligence. The team has collected substantial data from patient subjects and has the systems in place to recruit and obtain high dimensional immune system and imaging data and clinical outcomes on another 1000 CVD subjects over the next five years. The team has successfully used bioinformatics and machine learning in cohorts to develop algorithms to assist clinical decision making as a proof of concept. Melding all of these data and topics together will lead to fully realizing the potential preeminence for UVA in precision immunomedicine in CVD.
Progress:
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death globally, costing an estimated 17.9 million lives each year. CVD is caused mainly by atherosclerosis, a thickening or hardening of the arteries caused by a buildup of plaque in the inner lining. Importantly, inflammation is recognized as a key component of the disease. Atherosclerotic lesions contain various immune cells coupled with cholesterol infiltrates from the blood. While therapeutics targeting the immune response are currently the fastest growing class of drugs, the challenge of elucidating biomarkers and defining how best to deliver targeted patient-specific approaches remains. Our goal is to reduce barriers for investigators to perform cutting-edge research on cardiovascular diseases, and designate UVA as the premier location for targeting the immune-system for research, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
Since our inception and funding through the Prominence-to-Preeminence (P2PE) STEM Targeted Initiative Fund in 2021, we have focused on our mission of advancing Precision ImmunoMedicine by linking experts in Immunology, Imaging, and Informatics (iPRIME). Our efforts in year one and year two have focused on building a strong foundation to ensure our collaborative team, our renovated space, and our scientific aims would allow programmatic success. Milestones for year one include: (1) Recruitment and retention of a core iPRIME team focused on supporting Human Translational Immunology Research; (2) Development and implementation of a workflow for human biospecimen collection and novel immunoassay analysis; (3) Creation of informatic pipelines for single-cell data analysis and artificial intelligence approaches; (4) Recruitment of an Immunomodulatory Clinical Trial Physician-Scientist; and (5) Engagement with cross-disciplinary students and faculty. To date, we have enrolled over 1100+ patients undergoing cardiac imaging at UVA. These patient cohorts contain clinical imaging data, high-quality cryopreserved immune cells, DNA, plasma, and relevant clinical data. Milestones for year two include: (1) Catalyzing interdisciplinary research through faculty seed funding and student fellowships; (2) Building a Precision ImmunoMedicine Data Commons in iTHRIV; (3) Increasing knowledge of cardiovascular disease pathogenesis to maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity of treatments; and (4) Inclusion of CVD patients in immunomodulatory clinical trials at UVA.
As we progress into year three, we remain focused on continued discovery of novel biomarkers of disease, using artificial intelligence to predict disease outcome, and determining personalized cardiovascular disease therapy response and risk.