The Office of Academic Integration (OVPAI) has awarded $750,000 in seed grants to 10 studies ranging from refugee health and legal rights, to a vaccine treating fentanyl addiction and overdose, to pancreatic cancer and antibiotic tolerance.

This year’s awardees represent faculty collaborations across five colleges and schools, and 18 departments and divisions across the Cornell Ithaca campus and Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Tech in New York City.

Designed to catalyze collaborative research interactions among Cornell faculty based in Ithaca and New York City, OVPAI provides funding opportunities that foster transdisciplinary, multi-investigator programs that aim to be competitive for support from federal funders and major foundations.

Since it was established in 2018, OVPAI has already spawned collaborative programs that have garnered five times as much funding as Cornell’s initial investment.

“By creating synergies among Cornell faculty and research units, laboratories have leveraged the research expertise across all campuses to transform individual projects into larger programs with increased impact and visibility,” said Gary Koretzky, vice provost for academic integration. “These seed grants have already demonstrated their impact in providing investigators with the opportunity to explore new and innovative collaborations that otherwise would not have been possible.”

The 2021 Multi-Investigator Seed Grant RFA is now open and faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. Two funding tracks, of $75,000 and $100,000, are available. Letters of intent are due by March 26, followed by full applications due in October.

The 2020 Multi-Investigator Seed Grant projects:

• Role of ALK7 in Pancreatic Cancer Progression: Esak Lee, assistant professor, Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University; Manuel Hidalgo, chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology and the E. Hugh Luckey Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine.
• Understanding the Role of SPEN in Marginal Zone B Cell Transformation Using Three-Photon Microscopy: Ari Melnick, the Gebroe Family Professor of Hematology and Oncology, Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine; Chris Xu, the IBM Professor of Engineering, director of the School of Applied and Engineering Physics, the Mong Family Foundation Director of Cornell Neurotech-Engineering, director of Cornell NeuroNex Hub, College of Engineering, Cornell University; Hannah Isles, postdoctoral associate in medicine, Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine; Kibaek Choe, postdoctoral researcher, School of Applied and Engineering Physics, College of Engineering, Cornell University.
• Microbial Education of Hematopoietic Stem Cells: Julie Blander, the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Immunology, Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Weill Cornell Medicine; Brian Rudd, associate professor, microbiology and immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University.
• Determining the Role of antibiotic tolerance in antibiotic therapy failure: Tobias Doerr, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University; Lars Westblade, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine; Michael Satlin, associate professor of medicine, Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine.
• A Stem Cell basis for bone microarchitecture, materials properties, and anabolic responses to loading: Matthew Greenblatt, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine; Marjolein van der Meulen, the James M. and Marsha McCormick Director of Biomedical Engineering, the Swanson Professor of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Cornell University; Eve Donnelly, associate professor, materials science and engineering, College of Engineering, Cornell University.
• Creating and Validating a Novel-Non-Invasive Method for Targeted Brain Activation: Amy Kuceyeski, associate professor of mathematics in radiology, Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine; Mert Sabuncu, assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering and Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Cornell University.
• Role of lineage dynamics in castration-induced plasticity of prostate carcinoma cells: David Rickman, associate professor of research in pathology and laboratory medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine; Alexander Nikitin, professor of pathology and Director, Cornell Training Program in Stem Cell Research, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University.
• Vaccine to Treat Fentanyl Addiction and Overdose: Ronald Crystal, chairman of the Department of Genetic Medicine and the Bruce Webster Professor of Internal Medicine, Department of Genetic Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine; Tristan Lambert, professor of chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University.
• The molecular mechanism of tumor suppression by PTEN via repression of satellite DNA: Jessica Tyler, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine; Wen Shen, associate professor of cell biology in radiation oncology, Department of Radiation Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine; John Lis, the Barbara McClintock Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University; Steven Josefowicz, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine.
• Advancing the health of refugees by increasing knowledge of legal rights through digital tools: Gunisha Kaur, assistant professor of anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, co-medical director, Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights, Weill Cornell Medicine; Natalie Bazarova, associate professor, Department of Communication, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University; Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law practice, Cornell Law School; Jane Powers, senior extension associate, Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University.

Kristin Hopkins is project associate for the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Integration.