The Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD) Center announces support to initiate new research projects or to extend existing projects that aim to define, explain, or mitigate impacts of environmental exposures during vulnerable stages of life. Projects that aim to include, develop, or expand research-community partnerships are encouraged. Additional information about the M-LEEaD Center and this Pilot Project Program can be found on the Center’s website (http://mleead.umich.edu/).
Traditional Pilot Project Grant:
Pilot Project Grants must foster one of these funding objectives:
•Provide initial support in environmental health sciences for early investigators (less than 10 years beyond most recent terminal degree);
• Allow exploration of innovative directions representing a significant departure from ongoing funded research for established investigators in environmental health sciences;
•Stimulate investigators from other areas of endeavor to apply their expertise to environmental health research and environmental medicine;
•Work with the Center’s Community Engagement Core (CEC) to establish new collaborations with community partners for projects on environmental exposures and disease, especially projects responsive to priorities identified by the CEC and the Stakeholder Advisory;
•Accelerate translation of novel laboratory discoveries to clinical applications, e.g., by identifying novel therapeutic targets, improving clinical diagnosis, or improving management of human disease linked to environmental exposures (offered in collaboration with MICHR).
The M-LEEaD Center’s Community Engagement Core (CEC) facilitates multi-directional engagement of researchers and stakeholders. Investigators interested in working with research-community partnerships must consult with the CEC Leader Dr. Amy Schulz, amy@schulz.com and Coordinator Sharon Sand, slsand@umich.edu.
Funding Period: May 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020
Budgets should be prepared with a start date of May 1, 2019 and an end date of March 31, 2020. Awarded funds must be spent by March 31, 2020.
Eligibility: Any member of the University of Michigan Faculty (tenure-track, clinical-track or research-track) is eligible to apply as Principle Investigator (PI). A proposal should have only a single PI.
Amount: We estimate that 3-4 awards will be made of $25,000-$35,000 each. To qualify for the $30,000 award, at least $5,000 of the funds must utilize services of one or more of the M-LEEaD Facility Cores. A special supplement of $5,000 is available for projects specifically to incorporate plans for community engagement or translation in collaboration with our Community Engagement Core (CEC). These funds are to be used to support community engagement (e.g., consulting fee for specific community partners), translational opportunities (e.g., Science Café, policy one-pager) and/or engagement of CEC staff and Stakeholder Advisory Board members that extends above and beyond effort covered under Core funding. We aim to support at least 1 scientifically sound project that includes the community engagement supplement in each funding round. A letter of support from the CEC is required for proposals applying for these supplementary funds: Contact CEC Leader Dr. Amy Schulz, ajschulz@umich.edu and Coordinator Sharon Sand, slsand@umich.edu to discuss these proposal as they are being prepared.
Deadlines: Letter of Intent: February 11, 2019 Final application: March 11, 2019
Please follow this link for more details. Applications should be submitted electronically through the M-LEEaD website at (http://mleead.umich.edu/Pilot_Projects.php).
On October 18th our External Advisory Board met with the center's core leadership. Above is a photo from the meeting with our Administrative Core.
Pictured from right to left:
Rita Loch-Caruso, PhD Director of M-LEEaD Center, Professor of Toxicology, Environmental Health Sciences, and Program in the Environment University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Helmut Zarbl, PhD M-LEEaD External Advisory Board Member, Professor and Director of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Director of NIEHS P30 Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease Rutgers University
Xihong Lin, PhD M-LEEaD External Advisory Board Member, Professor of Biostatistics and Coordinating Director of Program in Quantitative Genomics Harvard University
Gilbert Omenn, MD, PhD Associate Director, Career Development Program Leader, Harold T Shapiro Distinguished University Professor of Medicine, Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, Internal Medicine, Human Genetics,and Public Health University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Shuk-Mei Ho, PhD M-LEEaD External Advisory Board Member, Jacob G. Schmidlapp Professor and Chair of Environmental Health and Director of the Cincinnati Cancer Center University of Cincinnati
Vasantha Padmanabhan, PhD Associate Director, Leader of the Endocrine & Metabolic Disruption Team, Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, and Environmental Health Sciences University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Dana Dolinoy, PhD Deputy Director, NSF International Department Chair of Environmental Health Sciences; Environmental Health Sciences Chair; Professor of Environmental Health Sciences & Nutritional Sciences University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Not pictured:
Amy Schulz, PhD Leader of the Community Engagement Core, M-LEEaD Professor, Health Behavior and Health Education University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Katrina Korfmacher, PhD Leader of Community Engagement Core, NIEHS P30 Environmental Health Sciences Center Associate Professor of Environmental Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Community Health and Prevention University of Rochester
12/04/2018- Noon - Room 3755 SPH I Andrea Cassidy-Bushrow, PhD Assoc Scientist, Dept of Public Health Sciences, Henry Ford Health System & CURES Center
"Wayne County Health, Environment, Allergy and Asthma Longitudinal Study (WHEALS): examining tooth metals and the gut microbiome in a birth cohort"
Integrated Health Sciences Core
12/11/2018- Noon - Room 3755 SPH I and Webinar Jane Hoppin, ScD Deputy Director, Center for Human Health & Environment, Assoc Prof Dept Biological Sciences, N Carolina State U
& Kemp Burdette Cape Fear Riverkeeper, Cape Fear River Watch
"Community-Academic Collaboration on Drinking Water Contamination by Fluorinated Compounds: in the Cape Fear (NC) River Basin"
Integrated Health Sciences Core & Community Engagement Core
Webinar: https://goo.gl/ESHj5z
1/22/2019- TBD - TBD Environmental Statistics Day with Lance Waller, PhD Professor & Chair Dept Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University Integrated Health Sciences Core
02/13/2019- 10:00 -11:00 am - Room M1152 SPH 2 Susan Nagel, PhD Associate Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health,
University of Missouri School of Medicine
"Endocrine and developmental effects of chemicals used in natural gas extraction"
& Paige Lawrence, PhD Professor and Chair, Environmental Health Sciences Center,
University of Rochester Medical Center “Exposure to water contaminants associated with unconventional oil and gas extraction affects the immune system." Winter Seminar Series with ETEP Symposium
& 02/13/2019- 1:30 -2:30 pm - Room 1755 (auditorium) SPH I Gwen Collman, PhD Director, Division of Extramural Research & Training,
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Career Talk Winter Seminar Series with ETEP Symposium
02/26/2019- 4:00-6:30pm - Palmer Commons Kim Knowlton, PhD Assistant Clinical Professor Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Environmental Health Sciences ,and Senior Scientist and Deputy Director of NRDC's Science Center,
& John Balbus, MD, MPH Senior Advisor for Public Health, and Director, NIEHS-WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health Sciences
"Climate Change & Health: real world problems" Environmental Practice Workshop
Co-sponsored by SEAS
03/28/2019- Noon - Room 1655 SPH I Yoel Sadovsky, MD Executive Director, Magee-Womens Research Institute
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive SciencesUniversity of Pittsburgh Administrative Core Winter Seminar Series
Inaugural Gilbert S. Omenn Lecture
On Friday, November 16, Dr. Gilbert Omenn was honored at the Inaugural Gilbert S. Omenn Lecture at Harvard University. Dr. David Reich, PhD , Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, spoke on "Ancient DNA, Biology, and Disease".
Recent Publications citing M-LEEaD: Gronlund CJ (Center Scientist), Sheppard L, Adar SD, O'Neill MS, Auchincloss A, Madrigano J, Kaufman J, Diez Roux AV. Vulnerability to the Cardiovascular Effects of Ambient Heat in Six US Cities: Results from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Epidemiology. 2018 Nov;29(6):756-764. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000000910. PubMed PMID: 30113342; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6233295.
Silver MK, Arain AL, Shao J, Chen M, Xia Y, Lozoff B, Meeker JD. Distribution and predictors of 20 toxic and essential metals in the umbilical cord blood of Chinese newborns. Chemosphere. 2018 Nov;210:1167-1175. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.124. Epub 2018 Jul 24. PubMed PMID: 30208542; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6179361.
Click here for a PDF with useful information about NIH Public Access Policy regarding citing the center grant.
Per NIH grants policy, all publications, press releases, and other documents relevant to research funded by the center must include a specific acknowledgement of support. For the EHS Core Center, this statement may read:
“Support for this research was provided by grant P30ES017885 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”
