In fiscal year 2026 (FY26), the Core Facility Advocacy Committee (CFAC) selected to fund 19 applications through the Core Voucher Program, a funding opportunity that provides up to $10,000 to applicants from the School of Medicine for expenditures within core facilities to generate pilot data for grants or engage in new method development. The goal of this program is to develop a long-term, stable, and resilient customer base for core facilities in the School of Medicine. This year, eligibility was limited to customers who are new to using the core facility, those who want to utilize a new core technology, those developing a multi-core pipeline, or those who have been affected by recent grant terminations and need to collect pilot data to pivot to new funding opportunities and collaborations. The funds are intended to be spent within the same fiscal year they were awarded. The applications underwent an NIH-style review and were scored for innovation, significance, and approach. Additional considerations were given to the appropriateness of the proposal for this funding mechanism, the likelihood of the proposed project’s completion within the timeframe, and the funding of projects across a range of core facilities and core technologies. Funding for this program was provided by the UNC SOM Dean’s Office and was partially supported through funds from the SOM Strategic Plan. Congratulations to all the funding recipients, and we thank the CFAC and the secondary reviewers for their efforts in evaluating the applications.
FY26 CFAC Voucher Program Projects
“Variant-specific roles of Elmo1 in oligodendrocytes and demyelinating diseases”
Dr. Yukako Kayashima, Research Assoc. Professor in the Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine
“Development of Noninvasive Diagnostics for Detecting Environmentally-Induced Airway Inflammation”
Dr. Brian Button, Professor in the joint Depts. of Biochem & Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering
“Genetic differences in brain activation in response to cocaine”
Dr. Lisa Tarantino, Professor in the Department of Genetics
“Defining a phosphoproteomics workflow in patient-derived cancer organoids”
Dr. Clint Stalnecker, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
“Novel Lipid Scaffolds for Structural Insight into Peripheral Membrane Proteins”
Dr. Saskia Neher, Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
“Metabolic changes in microglia essential for their protection against Alzheimer’s disease”
Victor Madormo, MD/PhD Candidate in the Department of Pharmacology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gwenn Garden, Department of Neurology
“Integrated Proteomics to Uncover How β-GPA Supports Long-Term Brain Health in Aging”
Joseph Latham, Post-Baccalaureate scholar, UNC PRISM program
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Schisler, Department of Pharmacology
“Establish a human liver organoid model with Kupffer cells”
Dr. Sarah Rowe-Conlon, Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology
“Characterizing seizure-induced changes in gene expression and the extracellular matrix in Angelman Syndrome”
Dr. Robert Mealer, Assistant Professor in the joint Departments of Genetics and Psychiatry
“Reaching persons with HIV who are out of care through Expedited access to Long-Acting Injectable antiretroviral therapy -“RELAI””
Dr. Sarah Rutstein, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine Division of Infectious Disease
“Human iPSC-derived hepatocyte (iHep) platform to model HAV infection and enable antiviral discovery”
Dr. Ichiro Misumi, Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics
“Using a novel scRNA-seq approach to dissect neuronal-immune cell interactions in a murine model of viral paralysis”
Garima Singh, PhD Candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Faculty Advisor. Dr. Matthew Vogt, Departments of Pediatrics (Pediatric Infectious Diseases) and Microbiology
“Dissecting neuro-immune mechanisms of tau pathology in adult-like organoids”
Dr. Jeremy Burgess, Postdoctoral Scholar
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Doug Phanstiel, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology
“Identification of Myeloid Cells Driving Inflammasome-Mediated CNS Inflammation:
Dr. Beverly Koller, Professor, Department of Genetics
“Identifying Regulators of Lung Macrophage Development from Monocytes by CRISPR screening”
Dr. Robert Hagan, Assistant Professor of Medicine
“Leveraging light-sheet microscopy to advance the development of a gene therapy for IMPG2-associated retinal degeneration”
Katherine Descant, PhD Candidate in the Neuroscience Curriculum
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ben Philpot, Department of Cell Biology
“Peering Inside a Cell Biofactory: 3D Imaging Reveals How Simple Sponges Supercharge Cell Therapies”
Dr. Yevgeny Brudno, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
“Disruption and restoration of cortical perineuronal nets”
Dr. Donita Robinson, Professor, Department of Psychiatry
“Establishing a Lightsheet Fluorescence Microscopy Pipeline to study white matter astrocytes”
Katie Holmes, PhD Candidate, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Katie Baldwin, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology