{"id":6647,"date":"2025-12-19T15:42:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/?p=6647"},"modified":"2025-12-19T15:42:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:42:36","slug":"five-teams-receive-ecbr-grants-for-new-approach-methodologies-research-pilot-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/five-teams-receive-ecbr-grants-for-new-approach-methodologies-research-pilot-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Teams Receive ECBR Grants for New Approach Methodologies Research Pilot Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UNC School of Medicine Office of Research provided pilot funding to five teams for cutting-edge New Approach Methodologies research.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The School of Medicine Office of Research sponsors an annual pilot program,\u00a0Emerging Challenges in Biomedical Research (ECBR),\u00a0<\/em>that provides support for innovative, early-stage research relevant to external strategic priorities. The fall 2025 round of funding was focused on advancing translational biomedical research through the use or development of New Approach Methodologies\/Non-Animal Models (NAMs) and New Approach Technologies (NATs). Previous ECBR rounds have provided pilot support for Basic Science, Health Equity Research, COVID-19, Zika, Alzheimer\u2019s Disease, Precision Healthcare and Vaping research.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Five teams received ECBR funding for cutting-edge NAM\/NAT projects. The teams are:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sarah Shelton, PhD<\/strong><\/a>, assistant professor in the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, with Brian Miller, MD, PhD,<\/strong><\/a> (Oncology), and Gianpietro Dotti, MD<\/strong><\/a> (Microbiology & Immunology), will develop advanced tissue-on-chip models to improve CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors. Their project, A New Approach Method for the Discovery of Targets to Improve CAR T Cell Therapy<\/em><\/strong>, aims to enhance CAR T cell infiltration into the tumor microenvironment and identify pathways for engineering more effective therapies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Douglas M. Cyr, PhD<\/strong><\/a>, professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, leads the project, The Mechanism for ProSP-CI73T Proteotoxicity in Idiopathic Lung Fibrosis<\/em><\/strong>. Using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived alveolar epithelial cells, the team will uncover how a common surfactant protein mutation disrupts cell homeostasis and drives IPF onset, paving the way for new therapeutic strategies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cyrus Vaziri, PhD<\/strong><\/a>, professor in Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, with Jessica Bowser, PhD<\/strong><\/a> (Pathology), and Victoria Bae-Jump, MD, PhD<\/strong><\/a> (OBGYN\/Oncology), will investigate metastatic cancer biology in their proposal, Defining Molecular Vulnerabilities of Metastatic Cancer Spheroids Using Non-Animal Models<\/em><\/strong>. By leveraging patient-relevant 3D spheroid systems, the team seeks to identify protein kinase signaling pathways that sustain metastatic spread and reveal actionable targets for therapy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah Rowe-Conlon, PhD<\/strong><\/a>, associate professor in Microbiology and Immunology, with collaborators Tessa Andermann, MD, MPH<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> (Medicine\/Infectious Diseases), and Adriana Beltran, PhD<\/strong><\/a> (Genetics\/HPCC), will create a human liver organoid model to study hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/em>. Their project, Human Liver Organoid Model to Phenotype Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae Clinical Isolates<\/em><\/strong>, will improve detection of high-risk strains and reduce reliance on animal models for infection research.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Timothy P. Moran, MD, PhD<\/strong><\/a>, associate professor in Pediatrics, with Michael Kulis, PhD<\/strong><\/a> (Peds), Scott Randell, PhD<\/strong><\/a> (Cell Biology & Physiology), Phillip Clapp, PhD<\/strong><\/a> (Cell Biology & Physiology), Adam Kimple, MD, PhD<\/a> (Otolaryngology), will develop human lymphoid organoids to study food allergy immunotherapy. Their proposal, Development of a Human Lymphoid Organoid Model to Study Food Allergy Immunotherapy<\/em><\/strong>, aims to identify Th1-promoting adjuvants that enhance the efficacy of sublingual immunotherapy for peanut allergy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More about the ECBR mechanism and other funding provided by the Office of Research\u00a0can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UNC School of Medicine Office of Research provided pilot funding to five teams for cutting-edge New Approach Methodologies research. \u00a0 The School of Medicine Office of Research sponsors an annual pilot program,\u00a0Emerging Challenges in Biomedical Research (ECBR),\u00a0that provides support for innovative, early-stage research relevant to external strategic priorities. The fall 2025 round of funding … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68915,"featured_media":2249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/580\/2018\/02\/image.jpeg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/580\/2018\/02\/image.jpeg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/580\/2018\/02\/image.jpeg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/580\/2018\/02\/image.jpeg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/580\/2018\/02\/image-150x231.jpeg","featured_image_alt":"The OoR is located in G060 Bondurant Hall","category_details":[{"name":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/category\/featured\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6648,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6647\/revisions\/6648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/oor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}