Grants

Entre Hermanos

Train LGBT Latinos to produce digital stories on the issues that matter most. Post the stories on the mappingvoices.org civic engagement map and elsewhere. Share with policy makers and the community.

OneAmerica

This project will engage residents of Seattle's Chinatown International District in digital storytelling through classes that teach English language and digital literacy skills in a community-based setting. Participants will tell their personal immigration stories through digital media. A community celebration is also planned.

Multimedia Resources and Training Institute (MMRTI)

MMRTI's Digital Storytelling in the Time of COVID-19 (DSTC-19) project will engage eight youth interns and a variety of professional instructors to capture and document the local COVID-19 pandemic experience in the form of a one-hour documentary featuring stories from local underserved and underrepresented communities in the African American, Asian American and East African immigrant and refugee community. In addition, we will broaden the conversation through facilitated panel discussions where community members will be able to share their own stories and make connections with one another. The project will be completed by June of 2022.

Lower Umpqua Library District

Provide devices and instruction so that patrons not only have access to the internet but also learn and acquire digital skills and knowledge.

SightConnection

Provide a Tablet Training Program to visually impaired adults enable them to be as engaged on-line as a fully sighted person and as connected digitally as anyone else.

Woodstock Artists Association, Inc.

Digitization of the Permanent Collection

Woodstock Artists Association, Inc.

Digitization of the Permanent Collection **RECONSIDERATION**

Oregon Historical Society Research Library

This project will create global access to 212 interviews in the OHS Research Library collection, unique primary source documentation of Oregon politics, law, and government on local, county, state, federal and international levels currently on obsolescent analog tapes. Interviewees include lawmakers, judges, and government officials, with a wide variety of perspectives and insights. Virtual access to these historically significant recordings will benefit students, educators, scholars, and all Oregonians, with broad appeal for scholarship, education, and informed citizenship.

Spanish Theatre Repertory Company, Ltd

DIGNIDAD! : Art Partners w/Norman Thomas HS for Commerc. Educ.

Roseburg Forest Products

Dillard Plant Expansion

City of Oakland

Support to continue residencies offered through our acclaimed educational outreach program, Rites of Passage (ROP), in two Oakland public schools: Oakland High School and Oakland Technical High School.

City of Oakland

Continued presentation of high-quality artistic collaborations and programming that preserves and perpetuates African American art forms.

NIAAA - National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

ABSTRACT The more than 10 million adults in the U.S. with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at substantially increased risk for a range of harmful drinking outcomes. Difficulty regulating PTSD-related affect (emotion regulation; ER) is a core feature of this drinking risk and is a key intervention target. Effective treatments for PTSD-related drinking that target ER exist. However, instrumental and structural barriers to these traditional in- person interventions impede access. Mobile interventions could be developed to train adaptive ER in response to PTSD symptoms as they occur in the contexts of daily life, offering an accessible treatment option. Yet the development of such interventions will be profoundly limited—and could even be detrimental—without a fundamental understanding of how ER influences PTSD-related drinking in real-time in daily life. This knowledge is not currently available. ER efforts in daily life can be intentional or automatic. These two ER dimensions are distinct, with unique implications for intervention. Intentional ER includes efforts to regulate affective responding that a person is aware of and can report on. In contrast, automatic ER occurs without conscious awareness, and thus is not well captured by self-report. The majority of studies of ER in PTSD-drinking rely on self-report and thus pertain only to intentional processes. We are aware of no studies that have examined automatic ER processes or their role in PTSD-related drinking risk in daily life contexts. This poses an obvious obstacle to intervention development. Studies delineating these unique risk processes as they occur in daily life are needed. To address these gaps in the knowledge base, we will combine methods to examine intentional (via EMA self-report) and automatic (via ambulatory high frequency heart rate variability; HF-HRV) dimensions of ER in PTSD-related drinking risk processes in real-time. Individuals with PTSD (N=110) will complete a baseline assessment, and a 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol with multiple daily reports to examine how dynamic shifts in PTSD symptoms and ER lead acutely to drinking risk in the course of daily life. Our primary aim (Aim 1) examines how changes in PTSD symptoms are linked to cognitive (urge to drink) and behavioral (alcohol seeking, drinking) drinking risk. In Aim 2 we will expand our model to examine how each unique ER dimension (intentional, automatic) is influenced acutely by PTSD symptom changes, and how these ER dimensions pre-sage drinking at the event-level. Finally, in Aim 2 we will test the two dimensions of ER as distinct mechanisms of PTSD-related drinking risk that could be targeted in intervention. In exploratory Aim 3, we will test PTSD symptom cluster specificity in intentional and automatic ER risk processes. Results from this developmental work will support a larger examination of event-level ER in PTSD-related drinking and may inform interventions that employ current technologies to reduce drinking risk as it occurs in daily life.

City of Richmond

Dina Zarif Asiaban

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

Dinizulu Cultural Arts Institute, Inc.

National Endowment for the Humanities

DIPLOMACY AT HOME: THE DOMESTIC LIVES OF THE FOUNDING FAMILIES [THE KATONAH MUSEUM OF ART (KMA) WILL PRESENT DIPLOMACY AT HOME: THE DOMESTIC LIVES OF THE FOUNDING FAMILIES, SCHEDULED TO BE ON VIEW FROM JUNE 28-OCTOBER 4, 2026. THE KMA IS ORGANIZING THIS EXHIBITION IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FRIENDS OF JOHN JAY HOMESTEAD, WHICH SUPPORTS THE PRESERVATION AND ACTIVITIES OF THE JOHN JAY HOMESTEAD STATE HISTORIC PARK, AND THE RICHARD HAMPTON JENRETTE FOUNDATION. DIPLOMACY AT HOME: THE DOMESTIC LIVES OF THE FOUNDING FAMILIES WILL EXAMINE THE LIVES OF THE FOUNDERS THROUGH OBJECTS FROM THEIR HOMES?INCLUDING FURNITURE, FINE ART, DECORATIVE OBJECTS, AND PERSONAL POSSESSIONS?TO HIGHLIGHT THEIR SYMBOLIC VALUE IN DEFINING THE FOUNDING FAMILIES? CENTRAL ROLE AS THE ARCHITECTS WHO FRAMED THE FOUNDATION FOR OUR COLLECTIVE NATIONAL HISTORY. THE EXHIBITION ALIGNS WITH THE HOMESTEAD?S 250TH ANNIVERSARY AND WILL BE A CORNERSTONE OF THE EVENTS PLANNED BY THE TOWN OF BEDFORD AND WESTCHESTER COUNTY AS PART OF THE NATION-WIDE CELEBRATION OF THE COUNTRY?S 250TH.]

NCI - National Cancer Institute

PROJECT SUMMARY CD8+ T cells can kill cancerous cells, but they become disabled by a suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) that is established by pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and other solid tumors that are refractory to current immunotherapies. The TME deprives CD8+ T cells of the cytokine-induced JAK-STAT signals they require to survive and remain functional. To overcome this critical barrier to a T cell-mediated anti-tumor response and prevent T cell dysfunction, specific cytokine-induced JAK-STAT signals must be restored. However, the development of cytokine receptor agonists has faced numerous challenges, including poor pharmacological properties and severe toxicities. We have pursued an alternative strategy and developed an activator of STAT5, the downstream mediator of IL-2 receptor signaling. Our preliminary data demonstrate that a STAT5 activator delivered by retroviral transduction to T cells ex vivo sustains CD8+ T cell viability and functionality under suppressive culture conditions where the pro-survival cytokine IL-2 is absent. Moreover, RNA sequencing revealed that a STAT5 activator promoted a memory-like T cell phenotype with reduced expression of genes associated with terminal effector differentiation and T cell exhaustion. Based on these preliminary findings, I will evaluate the hypothesis that a STAT5 activator can enhance the persistence and functionality of CD8+ T cells within the TME in vivo and can be used to expand memory-like CD8+ T cells ex vivo. In Aim 1, I will perform functional assays and gene expression analysis to compare CD8+ T cells cultured with cytokines to those where STAT5 is directly activated to determine how a STAT5 activator influences CD8+ T cell differentiation. I will also evaluate the translational potential of a STAT5 activator by testing its ability to promote human CD8+T cell survival and function ex vivo. In Aim 2, I will determine whether adoptively transferred tumor- specific T cells modified with a STAT5 activator can better sustain a T cell mediated anti-tumor response using a mouse model of PDAC. Tumor infiltrating T cells and the TME cell populations will be interrogated to address the mechanism that underlies an in vivo response. The experiments of these specific aims will address a fundamental barrier to the treatment of refractory solid tumors, such as PDAC, and provide me with robust foundational training in the field of cancer immunology.

NCI - National Cancer Institute

ABSTRACT Lung metastasis is the primary cause of death in osteosarcoma (OSA) patients, with 5-year survival rates of approximately 20% using current treatments. Our recent findings highlight the need to target both tumor and microenvironment-derived factors, revealing that resident lung and immune cells released growth factors that activated tumor survival pathways upon metastasis, particularly prosurvival gene, MCL1. Inhibiting MCL1, especially when combined with cyclophosphamide, showed promising results in our preclinical model studies, eradicating metastatic lesions in some cases. However, several questions remain as to the specificity of MCL1 as a target and the feasibility of targeting this prosurvival pathway for osteosarcoma treatment. To this end, in Aim 1, we will deploy a novel bioengineered bone and lung model for real-time cell tracking to definitively establish the role of MCL1 in lung metastasis and validate these findings in vivo. We will then identify MCL1 inhibitors most able to eliminate metastases in our engineered model, in vivo, and test their safety in preclinical models. In Aim 2, we will identify mechanisms linking microenvironment-driven osteosarcoma signaling and MCL1 regulation in the lung. By using ex vivo and in vivo approaches, we will pinpoint critical ligand-receptor interactions and test receptor-level inhibitors, aimed at blocking the effects, to reduce metastatic osteosarcoma MCL1 protein levels. Promising inhibitors will then be evaluated for their effectiveness in combination with low- dose MCL1 inhibitors to eliminate lung metastasis and safety in preclinical models. Overall, this proposal aims to fully validate the potential of MCL1 inhibitors and explore combinatorial therapies to enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity, using innovative tumor-host interaction models, paving the way for future clinical trials.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Project Summary/Abstract: The persistence of latent reservoirs of HIV-infected CD4+ T cells presents a critical barrier to achieving a cure. These reservoirs harbor replication-competent HIV proviruses that evade immune detection and viral cytopathic effects, enabling long-term survival despite antiretroviral therapy (ART). Innovative strategies are needed to disrupt latency, suppress viral protein expression, and selectively eliminate infected cells. We aim to develop and evaluate novel CRISPR-Cas13-based therapeutic approaches to target HIV-infected cells and sensitize them to cell death through direct viral RNA degradation and host pathway modulation. The overarching goal of this study is to evaluate and optimize a dual-pronged approach combining CRISPR-Cas13d-mediated degradation of HIV Tat mRNA and CRISPR-Cas13b-mediated targeting of host PI3K pathway components to sensitize infected cells to apoptosis. The specific aims are as follows: AIM1. Assess the efficiency and specificity of CRISPR-RfxCas13d in degrading Tat mRNA in CD4+ T cells from people living with HIV on suppressive ART. We will use a lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based delivery platform capable of transfecting CD4+ T cells with high efficiency. Single-cell RNA-seq (HIV-seq), and digital PCR will measure changes in HIV RNA and protein expression. Additionally, novel Cas13 orthologs with enhanced collateral activity will be characterized and test their ability to selectively deplete HIV-infected cells. AIM2. Develop strategies to sensitize HIV-infected cells to apoptosis through PI3K pathway targeting. The PI3K pathway plays a key role in maintaining HIV latency and infected cell survival. Using CRISPR-Cas13b, this aim will target specific PI3K effectors, such as PI3K p110, p110 and TNFAIP8, to induce apoptosis in infected cells. Synergistic effects of PI3K inhibition and Cas13d-mediated Tat mRNA degradation will be evaluated to determine the optimal strategy to test in an animal model. AIM3. Validate the efficacy of the combined approach in HIV-infected humanized mice. The candidate therapeutic strategy will be tested in a humanized mouse model of HIV infection (HIV-HIS) allowing for preclinical evaluation of Tat RNA and protein degradation, reservoir reduction, and delay in viral rebound following ART cessation. LNP-delivered CRISPR constructs will be optimized for dose and targeting specificity and their effects on HIV RNA, protein expression, and reservoir size will be characterized. This study integrates cutting-edge RNA-editing technology with enhanced activity, leveraging a novel LNP platform, to disrupt HIV latency and promote infected cell elimination. The work will advance our understanding of mechanisms of Tat mRNA degradation and PI3K inhibition for synergistic viral suppression and reservoir reduction. This project has the potential to significantly advance curative strategies for HIV by developing a novel therapeutic approach that directly targets both viral and host factors critical for latency and persistence, offering a promising pathway toward durable HIV remission.

Labor

The New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) is making up to $2 million in State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula (SAEF) funding available under the Direct Entry Pre-Apprenticeship Programs (DEPA) Request for Applications (RFA). The purpose of the RFA is to: 1. Provide funding for DEPA programs to support approximately 300 participants; and 2. Support entry into NYS Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs for underrepresented populations including women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. DEPA funding is intended to support approximately 300 participants in Direct Entry pre-apprenticeship programs that lead to NYS RA programs.

NICHD - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Rh Immunoglobulin (RhIg) is a human blood product with finite supply. There is currently a shortage in the United States, and international shortages are common. There is proven benefit for giving RhIg at delivery and in the 3rd trimester. However, there is mounting evidence from population studies and indirect clinical research showing that there is limited benefit to giving RhIg for bleeding in pregnancy at <12 weeks gestation. Professional medical societies are divided in their clinical guidance. The World Health Organization (WHO), Society of Family Planning (SFP), and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), among others, do not recommend giving RhIg at <12 weeks gestation. The Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine in the United States still recommends RhIg at all gestational ages, and some international recommendations fall in between. Many organizations allow for shared decision-making with patients outside of routine recommendations; however, to date we do not have published data on patient preferences about RhIg. There is not currently a unified standard of care and patients are caught in the middle. The long-term goal of this research is to identify the earliest gestational age at which RhIg administration is necessary and redistribute this finite human blood product for evidence-based indications. The specific objectives of this proposal are to directly measure the rate of sensitization in pregnant patients with bleeding at <12 weeks gestation and ascertain patient risk tolerance pertaining to RhIg. The central hypothesis is that <1.5% of patients will become sensitized following bleeding at <12 weeks gestation. The rationale for the proposed research is that directly measuring sensitization will align professional medical organization recommendations, conserve this human blood product for evidence-based indications, and potentially save the U.S. healthcare system $313 million annually. This study will fill that gap from two perspectives: direct scientific evidence determining the RhD-sensitization rate after bleeding in RhD-negative patients foregoing RhIg, and patient perspectives on risk using discrete choice experiments. The proposed work is innovative because it has the power to shift the paradigm for RhD status determination and RhIg administration in early pregnancy and inform alignment of professional medical organization recommendations around evidence-based, patient-informed care. At the completion of this project, results from Aim 1 will inform the science and recommendations for clinical care, and Aim 2 will provide the patient perspective to allocate this finite resource where it is most valued, and support evidence-based, high-value healthcare.

NSF

This project addresses the turbulent combustion commonly encountered in gas-turbine engines, rocket engines, and industrial furnaces. Critical physical behavior occurs on sub-millimeter length scales, i.e., over length scales much smaller than the engine size. A study of the full range of design parameters to optimize performance requires large and computationally costly models. The project will uncover new relations between the large-scale combustor behavior and small-scale physics, and results will be applied to develop next generation combustion models. Detailed computations with artificial intelligence modeling will be leveraged to create highly efficient and accurate combustion models that can be used in designing new combustion devices. This project will guide sub-grid combustion modeling from direct numerical simulations of turbulent non-premixed combustion in a three-dimensional shear layer between an oxidizer stream and a fuel stream. The simulations will address a high-Reynolds-number shear layer with a planar mean flow. In the post-processing of results, statistical data will be collected concerning relative vector alignments and magnitudes of vorticity, normal strain rates, scalar gradients, and joint-probability density functions of these rates and gradients. Scaling rules for these magnitudes over the turbulent length-scale spectrum will be sought, to provide inputs for Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computations and large-eddy simulations. The results will be filtered by length scale to understand better the turbulence cascade of scalar and vector gradients. Improvements will be made to existing rotational flamelet models with account for vorticity, variable density, and three-dimensional, multi-branched flamelet structure. Missing physics in current sub-grid modelling for turbulent combustion will be emphasized: (i) shear strain (with vorticity) and its major effect on flammability limits; (ii) realistic three-dimensional flame structures (rather than current 2D and axisymmetric structures); (iii) variable density; (iv) self-determination within the analysis of flame structure (i.e., premixed, multi-branched, or diffusion flames) based on local flow configuration; and (v) the strain rates and vorticity applied at the sub-grid level are determined from the resolved-scale strain rates and vorticity without use of a contrived progress variable. . This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NCI - National Cancer Institute

Oral cavity cancer (OCC) remains a life-threatening disease with about 12,000 deaths in the US each year. Surgery provides the best chance of survival but, unfortunately, up to half of OCC patients have recurrent tumors after first line of treatment. These patients suffer from poor quality of life due to needing salvage surgery that impacts surrounding fragile organs. Furthermore, these patients are often ineligible for additional systemic chemotherapy due to its toxicity. No effective treatment alternative exists for these patients, resulting in a dismal 5-year survival rate of 30%. Focal Medical (FM) has developed a novel medical drug delivery device that can drive chemotherapy directly into target tumors using a method called iontophoresis. This method of drug delivery can deliver large quantities of chemotherapy directly to the tumor to promote tumor shrinkage and make oral cancer patients eligible for potentially less traumatic surgical treatments. This work proposes the clinical development of a clinical-grade oral tumor device through IND-enabling nonclinical work and builds upon safety, feasibility, and efficacy results from a pilot study that treated spontaneously occurring oral tumors in canines. Success of this work has the potential to transform treatment of OCC patients with recurrent tumors and increase survival rate.

FIC - John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences

NIH/Fogarty International Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Award (R25): DIRECT: Enhancing Bioethics Capacities at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) ABSTRACT/PROGRAM SUMMARY The overarching goal of our Developing Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Award (DIRECT) is to collaboratively strengthen bioethics capacities at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) in Malawi through the development of a comprehensive and locally administered Masters-level educational program targeting students and professionals in allied health, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, biomedical research and other health-related disciplines. This new program will build on current bioethics modules in the KUHeS flagship MPH program. The curriculum will focus on the broad development of analytic skills related to the ethics of implementation research health in resource-constrained settings, including associated ethical issues in clinical care and public health practice. To ensure local relevance, the design and content of the program’s educational modules will be collaboratively developed through Malawi-based curriculum development workshops involving local collaborators, health professionals and practitioners, policy-makers and students. An innovative feature of this program will be a focus on the neglected issue of bioethics in mental health research, policy and practice, to be developed in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at KUHeS. This program will be reinforced and complemented by the supplementary aims of developing policy recommendations for mental health research in sub-Saharan Africa, strengthening bioethics teaching capacities of local faculty and former program students, publishing a casebook of bioethics case-studies developed through the program, and disseminating bioethics and research ethics news through a KUHeS Bioethics newsletter. We believe that a comprehensive and collaboratively developed bioethics educational program, built on longstanding partnerships between the leading Malawian health institutions and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, will have a substantial impact on students, their future institutions, and the culture of health research in the region.