Pilot Grants

A major objective of NJ ACTS is to successfully translate biomedical discoveries to clinical applications by promoting creative and innovative science. The NJ ACTS Pilot Program offers pilot grants to foster collaborative research among faculty in three institutions: Princeton University, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Rutgers University. These pilot projects will then provide a path to sustainable, extramurally funded independent research across the alliance. The NJ ACTS Pilot Program is funded through the generous support of the NIH CTSA Award, the New Jersey Health Foundation, and each of the academic partners.

The Pilot Grants Program 2025

In harmony with NCATS’ objectives and within the context of the NJ ACTS’ award, we have devised a pilot program designed to propel clinical and translational science initiatives throughout NJ ACTS, engaging our academic alliance partners (Rutgers, Princeton, and New Jersey Institute of Technology) and our health system partner, RWJ Barnabas Health. Our initiative seeks to furnish initial resources aimed at nurturing programs that can then vie competitively for expanded extramural support, leveraging funding opportunities such as Element E1 or RC22 studies pertinent to NJ ACTS (refer to NJ ACTS website) or through independent extramural avenues (R or K series grants).

View the Request for Application
Budget Form 398

Important Dates:

Release Date	February 25, 2025
Pre-submission Webinar	March 10, 2025 at 4:00 – 5:00 PM View the Webinar on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C19ST8cMbag View the Webinar Slides
Letter of Intent Deadline	March 14, 2025 (required)(by 5:00 EST). Link to LOI form: https://redcap.rutgers.edu/surveys/?s=JWT39TWX3L8JXY48 (Applicants will be notified by March 19, 2025 if there are concerns or the project is not selected to advance to the application stage)
Application Deadline	April 11, 2025 (required by 5:00 pm EST)
Award Notification	Summer 2025
Earliest Start Date	Dependent on regulatory approvals and NIH/NCATS approval.

For more information, contact NJACTS@rbhs.rutgers.edu.

Tri-Institutional Clinical and Translational Research Pilot Program 2024

The Tri-Institutional Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) Pilot Program offers pilot grants to develop and advance innovative clinical and translational research, provide a path to sustainable, extramurally-funded independent research, and encourage the development of innovations with the potential for commercialization. The projects are expected to develop the key preliminary data needed for sustained extramural funding.

The three institutions have committed $250,000 toward pilot projects this year. The program is funded through the generous support of each academic partner: Princeton University, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and Rutgers University.

Pilot Awards

Investigators	Institution	Title
Roman Voronov	NJIT	Sterilization and In Vivo Testing of an Addressable Microfluidics Device for Commercial Applications
Jamie Chiu Yael Niv	Princeton	Quantifying Change Readiness and Its Impact on Psychotherapy Outcomes
Joseph Jude Philip Demokritou	Rutgers	Wildfire-borne Particulate Matter: Effect on Bronchodilation
Kristine Schmitz Karen D’Alonzo Manuel Jimenez	Rutgers	Exploring Youth Perspectives on Positive Childhood Experiences and Mapping Community Assets That Foster Them

Translational Science Pilot Awards 2024

In harmony with NCATS’ objectives and within the context of the NJ ACTS’ award, we have devised a pilot program designed to propel clinical and translational science initiatives throughout NJ ACTS, engaging our academic alliance partners and our health system partner, RWJ Barnabas Health. Our initiative seeks to furnish initial resources aimed at nurturing programs that can then vie competitively for expanded extramural support, leveraging funding opportunities such as Element E1 or RC22 studies pertinent to NJ ACTS (refer to NJ ACTS website) or through independent extramural avenues (R or K series grants).

The following investigators have received their conditional notices of award for the NJ ACTS Translational Science Pilot Awards 2024

Principal Investigators	Institution	Project
Esra Sefik Samuel S. Wang	Princeton	A Testing Platform for Probing the Role of Dendritic Structural Plasticity in Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Rajarshi Chattaraj Eunjung Lee	NJIT	Ultrasound Responsive Therapeutic Gas Microbubbles for Localized Treatment of Cardiac Injury
Anat Chemerinski Stephen Crystal	Rutgers	Preconception Care: An Ounce of Prevention
Diane Hill Manuel Jimenez	Rutgers	Assessing Engagement and Recruitment Messaging Using Kiosk Videos

Pilot Grants Awarded - 2022

Investigators	Project Title	Category
Christoph Buettner, Rutgers Bryan Pfister, NJIT	Does Mild Traumatic Brain Injury increase the risk of diabetes	Translational
Timothy Buschman, Princeton David Zald, Rutgers	Quantifying the dynamics of working memory in patients with schizophrenia	Translational
Subhajyoti De, Rutgers Saum Ghodoussipour, Rutgers	Urine cell free DNA based noninvasive characterization of druggable genome in bladder cancer	Methodological
Anat Kreimer, Rutgers James Millonig, Rutgers	Decoding autism regulatory variants using computational genomics in human iPSC-derived neurons	Methodological
Josh Berlin, Rutgers Mesut Sahin, NJIT	Neuroprotective potential for acute electrical stimulation after mild traumatic brain injury	Propel
Martin Blaser, Rutgers Gloria Bachman, Rutgers	Estrogen modification by the microbiome and its role in endometrial hyperplasia	Propel
Sarah Brislin, Rutgers Paul Boxer, Rutgers	Neurobiological predictors of multi-systemic therapy outcomes in justice involved youth	Valued Partner
Elizabeth Luth, Rutgers Kathryn Bowles, VNSNY	Translating data science to palliative care: improving reporting/claims based algorithm	Valued Partner
Jaya Satagopan, Rutgers	Harnessing socio-cultural similarities between diverse populations to evaluate uptake of cancer screening in under-represented groups	Process

Pilot Grants Awarded - 2021

Investigators	Project Title
KiBum Lee, Rutgers Xiaoyang Xu, NJIT	Therapeutic Development of Patient Cell-derived Exosomes for Effective CVD Treatment
Sabine Petry, Princeton Zhiyuan Shen, Rutgers	Targeting of mitotic spindle assembly factor TPX2 for cancer therapy
Yingda Xie, Rutgers Cameron Myrhvold, Princeton Padmapriya Banada, Rutgers	Development of CRISPR-basd, multiplex, point-of-care testing pathway for tuberculosis and COVID-19
Bharat Biswal, NJIT Laszlo Zaborszky, Rutgers	Investigating tissue-specific functional maps and its correlation with cognitive domains in Alzheimer’s Disease
Luigi Brunetti, Rutgers Mohamed Donia, Princeton	Incorporating drug metabolism by the human gut microbiome into personalized medicine
Stephen Crystal, Rutgers Nathaniel Daw, Princeton Jason Roy, Rutgers	Post-Release Outcomes of Prison Based Treatments and Interventions for Opioid Use Disorder
Celeste Nelson, Princeton Shridar Ganesan, Rutgers	The effects of cell and tissue-level heterogeneity on triple-negative breast cancer progression
Mohammad Ali Saghiri, Rutgers Vivek Kumar, NJIT	A Novel Expandable Endodonic Biomaterial
Chang Chan, Rutgers	Development of computational methods to identify oncogenic tyrosine kinase transcripts
Alexander Ploss, Princeton	Capturing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 evolution on human pulmonary responses
Alexander Neimark, Rutgers	Development of Computational Models to Explore Interactions of Coronavirus Virions with Lung Surfactant Films
Danelle Devenport, Princeton	Novel mouse models for live imaging basement membrane dynamics and breach in melanocyte migration and melanoma
Peter Kokkinos, Rutgers Joshua McGee, Rutgers	Exercise blood pressure as a predictor of left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Jinglin Fu, Rutgers Bo Wang, Delaware Diagnostics	dNANOSIS, a Rapid and Reliable Nucleic Acid Assay for Detecting Infectious Diseases
Victoria Abraira, Rutgers Jian-Ming Lee, Unilever	Skin Deep: a Rutgers-Unilever partnership for topical pain relief
Zhi Wei, NJIT Joseph Glessner, CHOP	Deep Learning Methods for Identifying Copy Number Variations
Amesika Nyaku, Rutgers Erin Zerbo, Rutgers Jenna Mellor, Rutgers	Risk Environment Analysis to Inform Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND)

Pilot Grants Awarded - 2020

Investigators	Project Title
Jonathan Cohen, Princeton Anna Konova, Rutgers Laura Bustamante, Princeton	Motivation for cognitive and physical effort in depression
Andrea Graham, Princeton William Gause, Rutgers	Improving mouse models of lung defense: neutrophil-mediated parasite resistance, tissue damage and repair
Eun Jung Lee, NJIT Vivek Kumar, NJIT Dominic Del Re, Rutgers	Angiogenic peptide hydrogel for cardiac repair
Daniel Notterman, Princeton Ian Marshall, Rutgers Kristina Olson, Princeton	Developing a longitudinal cohort of transgender youth to access health and wellbeing through physical, psychological, and molecular assessment
Roman Voronov, NJIT Joseph Freeman, Rutgers	A Microfluidics Technology for Non-Sacrificial Analysis of Biomaterial Implants In Vivo
Yelda Semizer, NJIT	Mechanisms of Medical Image Perception in Radiologists
Howard Stone, Princeton Mohamed Labib, NovaFlux Inc.	Aerosol Production of Bacteriophage Formulations from Submicron Droplets for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Applications
Barbara Tafuto, Rutgers Riddhi Vyas, Rutgers Trish Pruis, OHSU	CTSA Hub Website Database and Search Engine

Pilot Grants Awarded - 2019

Investigators	Project Title
Alice Chu, Rutgers Jordan Taylor, Princeton	A dynamic functional splint to restore hand function in children with cerebral palsy
Emanuel Goldman, Rutgers Zemer Gitai, Princeton Wlodek Mandecki, Rutgers	A FRET-based HTS to identify antibacterial drug leads targeting ternary complex formation in E.coli
Xiaoyang Xu, NJIT Yuanxiang Tao, Rutgers	Development of a new long-acting local anesthetics and its application in chronic pain
Abdelfattah El Ouaamari, Rutgers Esteban Engel, Princeton	Structural and functional mapping of islet β cell sensory innervation
Gerard Fluet, Rutgers Sergei Adamovich, NJIT	Remote evaluation of upper extremity motor control
Antje Ihlefeld, NJIT Yu Lan Mary Ying, Rutgers	Leveraging functional near infrared spectroscopy for auditory brain health
Yi Chen, NJIT David Foran, Rutgers	A natural language processing platform for automated information extraction from EHR’s for clinical decision support and investigative research
Dantong Yu, NJIT Xinyue Ye, NJIT Yaqun Wang, Rutgers	Apply natural language processing and deep learning to EMR management, preprocessing and decision making
David Barker, Rutgers Catherine Jensen Peña, Princeton	Pain as a trigger for opioid dependence in the context of epigenetic susceptibility
Kathryn Edin, Princeton Sarah Gold, Princeton	Housing and Health in New Jersey’s Capital City

Pilot News and Publications

NJ ACTS Announces the 2019 Partnership and Innovation Accelerator Pilot Grant Program (PIAP) Awardees

by Pamela Dahlen | Dec 18, 2019 | Community, News, Pilots

NJ ACTS is excited to announce the awardees of the 2019 Partnership and Innovation Accelerator Pilot Grant Program (PIAP), Usha Ramachandran, MD and Helmut Zarbl, PhD. The New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS) Community Engagement Core...