2015-16 DIBS Incubator Awards Announced

Eight interdisciplinary research teams at Duke have been selected to receive the 2015-2016 Duke Institute for Brain Sciences (DIBS) Research Incubator Awards (five new awards and three continuation awards).

The Research Incubator Awards program is designed to encourage innovative approaches to problems of brain function that transcend the boundaries of traditional disciplines. The award provides seed funding for collaborative research projects that will lead to a better understanding of brain function and translate into innovative solutions for health and society.

Project Summaries

2015-2016 New Awards:

• Optimized Temporal Patterns of Spinal Cord Stimulation to Treat Chronic Pain

Investigators: Warren Grill (Biomedical Engineering), Ru-Rong Ji (Anesthesiology), Nandan Lad (Surgery)

• The Power of Imagination

Investigators: Felipe De Brigard (Philosophy), Kevin LaBar (Psychology & Neuroscience), Zachary Rosenthal (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences)

• A developmental approach to the pathophysiology of pediatric medulloblastoma

Investigators: Yiping He (Pathology), Anne West (Neurobiology)

• Mechanisms of increased hippocampal excitability in the D801N knock-in mouse model of Na/K ATPase dysfunction an rescue with AAV-mediated gene therapy

Investigators: Dwight Koeberl (Pediatrics), Mohamad Mikati (Pediatrics), Scott Moore (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences), Victor Nadler (Pharmacology & Cancer Biology)

• Pediatric neurotrauma

Investigators: Mohamed Abou-Donia (Pharmacology & Cancer Biology), Cameron R. ‘Dale’ Bass (Biomedical Engineering), Bruce Capehart (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences), Carrie Muh (Surgery), Carolyn Pizoli (Pediatrics)

2015-2016 Continuation Awards

• Measuring Implicit Moral Attitudes

Investigators: Murali Doraiswamy (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences), Tobias Egner (Psychology & Neuroscience), Scott Huettel (Psychology & Neuroscience), Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics)

• Translation-Dependent Molecular Signature of Synaptic Plasticity

Investigators: Marc G. Caron (Cell Biology), Arthur Moseley (Proteomics), Scott H. Soderling (Cell Biology)

• Novel Retinal Imaging Biomarkers in Early Alzheimer’s Disease

Investigators: James Burke (Neurology); Scott Cousins (Ophthalmology); Sina Farsiu (Biomedical Engineering and Ophthalmology); Eleonora Lad (Ophthalmology); Guy Potter (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences); and Heather Whitson (Medicine, Geriatrics)

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