Translational Pilot Grants

The SYNERGY Translational Pilot Grant Program


The SYNERGY Translational Pilot Grant Program funds innovative interdisciplinary research proposals that have clear potential for translation into patient-oriented care and improved population health. The goal is to facilitate collaborative translational research studies within all Dartmouth institutions and affiliated health centers, and to accelerate the process of clinical and translational research. The contact PI must have a Dartmouth faculty appointment at the rank of instructor, assistant professor or associate professor.

The application cycle for 2018 Pilots has now closed. But for reference, see the RFA and LOI forms below:
2018 SYNERGY Pilot RFA
2018 SYNERGY Pilot Letter of Intent (LOI) template



For more information or with questions, contact synergy.pilots@dartmouth.edu at any time.

2018 SYNERGY Translational Pilot Grant Awards

Congratulations to the 2018 SYNERGY Translational Pilot Grant Awardees! Following a review of 27 letters of intent, SYNERGY invited 12 full applications, and after a detailed review, selected five awardees. Aligning with SYNERGY’s mission of fostering collaborative interactions between basic, translational, and health services researchers, the awardees come from diverse Dartmouth schools and departments. Here are this year's awards:

Leah Gitajn, MD, Assistant Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery and Shudong Jiang, PhD, Associate Professor, Thayer School of Engineering - A Pilot Study Evaluating Bone and Tissue Perfusion and Oxygen Tension in the Setting of Extremity Fracture
Matthew Havrda, PhD, Assistant Professor, Molecular and Systems Biology and Allan Gulledge, PhD, Associate Professor, Molecular and Systems Biology - Neuronal Acetylcholine in the Regulation of Oligodendrocyte-progenitor-like Glioma cells
JoAnna Leyenaar, MD, Associate Professor, Pediatrics and TDI and James O’Malley, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Data Sciences and TDI - Urban-Rural Disparities in Healthcare for Children with Medical Complexity
Patricia Pioli, PhD, Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Immunology and Viktor Martyanov, PhD, Research Scientist, Molecular and Systems Biology - Mining Genomic Data to Identify New Targets and Develop Novel Therapies for Systemic Sclerosis
Lauren Sippel, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Meghan Meyer, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences - Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Poor Social Connection in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
SYNERGY Leadership extends its sincere thanks to the 2018 SYNERGY Translational Pilot Application Review Committee for their hard work during the review process to select these Pilot Awardees.

2017 SYNERGY Translational Pilot Grant Awards

Congratulations to the 2017 SYNERGY Translational Pilot Grant awardees. Following a review of 35 letters of intent, SYNERGY invited 14 full applications from which six awardees were selected. Aligning with SYNERGY’s mission of fostering collaborative interactions between basic, translational, and health services researchers, the awardees come from diverse Dartmouth schools and departments. Here are this year's awards:

John Batsis, MD (Associate Professor, Medicine and TDI), and David Kotz, PhD (Professor, Computer Science) -
A Pilot Study of an eHealth-delivered Health Coaching Intervention
Scott Davis, PhD (Assistant Research Professor, Engineering/Thayer) and Kimberley Samkoe, PhD (Assistant Research Professor, Surgery; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Engineering/Thayer) -
Bio-slice: Whole-body, High-resolution 3-D Biodistribution Imaging of Multiple Agents
Jibran Khokhar, PhD (Instructor, Psychiatry) and Kyle Smith, PhD (Assistant Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences) -Does a Brain Reward Circuit Dysfunction Underlie Substance use in Schizophrenia? Toward a Novel Avenue for Treatment Development
Geoffrey Luke, PhD (Assistant Professor, Engineering/Thayer) and Lesley Jarvis, MD, PhD (Associate Professor, Medicine) - Ultrasound Image-Guided Delivery of Oxygen-Carrying Nanoparticles for Radiation Therapy
Charles Sentman, PhD (Professor, Microbiology and Immunology) and Margaret Ackerman, PhD (Assistant Professor, Engineering/Thayer) -
Engineering Human Regulatory T Cells to Target the Extracellular Fibrils That Form in Neural Tissue in Parkinson’s Disease
Craig Tomlinson, PhD (Senior Research Scientist, Medicine) and Shodeinde Coker, MD (Instructor, Medicine, Hematology-Oncology)-
Preclinical Study of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor and Other Biomarkers in Human Adipose Tissue and their Potential Links Among Obesity and Breast Cancer
SYNERGY Leadership extends its sincere thanks to the 2017 SYNERGY Translational Pilot Application Review Committee for their hard work during the review process to select these Pilot Awardees.

2016 SYNERGY Pilot Grant Awards

We are proud to extend congratulations to the 2016 SYNERGY Translational Pilot Grant awardees. Following a review of 29 letters of intent, SYNERGY invited 16 full applications from which six awardees were selected; two of the six awards are co-funded with the Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC). Aligning with SYNERGY’s mission of fostering collaborative interactions between basic, translational, and health services researchers, the awardees come from diverse Dartmouth schools and departments:

Megan Coylewright, MD, MPH (PI, Medicine/Cardiovascular Medicine and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice) and Stuart W. Grande, PhD, MPA (Co-PI, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice) – Can Telehealth be used to Improve Implementation of Shared Decision Making in Patients with Heart Valve Disease?
Steven N. Fiering, PhD (PI, Microbiology and Immunology, and Genetics) and Peter A. Kaufman, MD (Co-PI, Hematology and Oncology) – In Situ Vaccination of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Patient-derived Mouse Xenografts with Empty Cowpea Mosaic Viral-like Particles*
Alexander Iribarne, MD, MS (PI, Surgery/Cardiac Surgery and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice) and Jonathan S. Skinner, PhD (Co-PI, Economics and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice) – Geographic Variation in Screening and Frequency of Re-interventions after Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Repair among Medicare Recipients in the United States
Catherine Stanger, PhD (PI, Psychiatry) and Todd F. Heatherton, PhD (Co-PI, Psychology and Brain Sciences) – Targeting Neural Self-regulation with Technology for Overweight Teens*
Lance G. Warhold, MD (PI, Surgery/Orthopaedic Surgery) and Alexander Hartov, PhD (Co-PI, Thayer School of Engineering) – FAST: Fixation Approaches to Scaphoid Trauma
Ulrike G.K. Wegst, PhD (PI, Thayer School of Engineering) and Michael K. Matthew, MD (Co-PI, Surgery/Plastic Surgery) – Multifunctional Freeze-Cast Scaffolds for Peripheral Nerve Repair

We extend our sincere thanks to the 2016 SYNERGY Translational Pilot Application Review Committee for their hard work during the review process to select these Pilot Awardees.

Funded Awards

Since 2008 the SYNERGY Translational Pilot Program has funded 62 pilot projects. The RFAs have been designed to promote translational research activity in specific areas, including community partnerships, comparative effectiveness research, and novel methodologies.