Launching IDeA state early career clinician-scientists with mentored just-in-time grant-writing support

Institutional Development Award (IDeA) programs build research infrastructure in regions with historically low access to NIH funds. The Mentored Research Development Award (MRDA), a professional development program embedded in our IDeA-funded center, provides junior investigators with mentorship and effort offset to write a grant. We evaluated outcomes from the first eight years (2013-2021; N = 55) using administrative records, publicly available data, and a self-report survey (n = 46, 84% response rate). Fifteen MRDA recipients (27%) went on to receive NIH funding. Providing just-in-time grant-writing support may launch early career clinician-scientists in an IDeA state context.

Recruiting women faculty through inclusive, family-friendly practices

Recruitment of STEM faculty is biased against parents and caregivers. Specifically, women experience discrimination associated with childrearing and marriage. Underestimating the value of these candidates leads to a tremendous loss of talent. Here, we present a toolkit to facilitate the recruitment of talented women caregivers by providing guidelines for hiring.

Brown University COBRE Center for Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation

The Center for Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation (CADRE) is a COBRE establishing a thematically linked, state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary Center investigating mechanisms where-by substance use (SU) increases the risk for or exacerbates chronic disease. It does so by employing a combination of behavioral and physiological laboratory-based approaches across several substances and across several diseases. COBRE projects investigate mechanisms underlying effects of opioids, cannabis, tobacco, and alcohol on risks for and progression of SU-related disease. Though linkages between SU and disease are well documented, physiological mechanisms underlying such associations are poorly understood, mainly because published studies use cross-sectional designs that do not allow for causal interpretations. Mechanisms studied in CADRE projects include systemic inflammation, immune system dysregulation, high blood pressure, pulmonary effects, and carcinogen exposure. A Clinical Laboratory Core provides infrastructure, resources, and scientific expertise and a center-wide database of risk factors associated with the development of SU and chronic disease.