Center for Biomedical Imaging Pilot Studies Program

Request for Proposals for Summer 2022 Submission

The University at Buffalo Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) provides support for pilot projects encouraging imaging translational research. The CTSI Center for Biomedical Imaging (CBI) is seeking to support innovative pilot imaging studies. Projects must:

  • Aim to generate preliminary data for submission of extramural federal and private research grant applications, and
  • Apply or develop novel imaging methodologies and technologies that will yield generalizable solutions to research problems that can be translated to a clinical setting, and/or
  • Seek to apply available imaging methods to novel multidisciplinary clinical and translational research at UB and Buffalo Translational Consortium institutions.

Projects will be given preference if they:

  • Support the design, development, and/or validation of novel imaging biomarkers that will advance clinical and translational research
  • Use already existing acquisition and analysis methods to broaden the user base
  • Have strong scientific merit
  • Address health disparities in underserved or underrepresented minority populations and rare diseases in the Western New York region
  • Use the CBI structural/functional imaging capabilities to study post-COVID-19 associated sequelae and comorbidities, and/or
  • Pair “early stage” (by NIH definition) investigators with established investigators (i.e., PIs who have a history of substantive extramural research funding), thus providing a built-in mentoring system for KL2 scholars
  • Promote multi-disciplinary collaborations will be given priority for consideration of funding.

*Funding of any and all UB CTSI pilot study awards will be dependent upon allocation of funds to the pilot study program.

Research that uses imaging to address health disparities can be implemented across all levels of analysis with imaging correlates, including examples such as understanding genetic or epigenetic effects on health disparities in structural or functional imaging outcomes; through biological and neurobiological influences on health disparities, individual differences in response to drugs that may explain differential health benefits to new or commonly used pharmacological interventions; or developing unique programs that address health disparities for underrepresented populations in Western New York, including T3 and T4 translational research projects, is invited for this pilot seed grant submission.

In addition, imaging proposals that will advance the ways in which creativity and innovation can be stimulated, fostered, and augmented in the design and conduct of translational imaging-related research will be entertained.

No clinical trials beyond phase IIA will be supported by the program.

These pilot imaging studies will be partially supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) with the CBI providing 50 imaging hours on a 3T scanner at at no cost to the investigator’s award, with intended durations of one year.

Support for pilot projects will be based on available scanning time and human resources at the 3T scanner. The CBI anticipates that it will support three pilot projects with intended durations of one year.