South Carolina IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (SC INBRE) is pleased to announce our 2018 Bioinformatics Pilot Project Program (BIPP) and Developmental Research Project Program (DRP) grant recipients.

SC INBRE is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the goal of increasing the NIH research capacity of the state. Our program office directly supports our 13 network and four outreach institutions, as well as providing educational, workplace and career development, and hands-on research training open to anyone (unless otherwise posted).

The goal of the SC INBRE Bioinformatics Pilot Project Program is to stimulate interest in the application of genomics and bioinformatics methods by supporting research and student training throughout the SC INBRE and South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute (SCTR) networks. Applications were accepted from institutions of higher education in the SC INBRE network; affiliated members of SCTR; and interested students and faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUI) across South Carolina. Projects are to be implemented by faculty and student teams, with a faculty member as PI and all other personnel as co-Investigators. Each project awards up to $10,000 for one-year.

The 2018 BIPP Program recipients are:

The SC INBRE Developmental Research Project Program (DRP) was designed to promote the career development of SC INBRE Target Faculty. DRP projects have to have a focus on Biomedical Science and fit within the broad scientific focus areas of SC INBRE: Regenerative Medicine; Cell and Molecular Biology; Neuroscience; andBioinformatics.

DRP awards support independent research and mentored career development of each target faculty. SC INBRE target faculty utilize SC INBRE support to establish their independent research programs and, in the process, provide research training to students and/or postdoctoral fellows in the Biomedical Sciences.

Up to four new awards were made: two to faculty at predominantly undergraduate institutions (PUIs) and two to faculty from MUSC and Clemson University (no slots were available at USC in this cycle). To be eligible to apply, applicants had to be tenure-track assistant or associate professors at participating SC INBRE PUIs, CRU tenure-track or research faculty at the assistant or associate professor level or PUI or CRU faculty at later stages of their career who lack current NIH funding and intend to utilize SC INBRE support to re-tool or change fields of interest and re-gain competitiveness for independent funding. Each project awards up to $50,000 each for two years.

The 2018 DRP Program recipients are: