2024 CNC Pilot Award Program
The mission of the Comprehensive Neuroscience Center (CNC) is to accelerate discovery by promoting excellence in fundamental, translational, and clinical neuroscience research, as well as education and clinical care, through integration of the UAB-wide neuroscience community. Toward that goal, the CNC is pleased to announce that it will fund two multi-PI pilot grants for up to $40,000 for a 24-month period.
Congratulation to the 2024 Awardees!
2023 Pilot Awardees
2022 Pilot Awardees
2021 Pilot Awardees
Zachary Irwin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Heersink School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, is the 2021 Comprehensive Neuroscience Center Early Stage Investigator Pilot Award recipient. He will receive $25,000 per year for up to two years upon completing renewal.
Dr. Irwin’s application, Sensory filtering in the human basal ganglia as a mechanism of Parkinson’s disease, supports his research into investigation of cognitive aspects of Parkinson’s disease and novel stimulation patterns to address these issues.
The 2020 CNC Early Stage Investigator awardees, Andrew Hardaway, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, and Ashley Harms, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, will receive 2nd year funding of $25,000 each.
2020 Pilot Awardees
Andrew Hardaway, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, and Ashley Harms, Ph.D. Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, are the recipients of the 2020 Comprehensive Neuroscience Center Early Stage Investigator Pilot Awards.
Dr. Hardaway’s application, Central Amygdala Dopamine in Cue-Reward Learning, supports his research on dopamine as a critical neurotransmitter for the regulation of conserved behaviors like reward, learning, movement, cognition, and arousal. The dysregulation of dopamine signaling is a pathological hallmark in diseases like addiction, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Harms’ application, Attenuating α-synuclein-induced inflammation by VLA-4 antibody blockage, builds on her research toward understanding the immunological mechanisms underlying the initiation and progression of synucleinopathy disorders including Parkinson’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy (MSA).