Deans' Transformational Science Award
The DTSA is not currently active. When reinstated, new information regarding the process for applying will be posted.
The Deans' Transformational Science Award (DTSA) is an initiative of the Jefferson Committee on Research (JCOR), awarded through the Office of the Provost. This award mechanism is designed to enhance the success of Jefferson’s research-intensive faculty and to nurture the development of HIGH-IMPACT SCIENCE. The intent of the DTSA funding mechanism is to catalyze Transformational Science initiatives driven by Jefferson faculty and enable the generation of pivotal data that will form the basis of new, federally-funded, extramural grant submissions.
DTSA Awardees
July 2019
Davide Trotti, PhD, Tim Mosca, PhD
“Neuromuscular synapse is a target of C9orf72 dipeptide repeat proteins in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis”
Mary Jane Mulcahey-Hershey, PhD, OTR/L
“Advancing Upper Limb Neurotechnologies”
Le Ma, PhD, Angelo Lepore, PhD
“A Novel Mechanism to Promote Branch Regeneration and Treat Spinal Cord Injury”
July 2018
Glenn Radice, PhD, Bruno Calabretta, MD, PhD
“Repurposing a Cancer Drug to Treat Heart Disease”
Uhlas Naik, PhD, FAHA, Leonard Edelstein, PhD
“Developing Novel Anti-Platelet Agents to Alleviate Racial Disparity Associated with Thrombotic Disorders”
Radika Bhaskar, PhD, Megan Fuller, PhD
“Stormwater Attenuation and Biofiltration Capacity of Experimental Green Roofs: Role of Novel Substrate and Vegetation Functional Diversity”
Deepak Deshpande, PhD, Jianxian Sun, PhD
“The Role of Nuclear Receptor Nur77 in Asthma”
Elizabeth Krebs. MD, Msc, Stanton Miller, MD, MPH
“Saving Lives, Preventing Disability and Disrupting an Industry – Innovative Motorcycle Helmet Design to Prevent Traumatic Brain Injury in Low and Middle Income Countries”
July 2017
Linda Siracusa, Benjamin Leiby
“A Genetic Mouse Model Of Adult-Onset Epilepsy”
Ya-Ming Hou, Davide Trotti
“Repeat-associated non-AUG translation, tRNA, protein synthesis”
Maria Martinez Cantarin, Ubaldo Martinez Oustchoorn
“Tissue Metabolism in response to uremia”
Ulhas Naik
“Developing novel inhibitor of Ask1 for treating thrombotic disorders”
Qiaoli Li, Koen van de Wetering
“Targeting the pyrophosphate deficiency in PXE”
Melanie Elliot
"A study of cannabidiol based extract in models of post-concussion headache and chronic migraine"
Bruno Calabretta
"Development of selective CDK6 inhibitors for personalized treatment of Ph+ acute lymphoblastic Leukemia"
Jefferson/PhilaU DTSA Awards
Tung Chan, Roger Armen, Deepak Deshpande, Megan Fuller, Matthew Milkevitch
“Converting Non-PAINS Akt Inhibitors into Activators for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Therapy”
Anusua Datta, Willie Oglesby
“Access to Health Insurance and Utilization of Treatment for Opioid Abuse: Evidence from State Medicaid Expansions under the Affordable Care Act”
Therese Johnston, Muthu Govidnaraj
“Cycling Biomechanics in Cyclists with Knee Pain: Integration of a Custom Pedal Interface for Measuring 3D Cycling Kinetics”
November 2016
Suresh Joseph and Gyorgy Hajnoczky
“Mitochondrial Calcium Transport as a Target for Drug Discovery”
Takami Sato and Yuri Sykulev
“Development of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-expressing Natural Killer (NK)
Cells for the Treatment of Metastatic Uveal Melanoma”
Olga Igoucheva
“Stem Cell Therapy for Congenital Muscular Dystrophy”
July 2016
Manuel Covarrubias, Matthew Dalva & Angelo Lepore
“Regulation of Pain Signaling by Kv3.4 Channels”
Andrzej Fertala & Charles Scott
“Development, Optimization and Validation of High-Throughput Assays
to Identify Small-Molecule Inhibitors of Fibrosis”
Gino Cingolani & Roger Armen
“Rational Optimization of Novel Diarylisoxazole Inhibitors of Cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1)
for Diagnosis and Treatment of Ovarian Cancer”
Jouni Uitto
“Translational Perspective of Pathomechanisms of Keloids as a
Model for Cutaneous Fibrosis”
David Whellan, Barry Rovner & David Shipon
“Behavioral Activation to Improve Training in Cardiac Rehabilitation (BAIT-CR)”
Ross Summer, Jianxin Sun & Ulhas Naik
“Uncovering the Molecular Events that Prime the Lung for Injury in Obesity”
January 2016
My Mahoney, Joya Sahu, James Wahl, Ulrich Rodeck, Andrew South and James Keen
“Combined EGFR/Dsg2 Inhibition to Enhance Anti-Tumor Efficacy”
Tung Chan, Roger Armen, John Pascal and Ulrich Rodeck
“Development of Akt Kinase Directed Small Molecules Targeting a Novel Allosteric Regulatory Switch”
Janice Walker, Andrzej Fertala, Sue Menko and Ulhas Naik
“A Search for Effective Pharmaceutical Targets to Block Fibrosis”
May 2015
Lucia Languino and Adam Dicker
“Mechanisms of resistance to radiation therapy of neuroendocrine prostate cancer”
Mathew Thakur
“Targeting a genomic biomarker for PET imaging and staging of bladder urothelial cancer”
Jeff Benovic and Charles Scott
“Intracellular peptide libraries as tools for discovery and validation of druggable targets”
Marianthi Kiriakido
“The role of miR-210 in the immune response in lupus”
Mijail Serruya and Melanie Elliott
“Prospective outcomes trial of biomarker triad in concussion patients”
April 2014
Alexander Mazo, Bruno Calabretta, Lorraine Iacovitti
“The role of post-replicative chromatin structure in biological plasticity of undifferentiated human blood progenitor cells and embryonic stem cells”
Sophie Astrof and Rajanikanth Vadigepalli
“Systems biology of congenital aortic arch malformations”
George Brainard, Melanie Elliott, Karl Doghramji, Stephen Stache, Ralph Franks, Brenda Byrne, and Mijail Serruya
“Randomized clinical trial of light therapy for treating sleep and fatigue in concussion patients”
Bo Lu
“Validate Nit1 as a novel therapeutic target against lung cancer”
November 2014
Robert Den and Roger Armen
“Targeting RHAMM: reducing the metastatic burden from prostate cancer”
Ya-Ming Hou and Yohei Kirino
“The Molecular Basis of Mitochondrial MELAS Syndrome”
Matthew Dalva, Diane Merry, and Judith Ross
Neuroligins (NLGN4Y) in synapse development: a candidate gene for autism spectrum disorder in males”
Andrew Aplin and Takami Sato
“Targeted therapeutic strategies in metastatic uveal melanoma”