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Welcome!

Welcome to Research Matters, the research blog of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the George Washington University. This blog supports research by alerting you to funding opportunities, sharing research news, and providing a database of research faculty. Our purpose is to promote research excellence and collaboration.

The site is made up of two areas: Research Blog and Funding Announcements.

In the Research Blog, you will find posts on topics related to research at GW.

In Funding Announcements, you can find funding related to your research area. New opportunities are added every week!

Recent Blog Posts

  • Post-doc Appreciation Day 2020 goes Virtual
    Photo of the guest author Derek Jones

    The George Washington University Annual Post Doc Appreciation Day went virtual this year on Sept 25th 2020. Although connecting with others has been difficult, this hugely successful event brought together speakers and post-docs for a one-day event in celebration, appreciation, and education. Post-docs from every George Washington School attended the event from their homes, work offices, and labs throughout the day to share tips to navigate post-doc life and to hear about emerging research topics presented by their expert colleagues. 

                Deans Paul Wahlbeck from CCAS and John Lach from SEAS welcomed and encouraged the Post-Doc community. Invited speakers included Dr. Joshua Weiss (The Global Negotiation Initiative, Harvard University) “The art of negotiation,” Dr. Colin Young (GW Pharmacology/Physiology) on “How to successfully transition from postdoc to PI,” and  Dr. Lauren Ullrich (NINDS, NIH) on “Careers in government and the non-profit sector.” The morning session concluded with a presentation from James Chang (GW Innovation and Entrepreneurship). The highlight of the afternoon session was research talks from 9 post-docs, who spoke on topics ranging from nanoparticle drug delivery to cancer signaling to environmental air pollution inequalities.

                Prizes were awarded for the best research talks of the day, and for mentor of the year. Sharon George won first place for her talk “Sexual dimorphism in the roles of p38 MAPK isoforms in Doxorubicin.” Second place went to Gaige Kerr presenting “Impact of coronavirus lockdowns on air pollution: Successes and challenges for environmental inequality in the US,” and third was awarded to Preethi Bala Balakrishanan for her talk “Nanoparticle-based photothermal therapy combined with agonistic immunotherapy: a novel treatment strategy for aPD-1 non-responder in late-stage melanoma.” Finally, Dr. Erik Rodriguez (GW Chemistry) was presented the mentor of the year award, and provided closing remarks, concluding a very successful Post Doc Appreciation Day.

    Guest author: Derek Jones, GW Post-Doctoral Scientist

  • Research Progress in Isolation
    Alison HallAs with other trainees around the nation, our Institute for Biomedical Science (IBS) PhD students and postdocs have seen their research progress “paused” in light of the pandemic, but they’ve still been very busy. Our senior students have continued their research remotely, pursuing data analysis, figures and manuscripts, mini-reviews, journal clubs, lab and special interest group meetings, and maybe an added virtual happy hour or two. We have also encouraged our second-year students, once their classes are done, to prepare and defend their grant-style qualifier exams so they are prepared for their dissertation work once we return. But what about our newest researchers, the first year PhD students who are testing out programs, and don’t yet have a lab “home?” This morning we heard from first year IBS students who reported back on their rotation extension projects, and what they did with several added weeks after we shut down labs. I was really impressed with their continued energy as they proposed new avenues for research, wrote short reviews, completed secondary analyses, and, in several cases, even contributed as authors to research publications! We also invited the students to share their experiences with research-related online courses available nationally and curated by their graduate program directors, and learned that this was also worthwhile. Students took courses in Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Lessons from Ebola: Preventing the Next Pandemic, Classical Papers in Molecular Biology, as well as biostatistics with R and Quantitative Methods for Biology, and a popular course in Using Python for Research, and they gave brief reviews applying their courses to their research interests. Several students said they were glad to have time to work on these topics, and I’m planning to share top-rated courses with more students. These formal courses join the many newly added-workshops on wellness and stress management and biomedical career development that are offered at GW, the NIH, and research institutions around the country and world that help to build new skills and reduce our isolation during these trying times. I want to thank the research community for looking out for each other and continuing the indomitable spirit of inquiry.
  • You’re looking for funding!
    Alison HallWe are delighted to share that, over the last six months (September 2019 to March 2020) subscribers to GW Research Matters funding alerts have increased by 6% (from 2,467 to 2,631). We continue to provide regular email updates to over 600 investigators on funding opportunities in 25 research areas. To improve this service, we monitor how often you Open Email and Open Grant listings. We think this analysis reveals some trends: High Open Email rate, high Open Grant rate (e.g. Patient-centered research, EM, Infectious disease, Pharm/Phys) Interpretation: Right audience/ and content is highly relevant/ interesting!  High Open Email rate, low Open Grant rate (e.g. Biochemistry, Anatomy and Endocrinology) Interpretation: Right audience/ but content not relevant/ interesting? Low Open Email rate, high Open Grant rate (e.g. Kidney, Pediatrics, and Anesthesiology) Interpretation: Few are looking for research funding/ and content highly relevant/ interesting! Low Open Email rate, low Open Grant rate (e.g. Ophthalmology, Endocrinology) Interpretation: Few are excited about research funding? We are listening! While our click rates are above the averages across all industries, we’d like to improve with your suggestions. Please send comments to gwsmhsresearch@gwu.edu  
  • New Patient-Centered Research Funding
    We arAlison Halle excited to let you know that a new theme -- Patient Centered Research -- has joined the other 24 themes in our Research Matters "push" funding opportunities. You may access the new Patient Centered Research list from here. We encourage you to go to the Research Matters website to take another look. Go to the Funding Announcements page, and click on any research theme primary list to explore opportunities. As you know, these lists are updated each week and any new or updated funding opportunities are emailed to everyone subscribed to the research theme(s).  You can always go back to the posted main Primary Funding List in any theme. Please visit this page to subscribe, and let us know how we’re doing!
  • NIH requires all visitors to disclose citizenship
    Alison HallAs noted in a Washington Post article today, the NIH is clamping down on security, calling for visitors to disclose their citizenship in order to be issued a visitor badge. Foreign nationals from Iran, Syria, North Korea or Sudan must complete paperwork that can take 10 days to process before they are allowed entry. A GW postdoc was recently denied entry to a scientific workshop for which she had pre-registered, because she had not processed the required NIH foreign visitors data request form in advance. Discussion with an NIH police spokesman suggested the recent practice was a renewal of an old policy, although it is not clear why there is a change. The enforcement of a policy to require citizenship disclosure is a major concern for GW, as research progress relies upon open and active engagement of researchers from around the globe.

We would love to hear your feedback. We encourage you to suggest a post by contacting gwsmhsresearch@gwu.edu, or you can write comments on current posts.