NLA Junior Faculty Research Award

   Dr. Debapriya Basu
   Research Assistant Professor
   Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine
   NYU Grossman School of Medicine

 

 

 

 

Reseach Project Title:

New Pathways Regulating LDL Metabolism

About the Award:

The NLA is proud to encourage scholarly advancement of junior faculty in the pursuit of a career related to hyperlipidemia through the Junior Faculty Research Award program. This program was created to support research that focuses on lipid metabolism relevant to human disease, including experiments at the laboratory bench involving structural chemistry, biochemistry, physiology or genetics, and/or studies in animal or human tissues.

The NLA selected Dr. Basu as our 2020 - 2021 recipient because of her excellent research achievements in an area of science that promises to provide new knowledge in the physiology of lipoprotein metabolism. It is such knowledge that will provide insights into the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities for the millions of patients who have disorders that lead to vascular disease and other lipid disorders.

The NLA Junior Faculty Research Award is made possible by sponsorship provided by Amgen, Inc.

The purpose of the NLA Junior Faculty Research Award is to encourage scholarly advancement of Junior Faculty in the pursuit of a career related to hyperlipidemia and other lipid disorders in humans. The NLA will fund eligible institutions to provide $70,000 per year in salary support for those actively involved in clinical and/or basic science that provides promise of developing new information in fields of study that could advance the diagnosis and management of lipid disorders such as biochemistry, physiology, or genetics as well as interventions that improve therapy. The institutions eligible shall be nonprofit and offer an environment that would logically support a young faculty member with appropriate equipment, space and experienced faculty for proposed studies. The proposal will identify a specific candidate with training and strong signs of early success in an appropriate area of research and with a plan for developing appropriate experiments or clinical studies.

Awards for the 2020-2021 cycle will be available to the successful applicants on July 1, 2020.

Eligibility Requirements:

Junior Faculty shall be defined as any faculty member who has an appointment at a qualifying institution as an Assistant or Associate Professor, or the equivalent faculty level as designated by the institution. The applicant may be in a training program such as a fellowship but must have an official appointment as a faculty member at the time of the first award (at or before July 1, 2018). Investigators with more than 7 years of service as an Assistant Professor and/or Associate Professor or who hold a tenured appointment at the institution will not be eligible for this award. 

To be eligible, an applicant is expected to hold or be eligible for a doctoral level degree (PhD, PharmD or MD) prior to the date of the scheduled award. There must be a record of accomplishment in a relevant research area as manifest by publications or a PhD thesis of high quality. There is no specific requirement for the number of publications but they must be listed and summarized in the application and be consistent with basic science or clinical science as described below. 

Application Supporting Document Requirements:

In addition to the completing the required fields on the application, applicants will need to provide a document showing past research, a document outlining your proposed research, CV, a statement of institutional support from the department chair of the applicant's institution and remittance information in the event funding is approved.
 

Basic Science Award

The application for the Basic Science Award may focus on any aspect of lipid metabolism that has relevance to human disease.  This may include experiments at the laboratory bench involving structural chemistry, biochemistry, physiology or genetics.  It can involve studies in animals or in human tissues.  There may be related human experimentation but this should not be the central feature of the research proposed as basic science.

Clinical Science Award

The application for the Clinical Science Award may focus on research in living human subjects and may involve any aspect of lipid metabolism that has relevance to human disease.  This may include experiments on the metabolic ward or research clinic or in the community.  As examples, interventional studies with small molecules altering lipid metabolism, measures of lipoprotein kinetics,  studies of genetic linkage to specific lipid metabolic disorders or in large community wide studies would be considered appropriate.  Linkage to basic science through collaborative research programs may be appropriate.

 

Institutional Requirements:

The NLA Junior Faculty Research Awards will be provided to institutions which are prepared to support the early phases of an academic research career in a manner that promises a high probability of success.  The institution must have a fully certified academic environment for receiving grants from major agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, or other well recognized voluntary agencies such as the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, etc.  For the Clinical Science Award, there must also be appropriate certification from recognized agencies that provide review and approval of the programs of clinical care and training. For profit institutions, companies or corporations will not be eligible.

 

The institution will be responsible for the management of funds provided by these grants and will assure that the award recipients receive the full and fair compensation for their work related to the proposed research projects and are provided adequate time dedicated to this research as committed in the application. NLA Policy allows for the institution of the awardees to apply a maximum of 10% of the awarded amount for indirect costs per year.

 

The institution must have an approved and fully documented policy regarding the filing of patents and a policy for the division of any funds that may ensue from commercial development of such patents.  A written statement of this policy must be provided by the institution with the application.

The NLA Junior Faculty Award Committee (the “Committee”) shall (1) be comprised of volunteer NLA leadership, (2) determine the winner of the Award, and (3) ensure that the Award decisions are made on a basis consistent with the purpose of the Award and the mission and pillars of the NLA. The Award review process shall be:

Cycle	Application Review Period	Notification of Funding
First Cycle (2017-2018)	February 1-28, 2017	March 31, 2017
Second Cycle (2018-2019)	February 1-28, 2018	March 31, 2018
Third Cycle (2020-2021)	January 4-February 14, 2020	March 31, 2020

The Committee shall use the following criteria:

1. Whether the applicant meets the eligibility criteria
2. Relevance of the proposed research to human lipid disorders
3. Originality and feasibility of the proposed research
4. Prospective contribution of the proposed reach to the science of hyperlipidemia
5. Ability of university or institution to support the proposed research for optimum academic development of the awardee.

The Awardees, along with each Awardee’s department head, will be notified of the Award as provided above. Each Awardee will receive a certificate identifying the Awardee as a recipient of the Award.

The awardee shall develop a scientific manuscript for submission for publication to the Journal of Clinical Lipidology, based on the research conducted in connection with the Award, explaining their research, outcomes, and analysis. The manuscript shall be submitted to the Journal of Clinical Lipidology within one (1) year from the end of the two (2) year Award Window.

 

Each Awardee will be provided an opportunity to present their research at the NLA Scientific Sessions in the year following the expiration of their NLA sponsored research cycle (e.g., Awardee 1 and Awardee 2 will be eligible to present their research at the 2019 NLA Scientific Sessions).

The NLA Junior Faculty Award is made possible by sponsorship provided by Amgen, Inc. Amgen shall not participate in the development and selection of the Award or other activities designed to influence the Award process or awardee determination, nor shall Amgen provide any actual or implied recommendation of the eligible awardee, university, or institution.