Pilot and Feasibility Program: Abstract The Cystic Fibrosis Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh has had a Pilot and Feasibility Program in place since 1997. This program has been supported by federal (P50, P30) and non-federal (a research development program from the CF foundation) over the years such that we are currently able to support between 2 and 4 research projects each year. The goals of the program are directed towards fostering and promoting new and innovative research programs directed towards the development of new and innovative research in basic, clinical and translational aspects of cystic fibrosis. Ultimately the goal is to augment and expand the number of individual competitive federal research grants contributing to our cystic fibrosis research center. A second though equally important facet of this effort is to foster the development of the careers of young investigators and to help focus their research themes towards studies in cystic fibrosis Our program has been remarkably successful on both fronts; of the pilots supported by the P30 over the last two cycles of support (n=13), all but one were successful in converting the project to extramural funding, a success rate of more than 90%. We anticipate that the pilots proposed in this P30 renewal will have similar success. Moreover, the Center?s P/F program has brought many significant investigators to CF research over the years, including: Drs. Meir Aridor, Jeff Brodsky, Marcello Carattino/Tom Kleyman, Augustine Choi, Tim Corcoran, Dan Devor, Steve Garoff/Bob Tilton, Ken Hallows, Mike Myerburg, Prabir and Anaradha Ray, Bruce Freeman, Marcel Bruchez/Alan Waggoner, Xinyu Liu and Ron Montalero. Thus, we have had considerable experience and success with this program and its intent of bringing new investigators into the CF field or having CF experienced researchers pursue new direction, amplifying their funding options. In this competing renewal we are submitting pilots from Dr?s Agnes Urban and John Alcorn (see section D) these projects are tightly integrated into this program and interface closely with the basic and translational aspects of the Center and make extensive use of the core support provided by this P30.
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