Seed Grants to Stimulate Collaborative Research Announced at Wayne State Symposium

Collaboration Key Focus at Wayne State's Mini-Symposium, Promoting Cross-Departmental Research

The Wayne State University School of Medicine hosted a mini-symposium on December 11, attended by over 200 faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows, staff, and trainees. The event featured five research presentations on metabolism, systems biology, and neurosciences, moderated by Professors Tomomi Ichinose, M.D., Ph.D., and Maik Huettemann, Ph.D. This marked the first session of a new thematic research series. Dr. Huettemann emphasized the importance of engaging clinical faculty in future events to strengthen collaborations for grant proposals and translational research.

The event also included a presentation by Dr. Paul Stemmer, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and director of the Proteomics Core Facility at the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, who outlined the facility's services for Wayne State University scientists. After presentations by Ryan Insolera, PhD, Kezhong Zhang, PhD, Eric Woodcock, PhD, Dragana Komnenov, Ph.D., and Dr. Ichinose, attendees engaged in discussions with Dean Sakr, the speakers, and other participants.

The next mini-symposium, focused on cancer research, immunology, and inflammation, is scheduled for March, with additional events planned for June, September, and December. Dr. Huettemann highlighted that the series' themes are flexible and can evolve. The event aimed to foster collaborations for new grants and breakthroughs, as modern research requires teamwork. He shared that more than half of his eight current grants are multi-principal investigator projects.

He also announced that seed grants would be available for collaborative pilot projects to generate preliminary data for future grant applications, with the first round to be announced at the next mini-symposium. He reported overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees, who appreciated learning about their colleagues' work and methods. Speakers were asked to include slides, summarizing their expertise to encourage new collaborations. The mini-symposium successfully fostered collaboration and idea-sharing, with plans for future events to build on this momentum. The introduction of seed grants aims to further stimulate research partnerships and innovations in this research field.

Editor's Note:

The inaugural mini-symposium at Wayne State University School of Medicine was a great success in bringing together researchers from different fields. The event emphasized the importance of working together across departments and highlighted the value of multi-principal investigator grants for making important medical discoveries. By planning more mini-symposia and offering seed grants for new collaborations, the event helps encourage teamwork, which can lead to new research ideas and breakthroughs.

Skoobuzz hopes that future mini-symposia will explore new research opportunities in the critical fields of Immunology, Cancer, and Inflammation, providing a platform for new collaboration and the sharing of expertise to drive innovative research in these areas.