Toulmin Pilot Awards

About the Awards

The Toulmin Pilot Project awards support and advance the research mission of Georgetown University Medical Center consistent with its research priorities. Awards will support innovative research projects that have significant potential to attract additional funding in this competitive research environment. 

Toulmin Pilot Projects are supported through the philanthropy of Harry and Virginia Toulmin. Colonel Harry Toulmin’s grandfather, Warwick Evans, was the first graduate of the Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1852. The gift to Georgetown University Medical Center was placed in a trust following Mr. Toulmin’s death in 1965. His wife, Virginia, managed the trust until her death in 2010, when the gift was transferred to Georgetown.

Progress reports will be requested at midyear (January 31) and year-end (June 30).

The program is open to full-time research faculty at GUMC. All PIs are encouraged to collaborate across sectors and campuses. There is no indirect cost recovery with these pilot grants. Upon selection, all awardees will acknowledge budget rules and research timelines.

Current Year Applications

The Vice President for Biomedical Graduate Education and Research requests applications designed to target innovative multidisciplinary biomedical research that will lead to grant funding submission in the next fiscal year.

2025 Toulmin Pilot Award Recipients

Michael Johnson, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Oncology
“Anti-cancer immunotherapy targeting the matriptase-EpCAM/Trop-2 axes”

Joanna Kitlinska, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology
“Perineural invasion-on-a-chip model for investigating cancer-nerve crosstalk”

Daniel Pak, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology
“Mechanisms of synaptic MAP2 in learning and memory”

William Rebeck, PhD, professor in the Department of Neuroscience
“Reducing cerebrovascular dysfunction caused by anti-amyloid therapies in Alzheimer’s disease”

Blythe Shepard, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Human Science
“Investigation of renal calcium homeostasis: the role of adhesion receptor ADGRA3”

Aykut Üren, PhD, professor in the Department of Oncology
“Exploration of ROME knockout mouse”

2024 Toulmin Pilot Award Recipients

Miriam Jacobs, MD
“Enhancing natural killer cell activity against triple negative breast cancer”

Mark P. Burns, PhD
“Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an intervention to promote cognitive recovery following high frequency head impact”

Stella Alimperti, PhD
“Investigating the role of biomechanical cues in diabetic microvasculature”

Ayesha N. Shajahan-Haq, PhD
“Application of a novel MRI technique to detect therapy resistant ER+ breast cancer”

Ken Kellar, PhD
“Aging-associated impairment of long-term potentiation (LTP) and its rescue: implications for age-associated cognitive decline”

Italo Mocchetti, PhD
“HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder and oligodendrocytes”

Alexey Ostroumov, PhD
“Understanding the mechanisms of patterned neural activity in Parkinson’s disease”

Chris Albanese, PhD
“Thymosin b4 as a potential medulloblastoma radiosensitizer”

Ian Gallicano, PhD
“Using cardiac targeting peptide to deliver miRNA for molecular reversal of heart failure”

2019 Toulmin Pilot Award Recipients

Haydar Celik
FY19: Novel drug screening targeting MYB for pediatric low-grade gliomas

Patricia Foley & Leena Hilakivi-Clarke
FY19: Dietary isoflavones and their effect on anti-PD-1 mAb immune therapy in a murine mammary cancer model

Josef Rauschecker
FY19: A Tinnitus Model in Nonhuman Primates

Olga Rodriguez
FY19: Quantitative multi-modal MRI-based analysis of chemobrain in a high risk animal model.

Chunling Yi
FY19: Explore Novel Functions Of YAP/TAZ In Kidney Cancer Cell Metabolism

2018 Toulmin Pilot Award Recipients

Anna Greenwald, Abigail Marsh & Alexander Dromerick
FY18: Impaired emotion recognition after stroke – brain basis, impact on social support, and functional outcomes

Michael Johnson
FY18: A zebrafish xenograft system to model tumor stromal cell interactions in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and other B‐cell malignancies

Jan LaRocque
FY18: Determinants of DNA double-strand break repair pathway choice

G. William Rebeck & Jeanne Mandleblatt
FY18: The effects of APOE genotype on the risk of chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment

Shaojun Tang & Geoffrey Gibney
FY18: Predictive markers for advanced melanoma treated by BRAF inhibitor drugs and the cabozantinib in a Phase-2 trial

Jian-Young Wu, Katherine Conant, & Mark Burns
FY18: Pacing Sharp Waves in hippocampus

Justin Suzuki
FY18: Oxidant-mediated amino acid conversion: a naturally occurring protein engineering process