Cores
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(615) 343-8776
tn-cfar@vumc.org
About the TN CFAR DC
Our CFAR’s institutional and community environment is rich in opportunity and with a culture of engagement and collaboration, the Developmental Core will support and enhance collaborative, interdisciplinary HIV/AIDS research at the four partner institutions of the Tennessee CFAR – Vanderbilt University, Meharry Medical College, the Tennessee Department of Health, and Nashville CARES. The Development Core will not only provide funding for promising junior investigators, but will also assure that there is appropriate mentoring together with activities to foster team building. This will help junior investigators appreciate the critical importance of effective collaboration as they develop as academic research scientists. The HIV-focused Developmental Core funding, mentoring, and skill development will be leveraged with outstanding institutional support at Vanderbilt and at Meharry to maximize the potential for important, ground-breaking research that will lead to extramural funding support, and that ultimately has substantial impact on the burden of HIV/AIDS in Tennessee, the nation, and worldwide.
Specific Aims of the DC
- To administer a robust CFAR DC Awards program that supports interdisciplinary HIV research projects and new HIV research pilot projects.
- To ensure mentoring of investigators new to HIV research, with a focus on early stage, minority, women, and public health investigators, to enhance competitiveness for extramural funding.
- To foster academic skills development and scientific team-building.
This CFAR envisions the DC as both a magnet and an engine: a magnet that attracts early-stage and established investigators into HIV research and an engine that provides structure and drive to nurture promising investigators toward success in NIH grant funding. The DC has been highly impactful, has continued to modify its approach based on “lessons learned”, and has implemented new initiatives to have even greater impact moving forward. Since the Tennessee CFAR was established in 2015, the DC has pursued 3 complementary aims so as to support early-stage investigators (ESI) pursuing innovative new lines of inquiry, and to foster new HIV research collaborations. The CFAR DC is led by John Koethe MD, MSCI (Director), Timothy Sterling, MD (Associate Director at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC)), and Fernando Villalta, PhD (Associate Director at Meharry Medical College (MMC)). Dr. Koethe is Associate Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt, PI of HIV-focused NIH R01, R56, and other grants, and the Co-PI and Program Director of the NHLBI-supported V-SCHoLARS K12 program to train faculty-level physician scientists in research on HIV-related heart, lung, blood, and sleep comorbidities. Dr. Koethe will lead the administration of a robust DC Awards program. Dr. Sterling, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Vanderbilt Tuberculosis Center, and Dr. Villalta, Chair and Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Physiology at Meharry Medical Center, are both experienced, senior mentors and will jointly oversee the effective mentoring of new and ESI who apply for and/or receive DC Awards and academic skills development and scientific team building among CFAR members. The DC will pursue 3 specific aims, reflecting our 3-pronged action plan:
To ensure mentoring of investigators new to HIV research, with a focus on early stage, minority, women, and public health investigators, to enhance competitiveness for extramural funding.
We will continue to provide consistent, proactive, skilled mentoring to ESI both before and after they apply for DC Awards. We will have enhanced periodic one-on-one outreach to awardees as well as unfunded DC Award applicants to ensure quality mentorship and emphasize linkage to phenomenal local career development resources and non-CFAR funding mechanisms open to VUMC and MMC members. We will continue our new emphasis on convening a mentoring committee for a new investigator at Nashville CARES (the largest local HIV community organization), and on identifying new collaborations to link ESI with mid-career investigators.
To enhance the HIV research productivity of VUMC, MMC, TDH and CARES by supporting and coordinating collaborative and trans-disciplinary approaches.
The AC will foster new collaborations among existing HIV investigators, and investigators not yet engaged in HIV research. It will also continue to grow community-engaged research (CEnR), and will identify and support new and existing collaborations beyond CFAR, including CFAR-to-CFAR collaborations.
To foster academic skills development and scientific team-building.
We will continue our emphasis on focused participatory research training for all CFAR investigators. These include a Works-in- Progress Series for awardees to receive critical feedback, a team-based approach to increase manuscript and grant submission productivity of DC Awardees, bi-directional evaluations of mentors and mentees, and annual DC Retreats focused on success of DC Awards, career development, and skill building resources in manuscript and grant writing. We will continue our recent emphasis on linking mid-career and senior investigators within the CFAR institutions and with outside investigators to enable proactive team building for newly released NIH funding opportunity announcements and other funding sources, including identification of potential collaborators, logistical support for meetings, and support for grant development.
Services Offered
- Funding opportunities for early-stage investigators, and for established investigators new to HIV, through pilot awards and supplements
- Mentoring & Career Development – Fostering scientific tam building and skills development through sprint teams
- Training & Education
- Grant Writing & Review
- Consultations
DC Leadership
John Koethe, MD, MSCI
Core Director | View Profile Here
Timothy Sterling, MD
Associate Director | View Profile Here
CHANDRAVANU DASH, PHD
Associate Director | View Profile Here