Providence Chamber Members Win $650,000 for Med Research
Rhode Island Foundation awards nearly $650,000 in seed funding for promising medical research
Grants are intended to help emerging researchers advance projects to the point where they can compete for national funding
Grants are intended to help emerging researchers advance projects to the point where they can compete for national funding
The Rhode Island Foundation has awarded nearly $650,000 in seed funding to 26 promising medical research projects. The work ranges from improving patient adherence to GLP-1 based weight loss medications to training AI to accurately diagnose breast cancer.
The grants are largely designed to help early-career researchers advance projects to the point where they are competitive for national funding.
“Through the generosity of our donors, we are able to provide the crucial seed funding that enables local researchers to purse promising medical advances,” said David N. Cicilline, the Foundation’s president and CEO. “Although the grants are fairly modest, they can lead to big discoveries that will spark substantial new investments in the state’s research sector as well as create healthy communities across our state.”
Alina Jade Barnett, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Statistics, was one of 14 researchers from the University of Rhode Island who will share $350,000 in funding. She will build an improved AI that helps physicians diagnose breast cancer, specifically by revealing and fixing the hidden flaws in existing AI models.
“AI models are very powerful predictors but are also prone to hidden errors. One way we can make these safer is to design AI that can explain its reasoning. If we know how the AI makes its decision, we can see when it's making a mistake. A possible error we might see would be when the AI bases its decision on patient age instead of examining the cancerous tissue,” she said.
Researchers working under the Brown Health umbrella received a total of $250,000 in funding.
For example, Miriam Hospital research scientist Emily Panza received $25,000 to study ways to better support adults who use GLP-1 based weight loss medications by identifying challenges patients experience when they use these medications and by developing strategies to address them. Studies estimate that 50-70% of patients stop GLP-1 treatment within one year.
“Our findings will help us design patient education, provider communication and health system interventions to address these challenges and to improve the support that patients get when they start GLP-1-based medications. This preliminary data will support future research aimed at optimizing obesity pharmacotherapy outcomes,” she said.
Johnson & Wales University received $24,425 to pilot a diabetes prevention program for Latina adolescents at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The study will explore how well the culturally tailored program works, focusing on how easy it is to run, how engaging it is for participants and how it can best support healthy outcomes.
“Latina adolescents experience elevated risk for Type 2 diabetes, yet prevention programs are often not designed with their cultural context in mind,” said Luciana Soares, director of JWU's Master of Science in Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics program. “This study allows us to adapt an evidence-based intervention in a way that is both meaningful and effective."
Providence College received $23,242 for “From Molecules to Motivation: PTEN Signaling in Neural Circuits of Feeding and Threat Avoidance,” led by Ileana Soto-Reyes, assistant professor of neuroscience.
Laboratory, clinical and population-based research was eligible for funding. In addition to general medical research, grants were available to study infectious diseases, cardiac research, coronary artery disease, cerebral accidents, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, allergies and performance enhancing substances.
A panel made up of scientists and physicians helped the Foundation evaluate the proposals. With this latest round of grants, the Foundation has awarded more than $6.8 million for medical research since 1997.
The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. Through civic leadership, fundraising and grantmaking activities, together with neighbors and partners, the Foundation is helping to create progress that lasts. For more information, visit rifoundation.org.
