The Keck School of Medicine of USC recently held a celebration of pilot funding programs that are available for researchers. The event, held Feb. 7 on the Health Sciences Campus, was hosted by the Keck School’s Office of Research Advancement and the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI).

Attendees learned about the various pilot funding programs and opportunities available at the Keck School, including the Eli and Edythe Broad Innovation Award, Robert E. and May R. Wright Foundation Research Awards, Liver Center Pilot Program, SC CTSI Pilot Funding, Dean’s Pilot Funding Program, the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation, Southern California Research Center for ALPD & Cirrhosis and the Gehr Family Center for Health Systems Science Pilot Program.

Awardees from several of the programs gave presentations about their work and the event also included a poster session from researchers who had previously participated in the pilot funding opportunities. Presenters included Frank Attenello, MD, MS, assistant professor of clinical neurological surgery; Ling Shao, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine; and Erica Shoemaker, MD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences (clinician educator).

Mark Humayun, left, talks to Denis Evseenko, right, before Evseenko gives a presentation during a Feb. 7 celebration of pilot funding programs at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. (Photo/Ricardo Carrasco III)