The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center is pleased to announce the results of its thirteenth round of Pilot and Feasibility Grants. These grant awards fund innovative pilot projects by early career investigators who are entering the diabetes research field, or established investigators with innovative ideas that focus on a new direction in diabetes research. The goal of the program is to generate data that will enable awardees to compete for peer-reviewed national funding for projects that show exceptional promise.

Over a dozen researchers from across the UI campus submitted meritorious proposals that underwent a comprehensive and competitive two-stage review. Two applicants were selected to receive a catalyst award grant of $50,000 to support their research proposal, with the possibility for a second year of funding, for a total of $100,000 over a two-year period. Two applicants were selected to receive one-year seed grant awards of $5,000 each to support discreet research proposals to obtain data needed to generate essential preliminary data in a diabetes-related project to increase competitive for subsequent extramural funding. 

Current Pilot Project Program Recipients

Catalyst Awards
	Brian O'Neill, MD, PhD Associate Professor Department of Internal Medicine - Endocrinology and Metabolism Project title: Role of Lrrc2 in the muscle mitochondrial adaptations to diabetes
	Thorsten Maretzky, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Internal Medicine - Infectious Diseases  Project title: Novel functions of the inactive rhomboid protein 2 in diet-induced obesity
Seed Grant Recipients
	Sukirth Ganesan, BDS, PhD Research Assistant Professor Department of Periodontics  Project title: Determining the Role of Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Oral Environment of Children with Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome
	Gourav Bhadwaj, MSc, PhD   Research Assistant Professor Department of Internal Medicine - Endocrinology and Metabolism Project title: Generation of a cardiomyocyte-restricted inducible striated muscle-enriched protein kinase (Speg) overexpression mouse model to determine the role FoxO3-Speg axis in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy