Pitch & Catch Funding Awarded at the Virginia Alzheimer’s Disease Center Meeting

Core leaders, investigators, and staff from the Virginia Alzheimer's Disease Center (VADC) recently met on August 17, 2023 to discuss center updates and plans for the coming year. 

The meeting also included a Pitch & Catch flash-funding mechanism where 8 investigators presented chalk-talk style pitches for small research projects that align with the VADC's thematic priority areas. The pitches were scored by the meeting attendees in real-time. 

The Brain Institute awarded the four top-ranked PIs awards of $15,000 to support their proposed project over the next year. 

The awarded PIs are: 

• Dr. Shannon Reilly, Department of Neurology
• Dr. Ukpong Eyo, Department of Neuroscience
• Dr. Lulu Jiang, Department of Neuroscience
• Dr. Anne Kenworthy, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics

Thank you to all of the investigators who presented pitches! All proposals were highly regarded and demonstrated the diversity and quality of ADRD research at UVA. Additional thanks to everyone who attended the meeting and participated in the scoring of the proposals. 

The VADC seeks to increase understanding of ADRD among underrepresented populations: mainly rural and Black people. We focus on health disparities and the impacts of stress, sleep, and allostatic load on people with dementia and their care partners. This research program spans from cellular and molecular mechanisms of ADRD to its impact on care partners and their communities. To accomplish this goal, we marshal the strengths in ADRD research at UVA and across the Commonwealth of Virginia through partnerships with community stakeholders and Virginia Tech. 

Please contact us to learn more about the VADC. 

All photos are credited to Tom Daly.