CVRI Mini Grants Program
The CVRI supports Loyola clinicians and scientists via several intramural awards funded by the generous support of our donors. A full list of award recipients is listed below under each grant award.
2024-2025 Awardees
CVRI Student Travel Awards
These awards support Ph.D. students & M.D. students/fellows to travel to scientific conferences, especially when they are a presenting author.
- Joseph F Zywiciel Jr. - Single Center Neurosurgical Outcomes and Trends in Endoscopic Endonasal Resection of 297 Sellar/Suprasellar Tumors Stratified by Duration of Neurosurgical Career.
- Sasha Demeulenaere - MD/PhD Student, Physiology Graduate Program (Beach and Oakes Lab)
- Stefano Sala, PhD Research Assistant Professor (Oakes Lab)
- Karla Mendez Maldonado, PhD Research Associate l Pak Lab “Estrogen as a regulator of miR-9-5p, miR-181a-5p and miR-495 degradation during Aging and Alzheimer disease."
James Depauw Grant for Pilot Projects
The DePauw grants support small pilot research projects, especially those involving collaborations between CVRI faculty that help advance our mission of deeper collaboration between clinicians and basic scientists.
- Erika Piedras-Renteria, Ph.D. Vikram Prabhu, MD. “Developing a Grade 3 Meningioma microfluidic model to assess combination therapy efficacy."
- Dorothy Sojka, Ph.D., Grace Muller, Ph.D. “NK cell function changes and maternal cardiovascular adaptation during pregnancy."
- Debra Hoppensteadt, Ph.D., Amir Darki, MD, Jeanine Walenga, PhD. “Inflammation induced endothelial dysfunction and the role of anti-PF4 antibodies in thrombosis modulation in acute pulmonary embolism.
- Jordan Beach PhD, Patrick Oakes PhD. “Adaptation of iLID-based photo-recruitment technology in cardiomyocytes."
- Joseph Zywiciel BS, Douglas Anderson MD, Talar Markossian, PhD MPH. “Comparitive cost analysis of operative management options for trigeminal neuralgia."
- Kelly Langert PhD, Vivian Gahtan, MD. “Investigating passive and active nanoparticle targeting in a rat model of hindlimb ischemia reperfusion."
- Nunzia Caporarello PhD, Jawed Fareed PhD. “Vascular endothelial dysfunction in pulmonary fibrosis”.
- Walter Jeske PhD, Debra Hoppensteadt PhD. “Feasibility of the use of designer HIT antibody for cross-reactivity testing of novel heparin preparations."
James and Carolyn Beck equipment grant
This endowment provides funding for CVRI equipment that will benefit multiple faculty members and collaborative projects.
- John Lopez, MD. "Use of Invasive Testing for Microvascular Disease for Assessment of Heart Transplant Recipients and Patients with Angina without Obstructive CAD"
Patrick Scanlon Collaborative Grants Award
This mechanism is for larger collaborations, particularly those between clinical faculty and basic scientists, which are larger in scope than pilot projects and can likely result in a published manuscript.
- Zaid Abdelsattar, MD. "The Microenvironment of Prolonged Air Leak After Lung Cancer Surgery: The Role of Hyperfibrinolysis, Inflammation, and the Pulmonary Microbiome"
2019-2020 Awardees
CVRI Student Travel Awards
These awards support Ph.D. students & M.D. students/fellows to travel to scientific conferences, especially when they are a presenting author.
- Sorcha Allen, MD
- Emily Bontekoe - "Biomarkers of hemostatic activation and inflammation are associated with altetred coagulation parameters in sepsis patients"
- Sean R. Cleary - "Alternating Binding of Phospholamban and DWORF to SERCA During Transient Elevations of Cytosolic Calcium”
- Ambar Farooqui
- Christopher Hoover - "Regulation of human RyR2 by calmodulin” with that “DWORF directly regulates SERCA function.”
- Ahmed Kouta - "USP Potency adjusted bovine mucosal heparins (BMH) are comparable to porcine mucosal heparin (PMH) at equivalent levels"
- Roman Nikolaienko, PhD - “Regulation of Human RyR2 by Calmodulin”
- Mary Papadaki, PhD - "Methylglyoxal modifications on myofilament proteins caused by diabetes block heart failure drug targets through changing tropomyosin position."
- Tim Pow, MD
- Jaroslava Seflova, PhD - “Insight into Sodium Pump Regulation in the Failing Human Heart”
- Fakiha Siddiqui - "Andexanet alpha differentially neutralizes the anticoagulant, antiprotease and thrombin generation inhibitory effects of unfractionated heparin, enoxaparin and fondaparinux."
James DePauw Grants for Pilot Projects
The DePauw grants support small pilot research projects, especially those involving collaborations between CVRI faculty that help advance our mission of deeper collaboration between clinicians and basic scientists.
- Mark Rabbat, MD, FACC, FAHA, Cardiology, Demetri Doukas, DO, Cardiology, Sorcha Allen, MD, Cardiology & Jessica Marot, MD, Internal Medicine
- Gregory Aubert, MD, PhD, Cardiology, Cell and Molecular Physiology & Adinarayana Kunamneni, PhD, Dept of Medicine
- Lucas Chan, MD, Internal Medicine & Amir Darki, MD, Cardiology
- Joshua Newman, MD, Cardiology, Jeanine Walenga, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery & Amir Darki, MD, Cardiology
- Debra Hoppensteadt, PhD, Pathology, Mushabbar Syed, MD, Cardiology, Vinod Bansal, MD, Nephrology, Maria Latz, MD, Internal Medicine & Verghese Mathew, MD, Cardiology
- Adinarayana Kunamneni, PhD, Dept. of Medicine & Virginie Aubert, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology
- Nallely Mora, MD, MPH, Public Health Sciences & Amy Luke, PhD, Public Health Sciences
- Joshua Newman, MD, Cardiology, Jeanine Walenga, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery & Eugenia Raichlin, MD, Cardiology
- Joshua Newman, MD, Cardiology, Max Liebo, MD, Cardiology, Eugenia Raichlin, MD, Cardiology & Gregory Aubert, MD, PhD, Cardiology, Cell and Molecular Physiology
- Mingxi Dennis Yu, MD, Cardiology, Eugenia Raichlin, MD, Cardiology & Gregory Aubert, MD, PhD, Cardiology, Cell and Molecular Physiology
- Aleksey V. Zima, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology
James and Carolyn Beck equipment grant
This endowment provides funding for CVRI equipment that will benefit multiple faculty members and collaborative projects.
- Walter Jeske, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Jeanine Walenga, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Debra Hoppensteadt, PhD, Pathology, Omer Iqbal, MD, Pathology, Jawed Fareed, PhD, Pathology, Mushabbar Syed, MD, Cardiology, Simon Kaja, PhD, Pharmacology, Wiicki Vigneswaran, MD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery & Mamdouh Bakhos, MD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
- Patrick Oakes, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology & Jordan Beach, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology
Patrick Scanlon Collaborative Grants Award
This mechanism is for larger collaborations, particularly those between clinical faculty and basic scientists, which are larger in scope than pilot projects and can likely result in a published manuscript.
- Erika Piedras-Rentería, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology, Vikram Prabhu, MD, Neurological Surgery & Kevin Barton, MD, Hematology/Oncology: "Role of voltage-gated ion channels in proliferation and in meningioma-neuron hetero-synapse formation, and as targets for interlaced therapy."
- Jeanine Walenga, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, R. Anthony Perez-Tamayo, MD, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Walter Jeske, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Issa Rezek, MD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Kathryn Swain, M4 & Oh Jin Kwon, M2: "Identifying Platelet Activation Mechanisms in Aortic Dissection"
2018-2019 Minigrant Awardees
CVRI Student Travel Awards
These awards support Ph.D. students & M.D. students/fellows to travel to scientific conferences, especially when they are a presenting author.
- Duwa Alebdy
- Raiza Bonomo
- Jack Bontekoe
- Lucas Burke, M.D.
- Candice Choo-Kang
- Demetrios Doukas, D.O.
- Chaitanya Gavini, Ph.D.
- Chun Kim
- Nathan McClane
- Roman Nikolaienko, Ph.D.
- Maria Papadaki, Ph.D.
- Melissa Quintanilla
- Fakiha Siddiqui
James DePauw grants for pilot projects
The DePauw grants support small pilot research projects, especially those involving collaborations between CVRI faculty that help advance our mission of deeper collaboration between clinicians and basic scientists.
- Yevgeniy Brailovsky, DO, Cardiology, Debra Hoppensteadt, PhD, Pathology, and Amir Darki, MD, Cardiology
- Demetrio Doukas, DO and Alain Heroux, MD, Cardiology
- Walter Jeske, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Jonathan Muraskas, MD, Pediatric Neonatology, Phillip DeChristopher, MD, PhD, Pathology, and Samuel Levin, MD, Neonatology
- Ivana Kuo, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology and Susan Uprichard, PhD, Hepatology
- Jeanine Walenga, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Joshua Newman, MD, Eugenia Raichlin, MD, Zeeshan Hussain, MD, Eugene Brailovsky, MD, Max Liebo, MD, Cardiology, Esther Cheng, MD, Otolaryngology and Jawed Fareed, PhD, Pathology
James and Carolyn Beck equipment grant
This endowment provides funding for CVRI equipment that will benefit multiple faculty members and collaborative projects.
- Ivana Kuo, PhD, and Quan Cao, MD, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology
- Karie Scrogin, PhD, Pharmacology
Patrick Scanlon Collaborative Grants Award
This mechanism is for larger collaborations, particularly those between clinical faculty and basic scientists, which are larger in scope than pilot projects and can likely result in a published manuscript.
- Virginie Aubert, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology, Lara Dugas, PhD, MPH, Public Health Sciences and Anand V. Germanwala, MD, Neurological Surgery: “Role of microbiota metabolites in obesity-‐induced neuropathy.”
- Haseeb Ilias Basha, MD, Cardiology, Katherine Knight, PhD, Microbiology, Maria Picken MD, PhD, Pathology and Periannan Sethupathi, MD, Microbiology: "Role of Bacillus subtilis derived Exopolysaccharide (EPS) in preventing acute rejection following Heart Transplantation"
- Omer Iqbal, MD, Pathology, Walter Jeske, PhD, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Trent Reed, MD, Emergency Medicine, Yevgeniy Brailovsky, DO, Verghese Mathew, MD, Amir Darki, MD, Cardiology and Jawed Fareed, PhD, Pathology: “Endothelial dysfunction may be linked to peroxynitrite in acute pulmonary embolism.”
- Erika Piedras-Rentería, PhD, Cell and Molecular Physiology and Vikram Prabhu, MD, Neurological Surgery: “Assessment of glioma, glioblastoma and meningioma proliferation and its interruption by targeting selective key proteins involved in proliferation.”