Pilot and Exploratory Studies Core

The goal of the Pilot and Exploratory Studies Core (PESC) is to provide support for studies that will develop and test new research ideas of high relevance to the Center’s overall theme: improve understanding of how metabolic factors, infections, and inflammation interact with age-related diseases and comorbidities to determine key health outcomes related to mobility and functional status. The PESC will thus fund pilot research studies over a wide range of disciplines, from basic, pre-clinical, clinical patient-oriented research through behavioral and health outcomes research. In order to receive high quality applications from a large pool of applicants, a campus-wide formal announcement is made annually through UM electronic newsletters and the UM Pepper Center e-mail listserv. We continually expand our distribution to ensure it reaches new and emerging research centers and initiatives across the campus. The awardees may have appointments at UM Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses as well as at neighboring institutions, such as Wayne State and Michigan State Universities. After a review of the Letter of Intent by the UM Pepper Center leadership, select participants are invited to submit a full pilot grant proposal. These are sent for external review from experts at other academic institutions. Select pilot grants are considered for co-funding by other aging focused centers at UM. We receive 10-11 applications on average each year and we fund between 4-8 meritorious applications every year. The PESC has made 187 pilot grants since its inception in 1989, mostly to early career investigators, many of whom have now established themselves as productive independent researchers in geriatric medicine and cognate disciplines. Four projects have been selected for 2025-2026 (Year 1 of the competing renewal), including: 1) Temporal Role of Inflammation in Huntington Disease; 2) Phenotyping Urinary Incontinence using Novel Diagnostic Methods; 3) Transitional Epithelial Regulation of Macrophage Metabolism and Differentiation in Pulmonary Fibrosis; 4) Investigating the Role of Cellular Senescence in HFpEF Pathophysiology. The PESC will be led by Drs. Lona Mody and Mary Janevic. They will work closely with the Research Education Core (REC) and all the Resource Cores (RCs) to support implementation of innovative and promising projects proposed by early career investigators increasing the likelihood that projects will lead to externally supported research in aging.