Pilot Grant Recipients - Round #147 Georgia CTSA BERD (6/2026 and 7/2026)

4 awards funded

  • Developing NLP-Based Neighborhood Housing Measures to Advance Clinical and Translational Research ($20,000)

    • PI: Christine Ekenga, PhD, MPH, Rollins Assistant Professor, Departments of Environmental Health and Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

    • Co-PI: Ali Emami, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Emory University

  • A Novel Privacy-Preserving Neighborhood Exposome Linkage Method for Child Psychopathology Research ($20,000)

    • PI: Benson Ku, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine

    • Co-PI: Patrick Kastner, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, College of Design, Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Developing a Scalable and interpretable machine learning-powered risk model to evaluate risk factors for interhospital transfer and early mortality after interhospital transfer among older patients in Georgia ($20,000)

    • PI: Rameshbabu Manyam, PhD, MS, Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University

    • Rachel Hadler, MD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Palliative Medicine, Division of Critical Care, Department of Anesthesiology, Emory University School of Medicine; Attending Physician, Palliative Care Service, Division of Geriatrics and Extended Care, Atlanta VA Medical Center

    • Sara Turbow, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine

  • Overcoming Access Barriers to Curative Cancer Care: A Geospatial and Economic Modeling Framework for CAR-T Therapy in Georgia ($20,000)

    • PI: Lorenzo Villa Zapata, PharmD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical and Administrative Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, University of Georgia

    • Lan Mu, MA, PhD, Professor and GIScience Certificate Program Director, University of Georgia

    • Xin Hu, MSPH, PhD, Assistant Professor, Emory University

    • Mohammed Zuber, PharmD, Doctoral Candidate, University of Georgia

    • Shaimaa Elshafie, MSc, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Emory University