Grants in Focus: Supporting Bold Ideas in Nursing and Health Care

Susan Grinslade, clinical professor and associate director of UB’s Community Health Equity Research Institute, is a Co-I on a project funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The initiative has received $724,502 for the first year, with a total of $3.6 million expected over five years. The project aims to inspire and mentor a new generation of scientists from diverse backgrounds to conduct innovative research on health disparities. It will strengthen community-university partnerships to develop and test solutions for race-based health inequalities in Buffalo, while working with community partners to ensure the research leads to sustainable, system-level changes. Timothy Murphy, professor at UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, is the PI on the project.

Eunhee Park, assistant professor, PI, and Yu-Ping Chang, professor and associate dean for research, Co-I, are leading an R34 project “AI-Enhanced App-based Intervention for Adolescent E-Cigarette Cessation” with funding of $745,031 from the National Cancer Institute. This study aims to develop and test a scalable, AI-enhanced smartphone app for adolescent e-cigarette cessation. Designed for widespread implementation in schools, primary care clinics, and community settings, the intervention seeks to provide an accessible, effective tool for reducing e-cigarette use among adolescents.

Daniel Jackson Smith, assistant professor, has been awarded a K01 grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research, with funding of $487,230. Smith’s project, "High Health and Human Health: The Impacts of Heatwaves on Kidney Disease and Data Driven Solutions (The 4H Proposal)” aims to explore the link between heatwaves and kidney disease hospitalizations by examining environmental factors such as impervious land use, reduced green space and historical redlining. Using the knowledge to action theory, this research will be translated into community-based interventions, while also enhancing Smith’s expertise in reducing environmental health disparities caused by climate change.

Carleara Weiss, assistant professor, has received funding of $747,000 from the National Institute of Aging for her R00 project, “The benefits of nicotinamide riboside upon cognition and sleep in older Veterans.” Building on her earlier K99 work, Weiss will examine the relationship between NAD+ serum levels and biomarkers of neurodegeneration. The project aims to assess the effects of nicotinamide riboside supplementation on sleep and cognitive function in older adults and evaluate the use of biomarkers such as BDNF, Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio, p-tau, and NfL for tracking changes in sleep and cognition.