4 Projects Awarded Seed Grant Funds

Four projects have been awarded seed grant funds as part of the Department's Seed Grant Program. Each project was awarded $50,000. The winning projects are:

In the research category:

“Identifying Barriers to High-Quality Colorectal Cancer Care for Hispanic Californians” (JEDI grant)
- Aaron Dawes, MD PhD, General Surgery

“Administering bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells after liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma to reduce exposure to calcineurin inhibitors and cancer recurrence: A phase I clinical trial”
-Kazunari Sasaki, MD, Abdominal Transplantation

In the innovation category:

“Development of a novel continuous breath test for early detection of necrotizing enterocolitis”
- James Wall, MD, MA , Pediatric Surgery, Biodesign

“Development and testing of an AI-enabled mobile application to predict post-operative outcomes using activity data”
- Elsie Ross, MD, MSc, Vascular Surgery

This is the fourth round of seed grant funds distributed by the department since the program's inception in 2018. Winners of 2021 Seed Grant Funds will present updates at Department Grand Rounds starting in April.