Getting the Grant

Getting the Grant: Meet the Team

By: Jane Coffey, Jason Yunk and Annmarie Thomas (as pictured to the right)

Abstract The University of Michigan Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology (MIP) is consistently ranked as one of the top basic science departments in the United States. For fiscal year 2019, MIP was ranked 2nd in the U.S in NIH funding with 72 awarded grants translating to over $22 million in funding. MIP is full of passionate, worldclass scientists seeking fundamental knowledge for greater advancement of human health. A crucial element of our scientists’ success is the pre-award grants team. With approximately 120 proposals submitted annually, they’re an essential component of both getting the grant submitted on time and accurately meeting all UM and Sponsor requirements to increase the chance for success.

Senior/Key Personnel Jane: I have been working at UM for over 25 years, with the majority of that time in research administration. Pre-award is never dull; policies and procedures are constantly changing, and so are the players. The best part of the job is working with so many different types of people from grad students to seasoned faculty. Each brings their own style to the proposal and, when time allows, I enjoy reading to get an inside look at the science being done in the labs.

Annmarie: I have been a grants administrator for 13 years and the pre-award responsibilities have always been the best part of working in research administration. It is a delightful feeling to see grant proposals that I assisted the faculty and fellows with get awarded. This is a feeling that has not left me over the years in my career, and I am very proud to be a grants administrator with Physiology. You meet so many outstanding researchers with brilliant ideas, and seeing this all come together in the proposals to share with others is remarkable. In the years ahead, my goal is to continue to assist our researchers and to gain a greater appreciation for my team and Department.

Jason: I am relatively new to research administration, having been in the role for three years. By far, the most rewarding part of my job is seeing our scientists get funded. Whether it’s

an R01 or F31, there is deep satisfaction knowing you were able to contribute to that award. It’s a pleasure to work for Physiology, and to be surrounded by passionate researchers whose aim is to make this world a better place.

Specific Aims Our commitment is to serve faculty and ensure our researchers are in the best possible position to secure funding. Some of the primary ways we help are by reviewing Funding Opportunity Announcements, providing checklists of all components and deadlines, building budgets, proofreading & processing proposals, submitting Just in Time requests, Research Performance Progress Report, and essentially any other request. Our aim is to be a one-stop shop to all things research.

We are here to help. From multi-center training grants to independent foundations, we submit a variety of proposals. Our scope of knowledge is wide and we love to see researchers succeed. The pre-award team is committed to excellence and look forward to continuing our successes together.

Life After 20 Years As Physiology Chair: A Personal Journey

By John Williams Professor Emeritus, Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Icame to the University of Michigan in 1987 as Chair of the Department of Physiology and served close to 21 years. I enjoyed the challenge and effort of building the department, recruiting new faculty, continuing an active research program on the exocrine pancreas and teaching physiology. Ultimately we made the transition from classical physiology to more of a focus on cellular and molecular mechanisms using transgenic animals and changed the name of the department to Molecular & Integrative Physiology. After 18 years I felt that the department needed new leadership asked the Dean to step down. This led to a period of remodeling to prepare modern laboratories for a new Chair and their recruits. Also at this time, I began to think of what I would do with my extra time after serving as Chair, as I had no desire to retire.

Three ideas for new directions occurred and I pursued all three. The first was to get more involved in medical education at the University of Michigan and in Africa. The second was to start a new form of electronic publication, an online knowledgebase covering the exocrine pancreas that became the Pancreapedia. The third direction, which matured later, was to become involved with addressing the oncoming climate crisis. All of this took place while maintaining an active research laboratory over the next decade. My interest in medical education in Africa arose at a time when our medical school was expanding its emphasis on improving teaching and learning. I had been teaching medical and graduate students for 40 years and felt I understood how it worked, which incidentally proved not to be completely true. My wife and life partner, Christa and I had been to Tanzania in 2006 and fell in love with the people and the country. She joined a friend in helping to raise money and provide personal support to students, often orphans, who would not be able to continue their education without support for school fees in Kenya and Tanzania. Much of her success has been from the person-to-person involvement. As a result, I was ready when Joe Kolars who leads the Global Health Program asked me to help with a new program to send PIBS graduate students to teach basic science in new medical schools in Ethiopia. Lori Isom, the PIBS Director at the time was moving on to become the Chair of Pharmacology so I stepped in as the faculty lead and academic resource person when we sent 12 students to teach for several months in three new medical schools largely staffed by new medical doctors who were fulfilling their national service requirement. Although we also sent a smaller group a year later, the obstacles were greater than expected. Our students had a great experience and gained confidence in their teaching abilities but had a relatively small effect on solving the overall problems of establishing new schools outside of major population centers. While in Ethiopia, I met the academic and government leaders and learned about medical education at St. Paul’s Millenium Medical School and the University of Addis Ababa. This led to a subsequent

program where five junior basic science faculty from the two schools came to Michigan for six months supported by the Ministry of Health to work on their PhD degrees. Although the time was predictably too short, I believe all the students benefitted from their experience that would help them with their careers. Although I considered spending an extended time in Ethiopia, I had other work and family issues that required staying in Michigan.

The second area I pursued was the Pancreapedia. The idea for an on-line open access knowledge base on the exocrine pancreas arose at a discussion with colleagues at the Gordon Conference on Exocrine Glands about ten years ago. I drew up an ambitious model for content and got help as a group class project from graduate students in the School of Information to design a prototype using Drupal as a content management system. I wrote some entries and was able to get the University Library to invest in programming an improved and more robust site. I recruited an international team of Editors and Editorial Board members and the American Pancreatic Association agreed to provide financial support for hiring a student as Content Manager. I handle the solicitation and review of manuscripts as well as copy editing. Later, I obtained a grant from the National Library of Medicine. You can see the result at www.pancreapedia. com. Two years ago we published a 600-page reference book on Pancreatitis, which is free online although you can buy a paper copy from Amazon which uses print on demand. The site has widespread use by younger scientists or individuals new to the pancreas field, particularly for its Methods section. The current challenge is to ensure its continuation after my efforts end, most likely by having a publishing company with a pancreas journal take it over.

My third area of interest deals with the looming climate crisis. I have always been an outdoors person and take pleasure and have support from observing the natural world. However, I grew more aware of anthropogenic climate change and at one point about eight years ago flying back from our annual summer trip to Washington state, I was meditating on my personal responsibility for greenhouse as production. Upon returning to Michigan I started reading and learning how to quantitate my carbon footprint. I initiated a study group at Ann Arbor Friends Meeting of individuals concerned about climate change. This led to a worksheet for individuals to calculate their carbon footprint and we decided to start a voluntary carbon tax with the collected funds to help others use renewable energy. I also started to give talks and organize book readings. In the spring of 2019, I realized I could contribute my passion, knowledge and organizational skills to help larger groups such as the City of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. I closely followed the development of the University of Michigans’s President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality and joined a local university group that became Voices for Carbon Neutrality whose mission is to help push and guide the urgency of University of Michigans’s efforts. As part of this effort, I helped a group of our medical students to get together as an organized Climate group and am now working similarly with graduate students and postdocs. When the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality chose to set up eight Internal Action Teams to delve deeply into specific areas, I volunteered and was chosen as Co-Faculty Lead for the team working on University Travel. We recruited six graduate and undergraduate students from diverse areas who are currently quantitating the scope, mode and carbon footprint of the University of Michigan travel. We expect to provide recommendations on how to reduce travel, replace some with other forms of communications and when possible reduce the travel footprint. Finally, we are investigating how offsets could be used to mitigate the effects of travel so that travelers and their fund source could cover the full cost of the effects of the travel on the climate.

On January 1, 2020, my title changed to Emeritus Professor of Physiology. However, I have so much useful work still going on that I continue with the daily pursuit of my professional passions. I am thankful to our department for allowing me to keep my office and the Medical School for allowing me to continue to teach Gastrointestinal science. I hope to continue this and my other projects along with longer but fewer trips to Washington to enjoy our beach house on Samish Island just south of Bellingham.