Pilot Grants – Penn Epigenetics

At-Large Pilot Project Grant

The Penn Epigenetics Program Institute announces a request for applications of a Pilot Project Grant for faculty to conduct epigenetics-related research projects. A broad spectrum of proposal topics will be considered, including those that involve fundamental studies in epigenetics as well as more applied or disease oriented studies that utilize epigenetics as a central component of the research.

Award Information:

Applications are currently being accepted.
Applications must be received by June 5, 2023 at 11:59pm EST to be eligible for consideration.
Late submissions will not be accepted.
The award period will be from July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024.

At-Large Pilot Grant RFA 2024

Past Pilot Grant Awardees Section

Past At-Large Pilot Grant Awardees

Year(s) Awarded	Investigator(s)	Title of Project	Publication(s)	Grant Submission(s)
2023	George Burslem, Ph.D. & Andrey Poleshko, Ph.D.	Unbiased Probe Discover for Epigenetics Reprogramming	N/A	N/A
2023	Wanding Zhou, Ph.D., 8 Rahul Kohli, M.D., Ph.D. & Marisa Bartolomei, Ph.D.	Comprehensive resolution of epigenome diversity using the ternary-code DNA modification	N/A	N/A
2023	Erica Korb, Ph.D. & George Burslem, Ph.D.	Developing tools to examine the role and regulation of histone crotonylation in the brain	N/A	N/A
2020	Brian Capell, M.D., Ph.D & Kathy Fange Liu, Ph.D.	Defining the m6A epitranscriptome in epithelial gene regulaLon, development, and carcinogenesis	N/A	N/A
2020	Roberto Bonasio, Ph.D. & Elizabeth Heller, Ph.D.	In search of the epigeneQc engram in planarians	N/A	N/A
2019 & 2020	Elizabeth Heller, Ph.D. & Zhaolan Zhou, Ph.D.	Application of a novel method for neuronal cell-type specific simultaneous transcriptome and epigenome profiling in vivo in mice	N/A	N/A
2019 & 2020	Junwei Shi, Ph.D.	Develop a Cas 12a-based genetic method to identify paired epigenetic dependencies in acute myeloid leukemia	N/A	N/A
2018 & 2019	Eric Joyce, Ph.D., Melike Lakadamyali, Ph.D. & Rajan Jain, M.D.	Inheritance of Lamin-associated domains and their role in maintaining cellular identity	N/A	N/A
2018 & 2019	Maya Capelson, Ph.D. & Eric Joyce, Ph.D.	Identifying regulators of nuclear gene positioning via a high-throughput imaging screen.	Alejandro Gozalo, Ashley Duke, Yemin Lan, Pau Pascual-Garcia, Jessica A. Talamas, Son Nguyen, Eric F. Joyce and Maya Capelson. Core components of the nuclear pore bind distinct states of chromatin and contribute to Polycomb repression. In review at Mol Cell	N/A
2017 & 2018	Hao Wu, Ph.D. & Rahul M. Kohli, M.D., Ph.D.	APOBEC-Coupled Epigenetic Sequencing	EK Schutsky, JE DeNizio, P Hu, MY Liu, CS Nabel, EB Fabyanic, Y Hwang, FD Bushman, H Wu, RM Kohli, Nondestructive, base-resolution sequencing of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine using a DNA deaminase. Nature Biotechnology, accepted on 24 May 2018.	N/A
2017 & 2018	Golnaz Vahedi, Ph.D. & Nancy A. Speck, Ph.D	Uncovering regulatory coordination during T cell development using single-cell epigenomics	N/A	Submitted to NIDDK in May 2018
2015 & 2017	Benjamin Garcia, Ph.D.	A novel mass spectrometry based platform for characterization of microRNA (miRNA) post-transcriptional modifications	N/A	N/A
2015 & 2017	Robert Babak Faryabi, Ph.D. & Warren S. Pear, M.D., Ph.D.	Interrogating the oncogenic enhancer landscape in B cell lymphoma	Notch-Regulated Enhancers in B-Cell Lymphoma Activate MYC and Potentiate B-Cell Receptor Signaling. Russell JH Ryan, Jelena Petrovic, Dylan Rausch, Caleb Lareau, Winston Lee, Laura Donohue, Amanda L Christie, Shawn Gillespie, Michael J Kluk, Valentina Nardi, Robert B Faryabi, Ephraim P Hochberg, David M Weinstock, Bradley E Bernstein, Jon C Aster, Warren S Pear. Blood Dec 2016.	1) Targeting the Notch:Myc axis in leukemia/lymphoma, NCI R01. Scored at 12th percentile (Nov 2016), current NCI payline is 10th percentile. 2) Oncogenic Notch Signaling P01 (submitted September 2016)
2015	Arjun Raj, Ph.D. & Roberto Bonasio, Ph.D.	CRISPR Drop-seq	N/A	N/A
2013 & 2014	Ben Black, Ph.D. & Michael Lampson, Ph.D.	Maintaining centromere identity in mammalian oocytes	N/A	N/A
2013 & 2014	Hua-Ying Fan, Ph.D.	Mechanisms of Transcription Memory Maintenance by the Notch Pathway Effector RBPJ	RBPJ, the major transcriptional effector of Notch signaling, remains associated with chromatin throughout mitosis, suggesting a role in mitotic bookmarking. Lake RJ, Tsai PF, Choi I, Won KJ, Fan HY. PLoS Genet. 2014 Mar 6;10(3):e1004204. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004204. eCollection 2014 Mar. Erratum in: PLoS Genet. 2016 Jul;12(7):e1006209. PMID:24603501	NIH/NIGMS 1R01GM114132-01 Title: Mechanistic basis for mitotic transcriptional memory
2013 & 2014	Maya Capelson, Ph.D. & Sara Cherry, Ph.D.	Defining Role of Nuclear Pore Proteins in Antiviral Gene Expression	Nup98 promotes antiviral gene expression to restrict RNA viral infection in Drosophila. Panda D, Pascual-Garcia P, Dunagin M, Tudor M, Hopkins KC, Xu J, Gold B, Raj A, Capelson M, Cherry S.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Sep 16;111(37):E3890-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1410087111. Epub 2014 Sep 2. PMID:25197089	N/A

Past Mass Spectrometry & Epigenetics Pilot Grant Awardees

Year(s) Awarded	Investigator(s)	Title of Project	Publication(s)
2020	Erica Korb, Ph.D.	Unique Properties of Histone Variant Proteins in the Brain	N/A
2019	Roger Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D. & Luca Busino, Ph.D.	Determine protein degradation at the Chromatin Double Strand Breaks	N/A
2018	Kathryn Wellen, Ph.D.	Diet and epigenetic regulation of liver metabolism	N/A
2017	Sarah E. Millar, Ph.D.	Identification of non-histone targets of Class I histone deacetylases in embryonic and adult epidermis and basal cell carcinoma	Zhu X, Leboeuf M, Liu F, Chen S, Olson EN, Morrisey EE, Dlugosz AA, Millar, SE. (2018). HDAC1 and HDAC2 regulate homeostasis and tumorigenesis of postnatal epidermis. Journal of Investigative Dermatology 138, S28

Past Chemical/Genetic Screening Epigenetics Institute Pilot Grant Awardees

Year Awarded	Investigator/s	Title of Project	Publications	Grant Submissions
2017	Irfan A. Asangani, Ph.D.	High throughput screening of FDA approved drugs with EZH2 inhibitor in prostate cancer cells

Past Epigenetics Spatial Transcriptomics Pilot Grant

Year Awarded	Investigator(s)	Title of Project	Publication(s)	Grant Submission(s)
2023	Doris Wagner	Stem cell termination during reproductive development in plants	N/A	N/A
2023	Sydney Shaffer	Spatiallt-resolved evolution of dysplasia in the esophagus	N/A	N/A