Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PDs and PIs) holding specific types of National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants may be eligible for administrative supplement funding (see the full program announcement) to improve the diversity of the research workforce by recruiting and supporting students, postdoctorates, and eligible investigators from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups that have been shown to be underrepresented in health-related research. This supplement opportunity is also available to PDs/PIs of research grants who are or become disabled and need additional support to accommodate their disability in order to continue to work on the research project. Administrative supplements must support work within the scope of the original project.
This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is designed specifically for applicants proposing research that does not involve leading an independent clinical trial, a clinical trial feasibility study, or an ancillary clinical trial. Applicants to this FOA are permitted to propose research experience in a clinical trial led by a mentor or co-mentor. This FOA is designed to provide support for research experiences for individuals from diverse backgrounds throughout the continuum from high school to the faculty level. The proposed research experience must be an integral part of the approved, ongoing research of the parent award, and it must have the potential to contribute significantly to the research career development of the candidate.
Detailed eligibility criteria are described in the full program announcement. Also see the Notice of NIH’s Interest in Diversity (November 22, 2019).
For application guidance and additional information on administrative supplements to promote diversity in NIDCD-supported research, please contact Alberto Rivera-Rentas.
Institution: New York University
Career Level: Postdoctoral
Research Summary: People with hearing loss exert additional mental effort to understand speech (i.e., more listening effort), and the resulting cognitive fatigue can have long-term negative consequences for quality of life. The neural mechanisms underlying listening effort—and how hearing loss alters this mechanism—are uncertain. I am working towards identifying (in an animal model) a cortical network that supports effortful listening during performance on an auditory perceptual task. I also aim to explore how hearing loss in adolescence disrupts this cortical mechanism. Results from these experiments will provide a better mechanistic understanding of listening effort and may facilitate more effective strategies for intervention and remediation of hearing-loss-induced cognitive deficits.
Institution: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Career Level: Postbaccalaureate
Research Summary: After receiving my B.A. in neuroscience from Boston University, I joined the Chaudhari lab at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. We focus on the gustatory sensory pathway which, at its core, involves the first detection of taste stimuli at the taste bud cells and subsequent sensory transmission by way of the geniculate ganglion neurons to the central nervous system. Our lab studies these neurons at the molecular, anatomical, and functional levels. My diversity supplement research project looks at how a new capsid of the adeno-associated virus (AAV) can be used to label peripheral sensory ganglion neurons with fluorescent markers, including in a Cre-dependent fashion to label selective neuronal cell types. We used the method to view real-time physiological activity of the gustatory pathway. This work is currently under review for publication.
Institution: New York University
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: Better understanding the sensory skill development that underlies speech development can help inform best practices in the field of speech-language pathology. Specifically, we are currently studying speech sound perception and oral somatosensory acuity. As a practicing speech-language pathologist, I am currently obtaining, analyzing, and comparing data on development of these two skills in typically developing children and in children with speech sound disorders. This information will be used to tailor individual speech treatments for children in the future.
Institution: Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: I am a speech-language pathologist and Ph.D. student in rehabilitation sciences at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. My research interests are focused on stroke assessment and recovery. This includes examining the appropriateness of commonly utilized clinical assessment practices for historically marginalized populations that are increasingly burdened by poor health outcomes. Additionally, I am interested in disorders affecting stroke populations with comorbid motor deficits, particularly acquired apraxia of speech (AOS). AOS is a unique motor speech disorder that is often caused by stroke. Existing motor learning theories suggest that impairment in AOS arises from impaired feedforward commands which leads to an over-reliance on feedback. My research aims to clarify the role auditory feedback plays in spoken language production in people with aphasia only, and those with concomitant AOS.
Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: I work in the Gaudry lab at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences (NACS) Program, where we have discovered that the Drosophila 5-HT7 receptor (5- HT7R) is associated with detection of low levels of basal 5-HT in the first olfactory relay center, the antennal lobe (AL). We have also found that signaling in this receptor mediates a subtractive form of gain control that leaves the AL less sensitive to odors. I perform large-scale behavioral assays to examine the role of 5-HT7R-expressing local interneurons in courtship, aggression, and aggregation using image processing and machine learning. This research will link serotonergic transmission and neuromodulation with sensory perception and behavior.
Institution: Boston University
Career Level: Postdoctoral
Research Summary: My work explores how variations in language modality and exposure can shape language acquisition and use. My research programs have included studying how cochlear implantation at an early age might modulate executive function in adulthood; exploring the neural bases of tactile sign language processing in DeafBlind adults; and currently, studying how the quality of language input from hearing, non-native, signing parents might impact vocabulary acquisition in deaf children. With this diversity supplement award, I aim to identify how hearing parents, as new American Sign Language (ASL) learners, can promote healthy ASL acquisition in their deaf children. This is incredibly important because an overwhelming majority of deaf children in America are born to hearing parents who often do not already know ASL and might even be discouraged from learning it alongside their deaf children.
Institution: University of Washington
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: My Ph.D. training at the Stone Lab in the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center, University of Washington, concentrates on understanding the underlying mechanisms of the inner ear, with a focus on the vestibular sensory systems (the balance organs). My research applies genetics and cellular biology to gain insights into the development and regenerative capacities of the vestibular periphery. Understanding development helps me to probe what is required to regenerate these cells and possibly restore function of the system when it fails or degenerates. My Diversity Supplement research project focuses on deleting genes using CreER systems to study ways to promote regeneration of higher numbers and additional subtypes of hair cells. Sensorineural vestibular disorders affect a wide range of people and are an unfortunate side effect of some pharmaceuticals. I am hopeful that the research I am doing will identify new ways to treat vestibular disorders and guide inner ear research to new places.
Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Diversity Scholar); now at the University of California, Berkeley
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: Developing devices that can sense, compute, and actuate on the body to cure diseases has always been fascinating to me—seeing how they tangibly help people. Because of this interest, at MIT as an undergrad and master’s degree student, I developed an implantable microphone to enable fully-implantable assistive hearing devices. This project was motivated by the limitations external assistive hearing devices place on the user. Continuing in this vein of research, I have started my Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, where I am developing metamaterial self-assembly methods. This is a fundamental building block in creating new interfaces to the body with materials which can’t exist in nature. With this fabrication method, I hope to develop uniquely-addressable magnetoelectric microrobots that can sense and actuate upon single neurons non-invasively.
Institution: Arizona State University
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: My research interest involves understanding the neural mechanisms of speech production and speech disorders (e.g., stuttering and apraxia of speech). I work in the Speech and Brain Research Laboratory at Arizona State University. In the proposed project in this supplement, I will examine (1) how the brain prepares the auditory and somatosensory systems during speech planning, and (2) whether sensory preparation during speech is related to speech production or perception accuracy. Findings from this project will serve as a foundation for developing personalized neural treatments for speech disorders. By completing this project, I will gain in-depth experience with electrophysiological signal recording and somatosensory stimulation techniques. Additionally, this project will provide me with the necessary training and preliminary data to apply for an NIH F31 fellowship application.
Institution: MGH Institute of Health Professions and Harvard University
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: My research interests are centered broadly on child language development and disorders. As a Harvard University Ph.D. student, my research through the MGH Institute of Health Professions focuses on studying developmental language disorder (DLD), a disorder that affects understanding and using language. More specifically, my work aims to understand and improve screening and identification of DLD within educational and clinical settings. The goal of my diversity supplement project is to streamline the process of taking and analyzing language samples, which provide rich information for screening for and diagnosing DLD.
Institution: University of Colorado Boulder
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: My research project is being conducted in the Children's Auditory Perception Laboratory, where current research focuses on improving hearing health care for children who have developmental disabilities. My project is focused on isolating factors that affect behavioral threshold estimates in young children who have developmental disabilities. Our long-term goal is to improve behavioral methods for evaluating hearing in children with developmental disabilities, ensuring timely identification of hearing loss in this population.
Institution: Harvard Medical School
Career Level: Postbaccalaureate
Research Summary: I am studying the function of the Ms4a receptors in cell signaling. The Ms4a genes serve as receptors for fatty acids in two cell types: olfactory sensory neurons and microglia. To better understand how Ms4a activity affects cell function, I am currently exploring cell signaling pathways downstream of the Ms4as and building assays that ultimately should allow us to identify new ligands for the Ms4as. Our work should shed new light on the function of these mysterious receptors in both the nose and brain.
Institution: University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
Career Level: Research laboratory technician, senior
Research Summary: I graduated with B.S. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Michigan, and did my M.Sc. research in the Clowney lab. As an M.Sc. student and now research assistant, I am studying the developmental events that wire the learning and memory center of the insect brain.
Institution: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Career Level: Predoctoral medical student
Research Summary: Bitter taste receptors were originally defined based on their role in bitter taste, but they are also expressed in other tissues throughout the body, including the airway and oral epithelium. These receptors regulate a diverse array of cellular responses including innate immunity, cell proliferation, and metabolism. I am studying how bitter taste receptors regulate epithelial cell function with a goal of identifying novel signaling pathways that intersect with these receptors.
Institution: Northwestern University
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: I graduated with a B.A. in June 2021 and am planning to pursue a Ph.D. in fall 2023 with the goal of developing early interventions to reduce socioeconomic disparities in children’s academic achievement. My diversity supplement project involves researching language processing in late-talking, English-Spanish bilingual toddlers to improve the early identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) and thus reduce long-term academic, social, and economic impacts on individuals. Most current measures cannot distinguish between delays in accumulated language knowledge and impairments in language learning/processing, the latter being characteristic of DLD. Our longitudinal study will use eye-tracking to compare word recognition and novel word learning for typically developing and late-talking bilingual children at 24 and 30 months to evaluate whether language processing is better at predicting lexical development than vocabulary measures.
Institution: Ohio State University
Career Level: New/junior investigator
Research Summary: The current opioid epidemic and COVID pandemic has resulted in a sharp increase in grandparents raising grandchildren, also known as grandfamilies. My research focuses on understanding the strengths and challenges of grandfamilies in order to create and deliver interventions that build resilience by encouraging self-care, communication, resourcefulness, and empowerment. I am also interested in culturally grounded research and the development of culturally grounded measures and interventions. Some current projects include an assessment of the human service landscape in central Ohio as it relates to grandfamilies; the implementation of a self-care program for grandparents raising grandchildren and for their grandchildren between the ages of 9 and 12; and identifying risk factors for delayed language development in children from low-income families.
Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: I am working towards a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience with a focus on auditory neuroscience. My current research project investigates the relationship between auditory selective attention and auditory category learning. We hypothesize that the process of auditory category learning leans on auditory selective attention to direct focus to features of sounds that are most diagnostic of their category membership, making sound categorization more efficient and accurate. This has implications for how humans learn the sounds of a language, as in second-language acquisition. My ultimate research goals are to discover the ways we can take advantage of auditory selective attention to better learn second-language auditory categories to make language learning easier for adults.
Institution: MEMStim, LLC
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: My current research project involves the manufacture of cochlear implants using 3D printing technology. The existing manufacturing process for cochlear implants requires hand assembling of bundled micro-scale electrode arrays, which is expensive and labor-intensive. A printing manufacturing process allows for flexibility in the design and structure of electrodes. My work at MEMStim involves the optimization of the manufacturing process, and the development of cochlear implants that can be utilized in animal studies.
Institution: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Career Level: Postbaccalaureate
Research Summary: Laryngotracheal stenosis (LTS) is a rare disease of the upper airways characterized by progressive extrathoracic obstruction leading to devastating dyspnea. Management is primarily surgical and aims at maintaining airway patency. Although adjuvant therapies are employed, they have shown inconsistent efficacy. The lack of effective medical therapy is due, in part, to a limited understanding of the pathogenesis of LTS. My work focuses on understanding the underlying mechanism responsible for initiating and propagating fibrosis in the proximal airway. Specifically, we study the immune, fibroblast, and epithelial profile of LTS patients using advanced technologies such as flow cytometry, single cell sequencing, and multiplex immunofluorescence. My current project investigates the spatial localization of the pathological fibroblast population in the scar tissue of LTS patients using multispectral immunofluorescence.
Institution: New York University
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: My doctoral research seeks to determine how social signals interact with auditory cortical circuitry to affect sound encoding. Due to the prevalence of social interaction in daily lives of animals in nature, the striking effect the act of social interaction has on brain function, and the multitude of non-sensory signals present in the auditory cortex, this research has the potential to reveal new information about the basic function of the auditory cortex under ethologically relevant conditions. These results will guide future studies in other sensory systems which may receive input from brain areas involved in social interaction, and will provide a framework to understand how communication disorders may be affected by neural dynamics.
Institution: University of California Merced and Monell Chemical Senses Center
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: Chemosensory perception is highly variable among both individuals and populations. From a public health perspective, I explore how genetics, environment, and disease shape person-to-person variability in taste and smell. My current work is about the effect of inborn genotype on human bitter perception, how air pollution affects the sense of smell, and the prevalence of taste and smell loss as defining symptoms of COVID-19.
Institution: Washington University in St. Louis
Career Level: Postbaccalaureate
Research Summary: Although many studies have indicated that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for tinnitus, which is characterized by ringing in the ears, far fewer have considered the ways in which various demographics and populations might view that treatment. Our research is attempting to focus on one demographic, veterans, to understand how CBT for tinnitus is perceived and can be improved to meet the needs of that population. Tinnitus is a common service-related health complaint among veterans and can be complicated by a variety of co-occurring issues including traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. It is our hope that by assessing the acceptability of CBT for tinnitus among veterans and non-veterans, we can begin to identify factors that can be changed to better accommodate this unique population’s needs.
Institution: Northwestern University
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: I am a research clinician in the Early Intervention Research Group (EIRG) at Northwestern University. Since 2019, I’ve worked as an interventionist and assessor on several federally funded treatment efficacy studies under the direction of Dr. Megan Roberts. Our current research projects aim to support and enhance the early development of infants and toddlers with hearing loss, autism, and/or developmental language disorder.
As both a clinical researcher and licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP), I enjoy empowering caregivers as they support their child’s language, communication, and play development! Additionally, I am passionate about promoting and increasing access to early childhood services—especially in marginalized, vulnerable, and/or underserved communities.
Institution: Duquesne University
Career Level: New/junior investigator
Research Summary: I am a person who stutters, a speech-language pathologist, and an assistant professor at Duquesne University. My research interests include better understanding and predicting individual differences in the experience of stuttering (stammering), understanding how adverse impacts related to the condition develop, and determining how moments of stuttering occur in speech. I am currently investigating the role cognitive-affective processes play in speech production and language formulation processes in stuttering and non-clinical populations. I also practice clinically and am actively involved in clinical education regarding stuttering assessment and treatment.
Institution: University of Florida
Career Level: Predoctoral
Research Summary: For my current predoctoral ventures, I am a graduate research assistant in the labs of Dr. Jeremy McIntyre and Dr. Karina Alvina in the department of neuroscience at the University of Florida. My current research project focuses on the modulating role of the neuropeptide melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) in the olfactory bulb. With the use of electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry, and behavioral studies, I will investigate the contributions of this hypothalamic neuropeptide in modulating responses to olfactory stimuli.
Institution: Vanderbilt University
Career Level: Postdoctoral
Research Summary: My program of research examines language and literacy in individuals with diverse linguistic backgrounds. Most theoretical models of language and literacy acquisition are largely based on monolingual and hearing populations. Our understanding of neurodevelopment is even more limited, and models do not adequately represent the variability of different populations of learners. This has direct implications for the identification and intervention of reading difficulties and the education of linguistically diverse students. To better inform our understanding, I am motivated to examine children’s cross-linguistic experiences and their influences on brain development for language and reading acquisition. Throughout my research career, I aim to study the reciprocal relations bridging these areas of interest in hearing, deaf, and hard-of-hearing children, and in children with language and reading difficulties.