Mark Underwood, a professor and Chief of Neonatology at the UC Davis Children's Hospital, has received a grant to investigate the inMark Underwood, a professor and Chief of Neonatology at the UC Davis Children's Hospital, has received a grant to investigate the infant fecal shedding of SARS-CoV2fant fecal shedding of SARS-CoV2 — Mark Underwood, a professor and Chief of Neonatology at the UC Davis Children's Hospital, has received a grant to investigate the infant fecal shedding of SARS-CoV2. (UC Regents photo)

Final Round of Competitive Grants Awarded to Fight COVID-19

April 21, 2020

In its second and final round of funding, the UC Davis Office of Research has awarded ten additional COVID-19 Research Accelerator Funding Track (CRAFT) grants to campus researchers who are developing projects in response to the pandemic. Funding is provided by the Office of Research and the Provost's office with matching support from schools and colleges.

The program was established to fund proposals with a strong scientific rationale and a clear path to have impact on the fight against COVID-19. The funds are intended to be spent within nine months of the award, reflecting the urgency of the proposed research work.

A total of 62 high-quality proposals were submitted for the second round of submissions on April 10. The proposals were peer-reviewed by a panel of UC Davis faculty within the relevant areas of expertise.

Round #2 Awards

Support Grants (up to $5,000)

Inhibition of viral RNA induced acute inflammatory IL-6 response in dendritic cells through activation of the Ah Receptor
Christoph Vogel, professor and researcher, Environmental Toxicology
Development of a high throughput multiplex blood-based antibody test for improved COVID19 diagnosis
Resmi Ravindran, project scientist, Pathology
Coronavirus-Specific Secretory IgA Antibodies from Hyper-Immunized Bovine Colostrum for Potential Therapy
Russel Hovey, professor, Animal Science
The “Immunity Passport:” New Forms of Biological Citizenship post-Covid 19
Cristiana Giordano, associate professor, Anthropology
Database Development for Longitudinal Symptom Tracking Covid-19
Erick Romero, Cardiovascular Medicine

Project Grants (up to $25,000)

Developing Environmental Monitoring of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the Built Environment at UC Davis
David Coil, project scientist, Genome Center
Jonathan Eisen, director, Microbiome Special Research Program
Clinical characteristics and predictors of severity among children with COVID-19
Nathan Kuppermann, professor and chair, Emergency Medicine
Rapid scale up of COVID-19 biologics in mammalian and plant systems
Priya Shah, assistant professor, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Infant Fecal Shedding of SARS-CoV2
Mark Underwood, professor and chief, Neonatology
Novel bisaminoquinoline derived self-delivered nanodrug against SARS-CoV-2
Yuanpei Li, associate professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine

Due to an exceptionally high volume of proposals received in the first two weeks of submissions, available funding has been exhausted with this second round of awards. The CRAFT Program will not be taking applications for a third round.

Contact