Winners will receive human biospecimens and support for pilot studies in Crohn’s Disease, diabetes, and pulmonary diseases

The National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) has announced the third cohort of winners of its Pilot Award Program: Yoko Ambrosini, DVM, MPVM, PhD, DACVIM; Erika D. Eggers, PhD.; My N. Helms, PhD; Ayshwarya Subramanian, PhD; and Sharven Taghavi, MD, MPH, MS, FACS, FCCP.

Launched in 2024, the Pilot Award Program is a component of NDRI’s NIH-supported Human Tissues and Organs for Research Resource (HTORR) program, which facilitates the collection of preliminary data necessary for an investigator to obtain subsequent funding. Over the course of two years, the awarded investigators will receive project-specific human biospecimen service to support the advancement of their scientific goals. All sample, preservation, pathology assessment, and shipping costs are covered by the award, as well as supplementary support to develop grant applications to the NIH Institute that supported their award. The awards are supported by several NIH institutes, including:

• The Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP)
• The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
• The National Eye Institute (NEI)
• The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
• The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)

“The Pilot Award Program was started to provide support for promising investigators, and this cycle’s honorees are doing incredibly exciting work,” said Thomas Bell, Ph.D., NDRI’s Chief Scientific Officer. “This program helps accelerate scientific advancements in studies addressing high priority human health needs by providing access to human biospecimens to more directly translate their research into real-world treatments and cures. We are proud to support this work.”

The Fall 2025 awardees are:

Yoko Ambrosini, DVM, MPVM, PhD, DACVIM | Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine | Washington State University of College of Veterinary Medicine

Dr. Ambrosini is studying Crohn’s Disease (CD), a major form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects more than two million Americans. In addition to the painful digestive symptoms patients face, nearly one-third also experience anxiety or depression, even when digestive symptoms are controlled. Dr. Ambrosini and her team are investigating this disturbance of the “gut–brain axis,” the communication pathway between the intestine and the brain, in order to guide the development of new therapies that target gut–brain communication, improving both digestive and mental health for patients with CD.

Erika D. Eggers, PhD | Professor, Physiology | University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a common complication of diabetes, with ~35% of people with diabetes developing DR. Previous work on humans with diabetes and diabetic animal models has shown that there are significant structural and functional changes in the diabetic retina before the development of DR. Dr. Eggers and her team are working to determine which specific cell types in the retina are damaged in diabetes and if preventing these early diabetic changes could prevent later changes that result in sight-threatening DR. To progress studies into a translational treatment, the team is moving to human tissue to correlate what has been observed in animal models.

My N. Helms, Ph.D. | Associate Professor, Internal Medicine | University of Utah School of Medicine

Air pollution contributed to more than eight million deaths worldwide in 2021, and a major component of that pollution is fine particulate matter, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Dr. Helms is working to improve our understanding of how these compounds injure the lung epithelium and why some exposures lead to irreversible scarring and fibrosis. Her research involves studying the lungs’ aryl hydrocarbon receptor (ahR), which turns on genes that protect and repair injured tissues, with the goals of revealing new therapeutic targets to prevent or reverse fibrotic lung disease.

Ayshwarya Subramanian, PhD | Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology and Genetics | Cornell University

Dr. Subramanian researches diabetic kidney disease (DKD), the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, affecting 30% to 50% of people with diabetes. Current therapies can slow but not prevent kidney decline, leaving many patients at risk for dialysis or transplantation. Her project investigates a promising but underexplored path: harnessing the body’s own immune cells; specifically, a cell type called “macrophages”, to counter harmful inflammation and protect kidney tissue.

Sharven Taghavi, MD, MPH, MS, FACS, FCCP | Associate Professor, Division Chief of Trauma, Acute Care Surgery, & Surgical Critical Care | Tulane University School of Medicine

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening condition that affects nearly 200,000 people in the U.S. each year, often occurring after trauma, infection, or critical illness. Despite major advances in supportive care, there are still no treatments that directly target the root causes of ARDS. Dr. Taghavi’s research will study the Interleukin-22 (IL-22) protein and if it can be used as a biomarker to track ARDS or even as a future treatment target. This translational work could help move the field closer to developing targeted treatments for ARDS.

Applications for the next round of awards are currently open, with the next cohort being announced in Summer 2026. For more information or to apply, visit https://ndriresource.org/pilot-award-program/.

About the Pilot Award Program:

Primary diseased and control human tissue samples are a vital resource for starting new programs focusing on human disease research, but they can be both expensive and difficult for investigators to obtain, especially before securing a grant. The Human Tissues and Organs for Research Resource Pilot Award Program (PAP) seeks to enable the completion of pilot studies necessary for an investigator to obtain subsequent funding. These 2-year awards provide up to 10 biological samples per awarded investigator, covering all costs associated with obtaining the biospecimens, including tissue preservation reagents and shipping costs. Pilot Award Program awardees will also receive additional technical support for tissue procurement protocol design to help bolster rigor and reproducibility in their experimental data and analysis.

Importantly, as this Pilot Award is intended to generate the preliminary data necessary for an investigator to obtain subsequent funding, a stipulation of this award is that the data generated through the completed Pilot Award study is expected to be used in at least one subsequent grant application to at least one of the following NIH Institutes by the end of the 2-year project period: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Eye Institute (NEI), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), or the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP).