Professional Skills Program
K-Grants For Lunch!
Adonis Hijaz, MD
Associate Professor
Director, Center Female Pelvic Medicine & Surgery
Urology Institute, University Hospitals Case Medical Center
Case Western Reserve University
Tissue recovery in the pathophysiology
of stress urinary incontinence
MSC following VD
Sal Sys 4d
Sal Sys 10d
Sal loc 14d
Sal Sys 14d
MSC loc 4d
MSC Sys 4d
MSC loc 10d
MSC Sys 10d
MSC loc 14d
MSC Sys 14
Sal loc 4d
Sal loc 10d
Control
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Sal Sys
4d
Sal Sys
10d
Sal Sys
14d
MSC Sys MSC Sys MSC Sys
4d
10d
14
Sal loc 4d Sal loc
10d
Sal loc
14d
MSC loc MSC loc MSC loc
4d
10d
14d
• Improve tissue recovery
with the use of MSC
• Determine the potential
mechanism through
which MSCs potentiate
recovery
Control
Mentors
Primary Mentors
Arnold Caplan, PhD
Firouz Daneshgari, MD
Secondary Mentors
Alan Levine PhD
James Liu, MD
Why K08?
Passion for research
Clinical Productivity
• Passion for research
• Great research idea
• Excellent preliminary results
Although essential, they
are not enough in this
Highly competitive world
What does the K08 provide?
•
•
•
•
Protected time
Mentorship
Discipline
Target
These are the additional
criteria that are ESSENTIAL
For successful career as a
Clinician Scientist
Lessons learned
• Be smart about picking your mentor
– Authority in field with vast mentorship experience
– Should share your passion and believe in your
capabilities
– Willing to take on the task during the application
and thereafter
– Yet would be your toughest Critique
Lessons learned
• Personal level
– Learn the art/science of grant writing- read successful
applications
– Perform an internal review: your areas of weakness might
be opportunities for career development
– Develop thick skin
• Research Plan
– Put your ideas out for critique: I submitted an (R03, R21
with revision) on the concept before embarking on the
K08.
– Use the critiques to improve on your research plans and
idea
Surprises
• The surprise was that I got a fundable score
from first submission
Acknowledgment
• Mentors
–
–
–
–
Arnold Caplan PhD
Firouz Daneshgari MD
James Liu MD
Alan Levine PhD
• UI Grants team
–
–
–
–
Kerry Grimberg PhD
Michael Kavran
Laurel Jeffers
Claudia Lillibridge
• Laboratory colleagues
–
–
–
–
–
–
Michael Kavran
Mingfang Tao MD
Guiming Liu MD,PhD
Zubeyir Altuntas PhD
Nicholas Boncher MD
Zhina Sadeghi MD
• Grants & Contracts office
– Robin Bissell
– Colleen Goss
– Katalin Blankenship