2025 Tufts Springboard Research & Scholarship Awards
We are delighted to announce award decisions for the Fall 2025 cycle of the Research & Scholarship program of Tufts Springboard, sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR), and Tufts Medicine.
These high-quality, high-impact research and scholarship initiatives contribute to vibrant research at Tufts by advancing promising projects with clear potential for future extramural funding and other outcomes that further influence research, scholarship, and/or policy.
This cycle, Springboard awards were made through two funding tracks: Momentum Awards, which support projects positioned to build toward larger-scale external funding and impact, and Explore Awards, which support early-stage, innovative ideas with strong potential for future development.
These grants represent a significant investment in the future vitality of Tufts as a thriving R1, very-high research activity university.
MOMENTUM AWARDS
Neurosteroid Mechanisms Involved in Stress-Induced Opioid Use
Team Lead: Jessica Babb (A&S)
Team Members: Marcus Weera (A&S) and Jamie Maguire (TUSM)
Towards a Biosensor to Transform Diabetes Screening for Women with a History of Gestational Diabetes
Team Lead: Larissa Calancie (Friedman)
Team Members: Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn (TUSM), Atul Sharma (SOE), and Sameer Sonkusale (SOE)
Mechanisms of GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Effects on Food Reward
Team Lead: Erin Hennessy (Friedman)
Team Members: Jamie Maguire (TUSM) and Larissa Calancie (Friedman)
Endothelial PCF11-Driven Alternative Polyadenylation Remodeling as a Mechanistic Driver of Obesity-Induced Left Ventricular Hypertrophy
Team Lead: Basak Icli (TUSM)
Team Members: Claire Moore (TUSM), Paula Sebastiani (CTSI), and Tufts Genomics Core
Toward a Stronger Continuum of Care: Constructing the a-REI to Assess Adolescent Recovery Infrastructure in Massachusetts
Team Lead: Jordan Jurinsky (A&S)
Team Members: Jack Cordes (TUSM), Margie Skeer (TUSM), Jules Boyle (A&S), and Roger Oser (consultant; founding principal of Boston’s only recovery high school)
Understanding Proteostasis Vulnerabilities in Human Motor Neuron Subpopulations Impacted in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Team Lead: Malavika Raman (TUSM)
Team Members: Nisha Iyer (SOE), Ivy Gao (TUSM), and Natalie Parker (SOE)
Memory-Augmented AI for Real-Time Broncho-Vascular Segmentation during Robotic Lobectomy to Prevent Intra-Operative Catastrophe
Team Lead: Lana Schumacher (Tufts Medicine, TUSM)
Team Member: Abani Patra (SOE)
Detection of Colorectal Cancer Using Fluorescent Particles
Team Lead: Igor Sokolov (SOE)
Team Members: Jason F. Hall (Tufts Medicine) and Nikolay Bugaev (Tufts Medicine)
EXPLORE AWARDS
Evaluation of a Large Language Model to Rapidly Analyze Qualitative Data regarding the Opioid Crisis
Team Lead: Jack Cordes (TUSM)
Team Members: Shikhar Shrestha (TUSM), Fahad Dogar (SOE), and Thomas Stopka (TUSM)
Stayin’ Alive: Comparative Cellular Responses Shaping HSV-1 Cytopathology across Primates
Team Lead: Marieke Rosenbaum (Cummings)
Team Members: Ekaterina Heldwein (TUSM) and Fernando Vilchez (Cummings)
Springboard Education Awards: Spring 2025
Designing for the Future: A Critical Evaluation Framework for Student Use of AI in Medical Education
Team Lead: JoColl Burgess (TUSM)
Team Members: Berri Jacque (TUSM), Revati Masilamani (TUSM), Elizabeth Genne-Bacon (TUSM), and Maria Blanco (TUSM)