Center pilot grants are a major driver of career development, providing postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty with mentorship and access to the Center’s core facilities. They also promote cross-collaboration across departments to encourage the application of environmental health concepts and methodology to other disciplines. In addition, the pilot project program enables Center Members to rapidly respond to community needs.
Over the past 12 years:
- 113 applicants received pilot funding awards of $20,000 to $70,000 each for a total of $3,418,432
- 77 of 113 pilots were awarded to postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty
- 18 Community-Based Participatory Research pilot grants were awarded
- 31 pilots resulted in successful NIH grant applications (9 K99, 1 R03, 2 R21, 6 R00, 10 R01, 1 R35, 1 U24, and 1 UG3) for a total return on investment of $56,613,483
| Grant Year | Awarded Amount | Project Title | PI Name | Multi-PI | Co-Investigators | Area of Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024(2) | $25,000 | From Tweets to Thoughts: Studying Bird Biodiversity and Cognitive Health in NYC | Pablo Knobel | Maayan Yitshak-sade | Valentina Alaasam, Itai Kloog, Vishal Midya, Alex Federman | Exposome |
| 2024(2) | $25,000 | Understanding the role of the emergency department at the intersection of heat related illness and unmet health-related social needs by advancing community engagement and data-driven approaches | Shameeke Taylor | Ethan Abbott DO MSCR, Sarah McCuskee MD MPhil | Luz Guel Salazar BA BS, Nicholas DeFelice PhD, Eyal Klang MD | Weather Extremes |
| 2024(2) | $37,500 | Environmental exposome, epigenetic age acceleration, and Alzheimer’s disease in women | Jia Chen | Yu Chen (NYU) | Syam Andra, Vishal Midya | Epigenetics Exposome Women’s Health |
| 2024(2) | $50,000 | Interaction Effects of PFAS and Isoflavones on Breast Cancer Risk: A Nested Case-Control Study | David Achaintre | Lauren Petrick, Jia Chen, Maaike van Gerwen, Vishal Midya | Breast Cancer Endocrine Disruptors PFAS Women’s Health | |
| 2024(2) | $37,500 | External environmental exposure and dementia in the Veteran population | William Hung | Maayan Yitshak-Sade, Itai Kloog | Elena Colicino | |
| 2024(2) | $50,000 | A pilot study to identify metabolic and microenvironmental determinants of prostate cancer progression upon high fat diet exposure. | Juan Arriaga | Cancer Obesity | ||
| 2024(1) | $25,000 | The effects of adverse environmental exposures on risk for congenital Chagas transmission and adverse birth outcomes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. | Matthew Ward | Nicholas B. DeFelice | Chris Gennings, Natalie M. Bowman, Heather H. Burris, Robert H. Gilman | Air Pollution Children’s Health Exposome Global Environmental Health and Sustainable Development Reproductive Health Women’s Health |
| 2024(1) | $35,000 | Evaluating the Association between Occupation and Breast Cancer Risk in the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project | Hannah Thompson | Susan Teitelbaum | Zoey Laskaris | Breast Cancer Occupational Health Women’s Health |
| 2024(1) | $40,000 | Exposure to cleaning and disinfection products and their health impact: A pilot study in Latinx housecleaners in NYC | Angeline Denouel | Homero Harari | Shoshannah Iylene Eggers, PhD, Sophia Curdumi Pendley, PhD, Hannah Thompson, MD, MPH, Vishal Midya, MStat, PhD | Asthma Biomarkers Lung Disease Microbiome Occupational Health Reproductive Health Women’s Health |
| 2024(1) | $25,000 | Identifying vulnerable populations during extreme weather emergencies: temporospatial relationships between technology dependence and health system demand | Sarah McCuskee | Alexis Zebrowski | Nicholas DeFelice, PhD | Emergency Response Weather Extreme |
| 2024(1) | $35,000 | “A Community-Based Participatory Research Study on Air Quality and Environmental Injustice near the Jamaica Bus Depot Construction Site” | Cecilia Alcala | Sarah Evans | Luz Guel Salazar, Riana Mehreen, Fares Al-lahabi | |
| 2024(1) | $35,000 | A large-scale proteomics investigation to characterize mechanisms underlying the association between PFAS exposures and women’s infertility | Nathan Cohen | Damaskini Valvi | Elena Colicino, Jonathan Huang, Lidia Minguez-Alarcon, Youssef Oulhote | PFAS |
| 2024(1) | $25,000 | Exploring associations among placental iodine, prenatal exposure to a metal mixture, and maternal-child neuropsychological functioning. | Aderonke Akinkugbe | Rosalind J. Wright | Julio Landero, Vishal Midya | Children’s Health Endocrine Disruptors Mixtures/ co-exposures Women’s Health |
| 2024(1) | $25,000 | Prospective study investigating the association of PFAS and thyroid cancer methylation | Maaike van Gerwen | Corina Lesseur | Elena Colicino, Lauren Petrick, Margaret Brandwein-Weber | Cancer Endocrine Disruptors Epigenetics PFAS |
| 2023 (1) | $29,000 | Exposure to artificial light at night and sleep disruption in adolescents from Mexico City | Ivan Gutierrez-Avila | Homero Harari | Itai Kloog, Mariana Figueiro, Robert Wright, Mara Tellez-Rojo | Light Pollution Circadian Disruption |
| 2023 (1) | $50,000 | : BREATHE with Bomba: Building Resilience through Environmental Awareness and Tradition-based Health Education | Luz Claudio | Michelle Adler, Camila Vicioso, Rocio Rodriguez, Jill Bargonetti PhD, Los Pleneros de la 21 | Air Pollution Asthma Children’s Health Community Engagement | |
| 2023 (1) | $50,000 | Community-Led Air Quality Monitoring for Environmental Justice and Public Health in the Lower East Side. | Sofia Curdumi Pendley | Sarah Evans, Cecilia Alcala, Jen Chantrtanapichate, Anna Tsomo Leidecker | Air Pollution Community Engagement | |
| 2023 (1) | $25,000 | Impact of prenatal PFAS exposure on the placental transcriptome and fetal growth | Corina Lesseur | Jia Chen, Syam S. Andra, Anna Rommel, Shelley H. Liu, Bushra Amreen | Biomarkers Children’s Health PFAS Reproductive Health | |
| 2023 (1) | $69,290 | Exposure to noise, metals, and air pollutants and child development in Kigali, Rwanda | Youssef Oulhote | Julio Landero, Elena Colicino, Raphael Arku, Pacifique Ndishimye, Egide Kalisa | Air Pollution Biomarkers Children’s Health Exposome Lead Mixtures/ co-exposures Global Environmental Health and Sustainable Development | |
| 2022 (2) | $20,000 | Lead, Cognition, and Gut Microbiome Interactions with Nutrition (LoGIN) | Shoshannah Eggers | Vishal Midya | Elza Rechtman, Chris Gennings | Biostatistics Endocrine Disruptors Lead Microbiome |
| 2022 (2) | $24,965 | Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Functional Ovarian Reserve in Midlife | Lauren Petrick | Elena Colicino | PFAS — Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Reproductive Health Women’s Health | |
| 2022 (2) | $25,000 | Inhibitory Control Mediates the Association between Prenatal Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Child Body Mass Index | Jamil Lane | Shelley Liu | Robert Wright, Dania Valvi, Syam S Andra | Children’s Health Mixtures/co-exposures Obesity PFAS — Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances |
| 2022 (2) | $25,000 | Neighborhood Scale Evaluation of Vehicle Emission Reduction Policies in NYC | Xueying Zhang | Rosalind Wright, Itai Kloog, Matthew Woody | Air Pollution | |
| 2022 (2) | $25,000 | Lead (Pb), tooth mineral density and caries experience among adolescents. | Aderonke Akinkugbe | Christine Austine, Chris Gennings, Piyush Kumar, Nilsson Holguin, Martha Maria Tellez Rojo | Children’s Health Lead | |
| 2022 (2) | $25,000 | Impact of PFAS in cord blood on offspring intestinal inflammation and dysbiosis | Manasi Agrawal | Dania Valvi, Vishal Midya, Lauren Petrick, Inga Peter, Jean-Frederic Colombel | PFAS — Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances | |
| 2022 (2) | $25,000 | Lead Exposure in Telecommunication Workers | Andrew Todd | Rabeea Khan | John Meyer | Lead |
| 2022 (2) | $41,347 | Use of the realtime and historical “floodnet” data to determine the impact of flooding on the surge of acute respiratory illnesses in the specific densely populated flood prone New York City communities in 1 year | Ismail Nabeel | Brett Branco | Ilias Kavouras | Lung Diseases Weather Extremes |
| 2022 (2) | $50,000 | Environmental Disparities and the Risk of West Nile Virus in New York City | Nicholas DeFelice | Nicholas Steiner | Mathew J. Ward | Weather Extremes |
| 2022 (2) | $50,000 | The neuroimmune outcomes of prenatal exposures to air pollution and stress | Pinar Ayata | Alison G. Lee | Elena Colicino, Mathilda Chiu, Sheela Maru, Uday Patil, Steven N. Chillrud | Air Pollution Biomarkers Children’s Health Gene-Environment Interaction Mixtures/co-exposures |
| 2022 (1) | $20,000 | The association between PM2.5 composition and sources and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease mortality among older adults. | Maayan Yitshak-sade | Elena Colicino, Allan Just, Michael Hadley, Alex Federman, Liuhua Shi, Joel Schwartz, Heresh Amini | Air Pollution | |
| 2022 (1) | $20,000 | The association between the built and social environment and phenotypic age acceleration | Pablo Knobel | Maayan Yitshak-sade | Elena Colicino, Itai Klog, Alex Federman, Charles Mobbs, Rachel Litke | Biomarkers Exposome Mixtures/co-exposures |
| 2022 (1) | $20,000 | Metal exposures and bone health in women during reproductive aging | Elena Colicino | Lauren Petrick | Megan Niedzwiecki, Megan Horton, Robert O Wright, Martha María Téllez-Rojo, Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz | Mixtures/co-exposures Reproductive Health Women’s Health |
| 2022 (1) | $20,000 | Metabolomic features in dried blood spots of offspring of women with and without inflammatory bowel disease | Manasi Agrawal | Inga Peter, Lauren Petrick, Dinesh Kumar Barupal ,Francesca Petralia, Jean-Frederic Colombel | “Biomarkers Exposome Microbiome Mixtures/co-exposures Toxicology” | |
| 2022 (1) | $20,000 | Scholars Pilot Program | Malika Garg | Maida Galvez | Sarah Evans, Terry Thompson | Outreach/Community Engagement |
| 2022 (1) | $65,000 | Beneficial effects of tailored light intervention (TLI) on sleep and cognition in World Trade Center Responders, Recovery Workers, and Volunteers (WTC RRWV) cohort | Ola Alsalman | Rafael E de la Hoz, Mariana G Figueiro | Occupational Health | |
| 2022 (1) | $65,000 | Risk and protective factors and MRI phenotypes of frailty associated with WTC exposure | Megan Horton | Fred Ko, Katherine Ornstein, William Hung, Elena Colicino, Ghalib Bello | Exposome | |
| 2021 (2) | $25,000 | Association between Air Pollution, Stress, and Sleep Efficiency in 6 -7-year-old Children living in East Harlem. | Terry Thompson | Maida Galvez | Robert O. Wright, Sarah Evans, Leon Hsu, Ray Lopez, Luz Guel | Air Pollution |
| 2021 (2) | $25,000 | The Impact of Prenatal Pesticide Exposure on Child Respiratory Outcomes in Mexico City | Cecilia Alcala | Maria Jose Rosa | Syam Andra, Shelley Liu, Robert Wright | Asthma Children’s Health Mixtures/co-exposures Pesticides |
| 2021 (2) | $25,000 | School Ventilation and SARS-CoV-2 Test Positivity: A Community-Based Study | Nicholas DeFelice | Maida Galvez | Rachel Vreeman Alison Lee, Chris Gennings Nicole Bouvier Laura McGuinn Efrain Guerrero | Children’s Health Outreach/Community Engagement |
| 2021 (2) | $25,000 | Air Pollution, Mitochondrial Heteroplasmy (MH), and Vaccine Efficacy in Children | Mike He | Maayan Yitshak-Sade; Elena Colicino | Itai Kloog, Allan Just, Corina Lesseur, Robert Wright | Air Pollution Children’s Health Gene-Environment Interaction |
| 2021 (2) | $25,000 | Development of a novel retrospective biomarker of fluoride exposure using spatial mapping of teeth by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) | Mauro Martinez | Christine Austin | Manish Arora | Biomarkers Exposome Toxicology |