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OCTOBER 2025 NEWSLETTER

The newsletter of the Feinberg School of Medicine Research Office

Spearheading Reproductive Science Research

In 1974, Neena Schwartz, PhD, the William Deering Professor of Endocrinology, launched Northwestern's Program for Reproductive Research to catalyze reproductive biology research and collaboration across the university. Today, the Center for Reproductive Science has more than 300 faculty members and trainees from across Northwestern.

Read the Feature

Influential Biochemist Svetlana Mojsov Named Winner of 2026 Kimberly Prize

Feinberg School of Medicine and the Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics announced that distinguished biochemist Svetlana Mojsov, PhD, has been named the winner of the annual $250,000 Kimberly Prize in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.

Read about the awardee

Faculty Profile

Advancing Personalized Approaches to Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Women

Priya M. Freaney, MD, is an assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology. As a clinician-educator, Freaney’s clinical work aims to expand women’s heart care programs at Northwestern Medicine and beyond, and her research focuses on preventing heart disease in women.

Student Profile

Studying Single Session Interventions to Address Eating Disorders

Arielle Smith is a PhD student studying clinical psychology in the Lab for Scalable Mental Health. Under the direction of  Jessica Schleider, PhD, associate professor of Medical Social Sciences, Smith works to increase access to eating disorder treatment.

Staff Profile

Leading Process Improvement to Inform Strategy and Data Insights

Mary Beth Blocher is a clinical research project manager for the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute. She uses her skills to optimize data management for clinical research.

Campus Events

Tue Oct 28	Andrew Parsa Lecture Chicago - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Tue Oct 28	Microbiology-Immunology Seminar Series: Luisa Morales-Nebreda, MD Chicago - 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Thu Oct 30	Renal Grand Rounds - Michael Walsh Chicago - 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Fri Oct 31	Bacterial Journal Club Chicago - 1:45 PM - 3:00 PM

Research in the News

US News & World Report, October 8
Training, Support Empowers Pediatricians In Peanut Allergy Prevention
Ruchi Gupta, MD, and Lucy Bilaver, PhD, were featured.

CNN, Sept 29
More than 99% of heart disease cases have a risk factor you can address before you get sick, study shows
Philip Greenland, MD, was featured.

Crain's Chicago Business, Sept 26
Medicaid cuts will deepen a growing strain on ERs treating gunshots: study
Alexander Lundburg, PhD, and Anne Stey, MD were featured.

Check out More Media Coverage

NUCATS Corner

Explore Entrepreneurship Resources During Virtual Presentations, Q&A

Join NUCATS and INVO's Translational Research Office Hours Series (NITRO-Talks) on Wednesday, October 29. Querrey InQbation Lab Executive Director Sonia Kim will deliver a short presentation on InQbation Lab resources available to support Northwestern faculty entrepreneurs and startup companies. Register today for this one-hour Zoom event.

Future presentations will feature:

John Rogers, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, November 26
Michelle Hoffmann, executive director of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium, December 17

Following each presentation, there will be an opportunity to discuss resources related to innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship and how NUCATS and INVO can best assist your team.

Open to all academic innovators and start-ups across Northwestern University, office hours are held monthly. View the schedule or email NITRO staff to learn more.

Breakthroughs Podcast

Studying T-Cell Therapy for Potential Lung Tissue Repair with Benjamin Singer, MD

In this episode, Singer details a recent discovery from his team that found laboratory-modified T-cells or induced regulatory T-cells (iTregs), can promote lung tissue repair in mice with severe influenza pneumonia.

Listen to the podcast episode

New Faculty

Alexandra Grote, PhD, joined as assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases in June 2025. Grote’s research investigates the evolutionary and molecular mechanisms that enable bacterial pathogens to persist, adapt and evade treatment during human infection. Prior to coming to Northwestern, she was a post-doctoral scholar at the Broad Institute in the Bacterial Genomics group.

This fall, Galter Health Sciences Library is offering virtual training sessions on Proofig AI, a tool designed to support image integrity screening in scientific publications. These sessions will provide hands-on instruction to help researchers integrate Proofig AI into their workflows and ensure that figures meet publication standards before submission.

Learn More About Proofig AI

High Impact Research

Scholten D, El-Shennawy L, Jia Y, Zhang Y, Hyun E, Reduzzi C, Hoffmann AD, Almubarak HF, Tong F, Dashzeveg NK, Sun Y, Squires JR, Lu J, Platanias LC, Wasserfall CH, Gradishar WJ, Cristofanilli M, Fang D, Liu H. Double-positive T cells form heterotypic clusters with circulating tumor cells to foster cancer metastasis. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Sep 2025; 135(18).

Schroth SL, Zhang L, Jones RT, Glinton K, Mani NL, Inui H, Davidson JT, Weinberg SE, Chandel NS, Alegre ML, Thorp EB. Treg activation during allograft tolerance induction requires mitochondrion-induced TGF-β1 in type 1 conventional dendritic cells. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Sep 2025; 135(18).

Singal AG, Salem R, Pinato DJ, Pillai A. Advances in Locoregional and Systemic Treatments for Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Gastroenterology. Sep 2025; 169(4):585-599.

Wang Z, Cao L, Jin Q, Chan J, Wan N, Afzali B, Cho HJ, Choi CI, Emamverdi M, Gill MK, Kim SH, Li Y, Liu Y, Luo Y, Ong H, Rousseau JF, Sheikh I, Wei JJ, Xu Z, Zallek CM, Kim K, Peng Y, Lu Z, Sun J. A foundation model for human-AI collaboration in medical literature mining. Nature Communications. Sep 2025; 16(1):8361-8361.

Review More Publications

Featured Core

Program Evaluation Core

The Program Evaluation Core (PEC) at Northwestern University is dedicated to enhancing higher education through comprehensive evaluation services. We collaborate with Northwestern investigators, assisting in the design of evaluation plans, data collection and analysis, interpretation, and meaningful application of results to improve programs and advance outcomes. Our mission is to empower investigators with insights that drive excellence and equity in training, educational and research programs.

Services Offered

PEC provides all Northwestern affiliated investigators with an initial one-hour free consultation to discuss their evaluation needs.

All pre-award proposal development services are provided at no cost as they are subsidized by the Office of Research, Feinberg, McCormick and Weinberg schools.

Post-award services are supported via two mechanisms. For programs with written in evaluation services, PEC services are covered through grant funding. For T32s/KL1s/TL2s and other programs that do not allow a budget for evaluation, PEC services are provided at no cost through the subsidy.

Learn more about the core

Funding Opportunities

Small R01s for Clinical Trials Targeting Diseases within the Mission of NIDDK (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

This Notice of Funding Announcement (NOFO) encourages the submission of pilot and feasibility clinical trials conducted in humans that will lay the foundation for larger clinical trials related to the prevention and/or treatment of diseases and conditions within the mission of NIDDK. The program will support small, short-term proof-of-concept clinical trials in humans to acquire preliminary data regarding the effects of the intervention, as well as feasibility data related to recruitment and retention, and study conduct.

Due: May 7, 2026

Tobacco Regulatory Science Small Grant Program for New Investigators (R03 Clinical Trial Optional)

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) aims to support new biomedical, behavioral, and social science investigators who are in the early stages of establishing independent careers in tobacco regulatory research. The R03 grant mechanism supports different types of projects, including pilot and feasibility studies, secondary analysis of existing data, small, self-contained research projects, development of research methodology, and development of new research technology.

Due: July 14, 2026

Explore more funding opportunities on the NIH website.

NIH News

New Tool to Explore NIH Grant Opportunities

Familiarize yourself with the new Explore NIH Grant Opportunities tool. Use its NIH-specific filters, sort, and advanced search options to help you quickly identify funding opportunities posted on Grants.gov.

Starting in October 2025, Grants.gov is the single official source for NIH notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs). NIH will no longer post NOFOs in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. The NIH Guide will continue as your primary source for policy and informational notices.

We encourage you to use Grants.gov Subscriptions to get email notifications of new opportunities and custom search results. Direct any questions about Grants.gov search or subscriptions to the Grants.gov Support Center.

Try the Search Tips for NIH Opportunities to learn more about the new Explore tool and Grants.gov searches.

More NIH News

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Breakthroughs, the newsletter of the Feinberg School of Medicine Research Office