Targeting obesity pathogenesis

The goal of this campaign is to explore pathogenic mechanisms to restore healthy energy metabolism for tolerable and long-term weight loss, including prevention of weight re-gain after treatment discontinuation.

Call for proposals: All incoming answers accompanied by a collaboration proposal will be evaluated by a scientific jury, and, upon selection, chosen proposals are pursued through a joint collaboration with the successful applicants. Initial funding of up to 250,000 euros will be available for proposals that will receive support by our review team.

Please use our answer submission template to provide a 2–3 page non-confidential proposal (attached to the right).

What we are looking for:

1. Peripheral and central pathogenic mechanisms of obesity, that reveal new therapeutic targets to reduce body weight with a clear goal to obtain sustainable weight loss.
2. Approaches ranging from biological matrices such as primary cells, cell lines, organoids, fluids, tissues, as well as animal studies (including rodents, or other mammalian species) with rationale on translatability to humans.
3. Computational analysis supporting pathogenic mechanisms and patient relevance.

Criteria:

The proposal needs to be highly feasible, should be based on established and existing methods, assays and involve tools / reagents that are either available or which can be easily produced. We expect that the project will be executed in your laboratory and takes advantage of existing technologies and assays.

In addition, we are seeking research collaboration proposals that contain:

• A well-structured proposal outlining a new and compelling scientific approach.
• Outlining of the technical feasibility, and potentially existing data or previous publications that support feasibility / experience with outlined technology, based on existing techniques and established assays.
• Your exact funding request should be outlined in your proposal based on a well-thought-through project. The project should be structured in milestones and planned with key decision points (clear Go/No-Go criteria). The funding request for the initial milestones resulting in a Go/No-Go decision should not exceed 250,000 euros per submitted project in total.
• Proven track record in the required field of expertise.
• Ability to implement the outlined solution as part of a scientific collaboration project with
• Boehringer Ingelheim including access to a wet laboratory.
• Proposals with an anticipated execution time of 2 years will be prioritized.

Please note: Faculty and researchers interested in applying for these opportunities based on technologies developed or disclosed at Vanderbilt must submit their proposals through the CTTC.