# Southern California Research Center for ALPD and Cirrhosis

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2024 · $148,500

## Abstract

PILOT PROJECT CORE - SUMMARY
The center’s Pilot Project Core represents the most critical mechanism to promote new and innovative
investigational endeavors by young and established scientists. It fosters a transition of senior postdocs
and early-stage investigators to the pathway to independence in their chosen research topics related to
the center’s theme. Indeed, since the center’s inception in 1999, the Pilot Project Core has been
responsible for the emergence of the 2nd and 3rd generations of scientists who now lead the center program.
It also supports new leading-edge studies by established investigators who wish to extend their expertise
to ALPD and cirrhosis via collaboration with the center investigators and/or support from the center’s
scientific cores.
 During the past 5 years, the Core received 34 annual pilot project applications of which 19 were funded
with total direct costs of $360,000 for 14 investigators. Of these, 7 acquired NIH (5 R01s, 1 U01, 1 K23)
grants plus 1 DOD grant totaling $8 million direct costs plus $1.9 million foundation or institutional awards.
Six of these 7 awardees are early career Investigators and two other pilot project awardees have pending
R01 and R21 applications. Pilot project investigators published total 34 manuscripts. Further, a USC
MD/PhD student, who has been working on a pilot project under his mentor, has recently received a F30
fellowship award, demonstrating the Pilot Project Program not only supported early-career investigators
but also a pre-doctoral training. These outcomes were strategically supported by chargeback fee-free
services by the center’s technical cores offered to funded projects.
 In the next funding cycle, the Core will continue to promote the generation of young and established
scientists who will advance new basic, translational, and clinical science in the field of ALPD and cirrhosis.
Toward this goal, the Core pursues the following five specific aims: 1) to identify and recruit new and
qualified senior postdocs and young scientists into ALPD and cirrhosis research and support their
transition to academic independence; 2) to identify and recruit established investigators with proven
expertise in other fields into research relevant to the center’s theme and support their acquisition of new
federal grants; 3) To promote unique collaborative projects on selective high-impact topics by uniting the
center investigators’ expertise and shared interest; and 4) to integrate the center’s other supportive
mechanisms such as institutional cost share, core services and educational and training programs to
maximize the potential of pilot projects to mature as competitive studies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10739246
- **Project number:** 2P50AA011999-26
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** HIDEKAZU TSUKAMOTO
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $148,500
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1998-12-31 → 2029-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10739246

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10739246, Southern California Research Center for ALPD and Cirrhosis (2P50AA011999-26). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10739246. Licensed CC0.

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