Spoke Award

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago will support Spoke Awards to facilitate collaborations between Biohub scientists & engineers and investigators from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Projects will develop instrumented tissues and their application to inflammation and the related functions of the immune system. These highly ambitious and focused one-year projects will establish proof-of-concept for a variety of instrumented tissues, produce initial data sets showcasing the instrumented tissue approach, and pursue computational methods for further mining and dissemination of data. This is an open call that will accept applications on a rolling basis.

This award mechanism is open to all faculty at the Biohub partner institutions (University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). In-person events are held quarterly to facilitate connections between the Biohub and our collaborators.

• Will focus on a close collaboration between a University investigator and a Biohub researcher. Any tissue systems relevant to inflammation and immunity can be pursued; a focus on those with direct relevance to human biology is encouraged.
• Please arrange a meeting to discuss project scope with the Biohub grants team before applying (awards@chicago.czbiohub.org)
• Funding ($50,000-$150,000) will be deployed to support work at the Biohub. Spoke awardees will have use of Biohub facilities and infrastructure.
• Involvement of senior graduate students (year 3- 5) or postdoctoral fellows is encouraged.
• Collaborations across campuses are encouraged.
• Quarterly in-person progress meetings are required.

• Proposal format: 1-3 page summary (references are not included in the page limit) addressing the following points:
  • Description of approach to developing instrumented tissue.
  • Description of specific model system/tissue.
  • Description of sensing/analysis modality and technology integration.
  • What measurements will be pursued? (be specific)
  • What specific inflammation-related phenomenon will be characterized?
  • Why is the information to be collected not accessible currently?
  • High-level timeline including quarterly objectives.
  • Description of deliverables.
  • Scheme/Figure illustrating instrumented tissue system including relevant length scales.
  • An estimate of resources required for the project.
• A 1–3 slide-based overview is also requested. Please prepare for a general audience.