Research Grants

Patrick T. Cahill, MD
Research Grants Committee Chair

The Research Grants Committee continues the activities of reviewing grant applications and awarding grants. The committee also continues to strengthen its monitoring of past grant awards to ensure that the Society maximizes its return on investments in research grants.

During the fall grant application cycle, the committee reviewed 18 grants. Committee members were divided into five groups, the groupings based on the members’ self-ranked expertise in specific areas of knowledge. We expanded the usage of outside experts to assist in the review process. Four non-member scientists with expertise in genetics, biomechanical engineering, and animal level research augmented the review process. A leader was assigned to each group. Each group evaluated 7-8 grants that loosely coincided with the group’s expertise. Each member assigned a ranking from 1-5, and the grant applications rankings were assigned an average score. All grant application scores from all five teams were posted to all members. A conference call of the group leaders was carried out to decide the final ranking.

Four grants were awarded totaling $150,000. The awarded grants were:

Title of Project	Pr. Inv/Co Inv.	Type of Grant	Amt. Approved
Alveolar Recovery After Posterior Spinal Fusion	Brian Varisco	SI	$50,000.00
Functional role of gene variants in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis	Florina Moldovan	Globus - SRS SI	$50,000.00
The Spinal Balance Score: A novel linear and unidimensional patient-reported outcome measure for adult spinal deformity	Dominique Rothenfluh	Zimmer Biomet - SRS SI	$25,000.00
Identification of genes causing idiopathic-type scoliosis in the medaka model	Kristen Gorman	NI	$25,000.00

The committee wishes to acknowledge Zimmer Biomet, Inc. and Globus Spine, Inc. for their generous donations to make these exciting projects a reality.

Chair-elect Leah Carreon MD, MSc, administered the outcomes subcommittee. This group reviews reports on previously awarded grants to ensure that the work is being performed. They make annual determinations on the quality and completeness of each grant awarded prior to the SRS dispersing additional funds. The committee has reviewed 18 reports during the recent months.

The committee has selected five previous grant awardees to present their work in a more in-depth format during the Research Grants Lunchtime Symposium during the Annual Meeting & Course in Philadelphia in September.

Chair: Patrick T. Cahill, MD Committee: Michael Rosner, MD; Siavash S. Haghighi, DVM, PhD; James S. Harrop, MD; Seyed Mir Mostafa Sadat, MD; Maxwell Boakye, MD, MPH, MBA, FACS; Jason PY Cheung, MBBS (HK); Calvin C. Kuo, MD; Charles Gerald T Ledonio, MD; Joshua Murphy, MD; Chris J. Neal, MD; Saba Pasha, MD; Themistocles S. Protopsaltis, MD; Huiren Tao, MD, PhD; Feng Zhu, MD; David F. Antezana, MD; Leah Y. Carreon, MD, MSc; Morio Matsumoto, MD; Vikas V. Patel, MD; Ivan Cheng, MD; Marcel F. Dvorak, MD, FRCSC; Frank LaMarca, MD; Luis E. Munhoz da Rocha, MD; Virginie Lafage, PhD; Jwalant S. Mehta, FRCS(Orth); Robert A. Morgan, MD; Jianxiong Shen, MD