Core Funding
Core Coins Program (SOM Only)
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Core Coins Program is a funding mechanism designed to encourage investigators to access core services and facilities. Our goal is to accelerate research by providing rapid, targeted funding to address small but critical gaps in basic, clinical and translational research work currently not funded by other sources. Core Coins will be awarded on a competitive basis to individual core facilities and subsequently to individual PIs via the awarded core. Core Coins will be administered through the iLab program through a distinct account provided to you after funds are awarded.
Core Coin Applicant Eligibility
School of Medicine Core facilities applying for funds must have adopted iLab Solutions or have signed up for implementation. For additional information about iLab Solutions, please contact either Shawn Franckowiak, Barbara Daily or Jeff Smith from the Office for Faculty Research Resources.
Apply for Core Coins Now
Funding and Timing
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Core Coins Program is pleased to announce another round of funding (up to $25,000) designed to support core facilities, with a focus on encouraging new investigators to access their services and/or utilization of new equipment/technology. The goal is to accelerate research by providing rapid, targeted funding to address small but critical gaps in basic, clinical and translational research work currently not funded by other sources.
Funding will be awarded to School of Medicine core facilities who have adopted iLab Solutions, our core management system or have signed up for implementation. Core facilities will receive the funds directly and will be able to distribute the funds to investigators according to the criteria they describe in the application. Such criteria may include, but are not limited to: funding for junior faculty who have not yet established a significant funding base; faculty who need to generate preliminary data to strengthen a grant application; new faculty with specific needs for core facility resources to assist with the start-up of their laboratories; or projects involving cores that are newly established or are providing new services. All services proposed in RFAs must be available through iLab. Examples of previously successful Core Coins Program applications along with their corresponding RFAs can be found here. Eligible core facilities can access the application here and provide the following information:
- Briefly describe the core services you offer.
- Briefly describe your current user base, and how the current proposal will expand that base.
- What specific services do you plan to offer as part of this RFA? Please include relevant pricing information that would help determine the scope of the project that can be achieved with the available funds.
- How do these services address the goals of the pilot program?
- How would you select recipients to receive core services? Please describe the process and criteria you might use.
- How do you plan to allocate the amounts available to individual investigators?
Please note that the application is limited to 2 pages. We are currently accepting applications through May 31, 2018 and funding will be announced by June 25, 2018. Distribution of funds will utilize the iLab Solutions core facility subsidy module and additional information will be provided upon receipt of an award.
2018 Core Coin Awardees
- ICTR Center for Clinical Data Analysis (CCDA): To offer preliminary, anonymous data for feasibility assessment and grant applications to unfunded junior investigators. Additionally, the core will expand the capabilities of their new Natural Language Processing (NLP) data extraction projects and offer those services to awardees.
- Genetics Research Core Facility (GRCF): To offer single molecule sequencing on the Oxford Nanopore GridION platform, with a focus on rapid sequence identification, utilizing long reads for improved genome assembly, analysis of full length RNA transcripts from cDNA, direct sequencing of RNA molecules, metagenomic analysis, structural variant detection, copy number detection in complex regions, and support of experimentation where short reads are insufficient.
- Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery (JHDD) Group: To offer chemical synthesis of small molecules when they are not commercially available. The chemical synthesis services include but are not limited to literature compound synthesis, scale-up synthesis (for in vivo studies), and analog synthesis for preliminary structure-activity relationship (SAR) analysis.
- SKCCC Analytical Pharmacology Shared Resource Core: To offer quantitation of small molecules (i.e., drugs and metabolites) in biological fluids utilizing any of four chromatographic (UPLC or UHPLC) instruments with a UV/Vis detector, triple stage quadruple mass spectrometer, and a QTrap system with ion trap capabilities.
- SKCCC Experimental and Computational Genomics Core (ECGC): To support projects that integrate measurements across different sequencing modalities, either by collecting multiple data types or using publicly available data to supplement data generated by the ECGC. Measurements supported through core coins include ChIPseq, whole exome or whole genome sequencing, and methylation assessment.
2018 Core Coin Applications and RFAs
Past Core Coin Awardees
2017 Core Coin Awardees
2017 Core Coin Applications and RFAs
2016 Core Coin Awardees
- Center for Proteomics Discovery: To offer comprehensive profiling of post-translational modifications, quantitative analysis of proteomes, and top-down and middle-down proteomics services.
- Genetics Resources Core Facility: For projects utilizing the novel 10x Genomic Single Cell Platform for the isolation of cells from four treatment groups (a maximal 24,000 cells) and downstream RNAseq (100,000 reads per cell), or the utilization of the new Fluidigm C1 for 4 treatment groups (a maximal 384 cells) and downstream RNAseq (100,000 reads per cell).
- Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility: To offer protein quantification and protein modification quantification services using isobaric mass tags as part of this RFA. These services will be offered for global quantitative proteomic experiments as well as quantitative experiments focusing on a specific protein or the protein’s modifications.
- Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Flow Cytometry and Immune Monitoring Core: For projects to receive approximately five hours of cell sorting on the BD Influx or one FLUOROSPOT assay.
2016 Core Coin Applications and RFAs
Contact Information
Please direct questions about the Core Coins Program to Shawn Franckowiack, Barbara Daily or Jeff Smith from the Office for Faculty Research Resources.
Other Funding Opportunities
Instrumentation grants are reviewed centrally by the Johns Hopkins University Research Administration, Research Development - Limited Submissions Programs office. Please contact resapp@jhu.edu with inquiries.
