NIAMS Awards a Supplement to Advance Research (STAR) From Projects to Programs — Enhancing NIH Support for Early-Career Stage Investigators

Overview of the STAR Awards

The NIAMS STAR program provides supplemental funding for early-career stage investigators who have renewed their first NIAMS-funded R01 grant. The supplement enables these scientists to pursue innovative and high-risk research within the broader scope of a current NIAMS-funded, peer-reviewed research project. It also helps investigators to expand a single, structured research project into a broader multi-faceted research program. In FY 2023, one investigator received a NIAMS STAR supplement.

Awardee

Douglas P. Millay, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Cardiovascular Biology at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Department of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Dr. Millay is the principal investigator of a NIAMS-supported research project to decipher the mechanisms of myoblast fusion-the process in which muscle precursor cells fuse together to form muscle fibers. Previously, the team had discovered that two proteins called myomaker and myomerger are essential for this process and that they drive fusion through distinct cell membrane remodeling activities. The STAR award will enable the researchers to identify additional novel factors that regulate fusion in skeletal muscle tissue. The findings from this research will provide unique insight into the essential process for muscle formation and regeneration, in the context of both normal development and chronic muscle diseases.

Background

For more information about the NIAMS STAR program, including the funding opportunity announcement and profiles of past award recipients, visit the Supplements to Advance Research (STAR) page on the NIAMS website. Additional background information is provided in the December 2014 letter from the NIAMS Director announcing the program.