Clinical Research Directed Initiative (CRDI)

Randall Urban, MD
CRDI Review Committee Chair
rurban@utmb.edu

Katherine Kaus, PhD
CRDI Program Administrator
kakaus@utmb.edu
(409) 266-5926

The Clinical Research Directed Initiative (CRDI) is a competitive internal funding mechanism designed to support physician-led, hypothesis-driven clinical and translational research. The program aims to accelerate the development of impactful projects that will lead to competitive extramural funding. Proposals must be supported by preliminary data and designed to generate data to directly support extramural grant submission.

Budget
$100,000 over 12 months

Eligibility
A) Principal Investigator(s): Faculty at all academic ranks. At least one PI must be a physician with extramural funding.
B) Co-Investigator: Must include at least one fellow/resident/postdoc.
C) Student Participation: Inclusion of at least one student is required.

2026 Key Dates

April 15, 2026	RFA Release
May 27, 2026	Application Deadline
Late June 2026	CRDI Committee Review
July 2026	Awardees Notified
September 1, 2026	Program Start Date

2026 CRDI RFA

Applications are reviewed by the CRDI Review Committee and decisions receive final approval from the Office of the CRO.

CRDI Review Committee
Committee Chair: Randall Urban, MD
Primary Reviewers: UTMB Grant Review & Oversight (GRO) committee members
Secondary Reviewers: CTSA alliance members (Houston Methodist, Texas Southern University, University of Houston-Clear Lake)

2025 CRDI Awardees

PI: Peter Melby, MD

Co-Investigators: Timothy Wanninger, MD, PhD; Eric Dindoruk, DO; Khadija Tayabali, MD; Alejandro Castellanos, PhD
Medical Student: Olivia Kruse, MSc

MPIs: Abbey Berenson, MD, PhD and Fangjian Guo, PhD

Co-Investigators: Jessi Benson, MD and Denny Fe Agana, PhD, MPH
Medical Students: Andrea Villalobos-Montoya and Paulina Alcocer-Gonzalez-Camarena

MPIs: Daniel Arango, MD and Michael Kinsky, MD

Co-Investigators: Andres Arango, MD; Brian Masel, MD; Michael Kueht, MD; Syed Hassan, MD
Medical Student: Nikolas Georgakis, MS

MPIs: Patrick Karas, MD and Agenor Limon, PhD

Co-Investigators: Frances Morden, MD; Laura Sanchez Sanchez, PhD; Anne-Cecile Lesage, PhD; Liliana Camarillo Rodriguez, MD, PhD; Bailey Salameh
Medical Students: Lornee Pride; Vy Le

MPIs: Petros Konofaos, MD, PhD and Celeste Finnerty, PhD

Co-Investigators: Amanda Chow, MD and Lucineia Danielski Gainski, PharmD
Medical Students: Kush Brahnbhatt and Evan Pistone

MPIs: Michael Kueht, PhD and Heather Stevenson-Lerner, MD, PhD, FCAP

Co-Investigators: Adam Osman, MBBS; Omar Saldarriaga, DVM, PhD; Esteban Arroyave, PhD
Medical Student: Vincent Yang

MPIs: Congli Zeng, MD, PhD and Marcos Vidal-Melo, MD, PhD

Co-Investigators: Erin Vigil, MD and George Golovko, PhD
Medical Students: Salem Jalal Khalil and Dar-Yin Li

PI: Antonella Casola, MD

Co-Investigators: Neel Patel, MD; Yuejin Liang, PhD; Heidi Spratt, PhD
Medical Student: Ireland Buckley Banner

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Clinical Research Directed Initiative (CRDI)

2025 CRDI Awardees