UC Davis School of Medicine Grants Facilitation Unit

The Grants Research Facilitation Unit, consisting of Jeffrey Elias , Ph.D. (Director), Erica Chedin, Ph.D. (Associate Director), Betty Guo, Ph.D. (Associate Director), is located in the Office of Research School of Medicine. The Grants Facilitation Unit was developed in 2007 to provide support for School of Medicine and affiliated researchers for:

1. Grant preparation and development, editing, and review (all mechanisms and funding agencies)
2. Support for collaborative efforts in grant development and symposia
3. NIH funding institute personnel and site navigation
4. Investigator outreach and program announcement interpretation
5. Notification and interpretation of new funding policies and requirements
6. Grant writing education
7. Career development applications
8. Manuscript editing
9. Reviews of summary statements and grant resubmissions - guidance for review appeals

You may ask for services from the Grant Facilitation Team by contacting any of the team members. These services, supported by the School of Medicine Office of Research, are provided at no charge.

We have had great success working as a team and we are integrated with the functions of the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center. We are available every day and if necessary at other times. As noted, depending on the task you may work primarily with one of us, or all of us. You may request assistance by contacting any one of us at our individual e-mail (see contact information below). Our mission is to clarify the grant process, make grants more competitive for funding, make manuscripts more competitive for publication, and to develop and maintain funding for research careers at all levels.

Profile for Dr. Jeffrey W. Elias, Ph.D.
Director/Manager Grants Facilitation Unit
UC Davis School of Medicine
CTSC Building, Room 1424
Sacramento, CA 95817
Phone: 916-703-9223
Email: jwelias@ucdavis.edu

Dr. Elias has worked in the editorial field for a number of years and has experience with the grant submission and review process as grantee, study section reviewer (NIH, NSF, and private foundations), department and center research director, and NIH program and review administrator. Dr. Elias served as Scientific Review Administrator (SRA) for the Center for Scientific Review (Adult Psychopathology & Disorders of Aging) and Chief of the extramural Cognitive Aging program (HSA) in the Behavioral and Social Research division at the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Elias was trained in and publishes/reviews in the areas of developmental psychobiology and lifespan development and cognitive aging. Dr. Elias is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Gerontological Society. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Experimental Aging Research.

Profile for Dr. Erica Chédin, Ph.D.
Associate Director, UC Davis School of Medicine
CTSC Building, Room 1423
Sacramento, CA 95817
Phone: 916-703-9145
Fax: 916-703-9150
Email: emchedin@ucdavis.edu

Dr. Chédin has over a decade of experience assisting investigators in preparing grant proposals, manuscripts, responses to reviewers, and scientific articles. She has worked with investigators from a wide range of disciplines and co-teaches workshops as well as a two-quarter course on grant writing that involves hands-on experience in writing grant proposals. Dr. Chédin is highly experienced in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granting process and has helped prepare proposals for other national grant funding agencies, as well as private foundations and internal UC Davis submissions. Dr. Chédin’s area of expertise as part of the UC Davis School of Medicine Grants Facilitation Team is to assist investigators with large, multi-disciplinary, multi-investigator efforts such as Center Grants, Program Projects, and Training Grants. She has played key roles in successfully securing funding for the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center, the NeuroTherapeutics Research Institute, and the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, among others. Dr. Chédin (née Seitz) received her Ph.D. from UC Davis in the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Kowalczykowski, studying DNA recombination processes in hyperthermophilic bacteria. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Southern California in the laboratory of Dr. Myron Goodman, where she studied DNA damage repair in bacteria. She was the recipient of a T32 graduate student fellowship, a T32 post-doctoral fellowship, and a F32 NRSA award from the NIH. She has published multiple scientific manuscripts and book chapters in top, peer-reviewed, international journals.

Profile for Dr. Betty Guo, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Individual Research Proposals and Training Grants
UC Davis School of Medicine
CTSC Building, Room 1419
Sacramento, CA 95817
Phone: 916-703-9137
Fax: 916-703-9150
Email: bpguo@ucdavis.edu

Dr. Guo has nearly a decade of experience as an editor, including editing grants, manuscripts, rebuttals, and science articles for a lay audience. She has worked successfully with investigators from diverse backgrounds and with varied research interests. Dr. Guo has particular expertise developing proposals for individual research grants, career development awards, and educational and training programs. She is well-versed in the grant submission and review processes for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), as well as being familiar with the guidelines and policies of various other federal and private funding agencies, including the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) and the American Heart Association. She also teaches grant writing at UC Davis and has guided several junior investigators to winning their first independent research funding. Prior to joining the Grants Facilitation Team, she worked as a Research Scientist at Umeå University in Sweden. Dr. Guo has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and postdoctoral training in microbiology as an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow. She has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on topics ranging from receptor-ligand interactions, extracellular matrix, microbial pathogenesis, vaccine development, and drug repurposing.