Supporting innovative research directions and new ideas across Duke, this year’s awards focus on helping faculty adapt to changes in the funding landscape.
SPARK Awards
The Office of Research and Innovation has awarded $2.03 million in Duke Science & Technology SPARK seed grants. This program aims to ignite innovative research that enables future external funding.
The fourteen projects, described below, will be led by faculty members from the School of Medicine, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering, and the Nicholas School of the Environment. Selections were made from a record pool of 132 applicants, featuring submissions from seven schools and one institute.
"All of these proposals exemplify the creativity, energy, and resilience of our faculty members," said Jenny Lodge, Duke's vice president for research & innovation. "We are excited for our faculty to forge new directions and explore novel ideas to addressing the critical questions of our day."
This year, the SPARK awards focused on helping faculty adjust to evolving changes in the funding landscape. Now in its fourth cycle, the DST seed grants are supported by the Office of the Provost and the Duke Discovery Fund. Previous recipients have gone on to publish numerous articles and secure funding from federal agencies.
2025 - 2026
DST SPARK GRANTEES
Michael Boyce, associate professor of biochemistry, School of Medicine, will be studying GALE inhibitors to understand airway mucin biosynthesis and treat respiratory disease.
Avshalom Caspi, professor of psychology and neuroscience, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, will be creating a reliable, open-access tool to measure midlife and older adults' Intrinsic Functional Capacity (IFC).
Emily Cuddy, assistant professor of economics, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, will be creating an objective drug-quality index and using it to study how procurement practices, FDA dynamics, and global manufacturing influence drug quality and patient outcomes.
Yarui Diao, associate professor of cell biology, School of Medicine, will be studying the role of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in regulating Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children.
Jessilyn Dunn, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, will be investigating non-invasive glucose monitoring via radio frequency-derived digital biomarker.
Sara Haravifard, professor of physics, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, will explore a new class of magnetic order: altermagnetism.
Liyin He, assistant professor of ecology, Nicholas School of the Environment, will use Process-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) in the prediction of carbon flux and crop yields and agroecosystem policies.
Jacqueline Hodges, assistant professor of medicine, School of Medicine, will investigate creative technology-enabled solutions to rapidly scale access to care and serve unmet needs for people who use drugs.
Christoph Hornik, professor of pediatrics, School of Medicine, will work on developing and testing an end-to-end, Fully Automated Clinical Trial Platform (FACT).
Dennis Ko, associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, School of Medicine, is developing a resource to support genetic studies and experimental validation in the key tissues relevant to respiratory and enteric pandemic threats.
Joel Meyer, professor of environmental natural science, Pratt School of the Environment, will test the feasibility of a novel hypothesis that cells can see and handle irreparable mtDNA damage.
Ivan Moreno-Hernandez, assistant professor of chemistry, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, will build expertise in the application of AI for systems beyond hydrogen generation.
Daniel Nussbaum, Associate Professor of Surgery, School of Medicine, will build on a cross-institutional platform to bring T cell receptor therapy to pancreatic cancer patients.
Pengfei Song, associate professor of biomedical engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, will be investigating the use of ultrasound technology to develop all-acoustic solutions that integrate therapy and imaging for neurological disorders.