CSR’s primary role is to handle the receipt and review of all grant applications that NIH receives. NIH separates the review process from funding decisions.
For Reviewers
Reviewers are critical to our mission to see that NIH grant applications receive, fair, independent, expert, and timely scientific reviews. We appreciate the generosity with which reviewers give their time.
Study Sections
Applications are reviewed in study sections (Scientific Review Groups, SRGs). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline.
Review Meetings
Applications are reviewed in study sections (Scientific Review Groups, SRGs). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline.
Evaluation Initiatives
Access data visualizations, reports, and analytical tools to track progress.
About CSR
Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted.
The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit
cc.nih.gov.
Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at
OPM.gov.
Dr. Lisa Steele serves as Chief of the Epidemiology and Population Health Review Branch (EPH RB).Dr. Lisa Steele received her Ph.D. in immunology from Harvard University with an emphasis on CD8 T cell responses to microbial pathogens. Following her graduate work, she entered CDC as a CDC/APHL…
Dr. Liying Guo received her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and completed her postdoctoral training at the Laboratory of Immunology (LI), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Before joining…
Dr. Lystranne Maynard-Smith obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University with a focus on development of a chemical biology approach to controlling protein stability. She then pursued her postdoctoral training in the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry, NIDDK with an emphasis on…
Dr. Elena Shiffert earned her Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, studying the effects of estrogen receptor alpha on cancer regression in mouse models. She trained as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Training Program in Breast Cancer Biology at Georgetown University,…
Dr. Mairi Noverr received her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Michigan. She spent the majority of her career in academia, with over 20 years of research experience, and most recently held a full professorship in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane…
Dr. Manas Chattopadhyay received his Ph.D. in biological science from the Bose Institute and Jadavpur University, both in India. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Jikei University School of Medicine in Japan and the National Institutes of Health, USA. Prior to joining CSR, Dr. Chattopadhyay…
Dr. Manzoor A. Zarger received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology, and conducted his postdoctoral studies at Thomas Jefferson University, where he was at the forefront of apoptosis research discovering various caspases, death receptors, and anti-apoptotic molecules, and their roles in…
Dr. Maqsood Wani serves as Chief of the Cell and Developmental Biology Review Branch (CDB RB).
Dr. Maqsood Wani received his Ph.D. at the Ohio State University and did his postdoctoral work at the University of Cincinnati where he was also a new investigator in Program of Excellence in Molecular…
Dr. Marc Boulay received his Ph.D. in international health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he then served as an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society and as the Deputy Director for Program Evaluation in the School’s Center for…
Dr. Marci Scidmore received her Ph.D. in molecular biology from Princeton University. After her postdoctoral training at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) studying host-pathogen interactions of Chlamydia, she continued her NIH-…
Dr. Marcus Ferrone received his PharmD. degree in nuclear medicine/pharmacy from the University of Tennessee after completing his undergraduate and graduate studies in synthetic organometallic chemistry at Emory University. Dr. Ferrone completed his clinical residency at Columbus Regional Medical…
Dr. Maria Cardenas-Corona joined CSR following her retirement as a research professor emeritus of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University School of Medicine. During her academic career, her studies focused on the elucidation of the mechanism of action of the anti-cancer,…
Dr. Maria Chiara Monaco received her Ph.D. in Toxicology at the University of Bologna in Italy, where she studied the role of HIV in human tonsillar stromal cells and the function of natural killer (NK) cells in aging. She then became a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Neurological…
Dr. Maria DeBernardi is an Assistant Director in the Division of Receipt and Referral (DRR) at the Center for Scientific Review (CSR).
Prior to this position, she served as Scientific Review Officer in the Interdisciplinary Molecular Sciences and Training review group for seven years. Her primary…
Dr. Dolores Arjona earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry at the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid in Spain. She subsequently completed her postdoctoral training at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Neuro-Oncology Branch at NCI. Her main research efforts were focused on…
Dr. Mariam Zaka obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Thomas Jefferson University, where she studied the mechanism of myelin breakdown in Krabbe disease. She received postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurology at Thomas Jefferson University and investigated the…
After receiving her Ph.D. in medical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she joined the New York State Psychiatric Institute as a staff scientist, working in PET neuroreceptor imaging to understand mental illness.In 2004, she joined the imaging department at Merck and Co,…