CSR’s primary role is to handle the receipt and review of ~ 75% of the 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.
News & Policy
The latest news and policy updates from CSR. Read about our outreach programs and publications.
Study Sections
Applications are reviewed in study sections (Scientific Review Group, SRG). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline.
Review Panels & Dates
Applications are reviewed in study sections (Scientific Review Group, SRG). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline.
Dr. Rupali Das received her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock. Dr. Das trained at the Medical College of Wisconsin and then at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she gained expertise in topics related to immune…
Dr. Shannon Sherman received her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Delaware. She then joined the J. Craig Venter Institute as the Director of Environmental Virology where her research focused on virus-host interactions…
Dr. Aleksey Kazantsev received his Ph.D. in biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; his mentor was Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Dr. Aziz Sancar. Dr. Kazantsev conducted his postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology…
Dr. Christopher Payne received his Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology at the Oregon Health and Science University, where he studied the mechanisms regulating cytoskeletal and membrane dynamics during mammalian fertilization. Following postdoctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer…
Dr. Cristina Bäckman received her early education in Sweden, Linköping university. She received her Ph.D. in neuroscience form the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. Before joining CSR, she was an intramural researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Her laboratory…
Dr. Lai Yee Leung received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Wayne State University, and continued her post-doctoral training at the Center for Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) under the National Research Council Research Associateship Program. At…
Dr. Lisa Lewis received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where her work focused on microbial iron acquisition systems. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in gene regulation and microbial genomics. Prior…
Dr. Raquel Velazquez-Kronen earned her Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She completed a predoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, where she evaluated health risks associated with occupational radiation exposures. Prior to joining CSR…
Dr. Sung-Wook Jang received his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from University of Wisconsin-Madison with his interest in Schwann cell myelination whose defects are known to be associated with many human diseases including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Subsequently, Dr. Jang had postdoctoral…
Dr. Amber Collins received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University’s Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. From there, she began her postdoctoral training in mechanical engineering at the University of…
I’m extremely busy this semester and don’t see how I can finish all my critiques in time. What’s the harm in asking my senior postdoc to help me out?
Which relationships constitute a conflict of interest in initial peer review?
Which relationships do NOT constitute a conflict?
Are training…
Dr. Abdelouahab Aitouche is the Scientific Review Officer for the CSR’s Physiology and Pathobiology of Organ Systems Study Sections. He coordinates the review process of various fellowship grant application mechanisms.
Dr. Aitouche did his undergraduate studies in his native country Algeria. He…
Dr. Barry Margulies received B.S. at MIT in Applied Biological Sciences, with research in controlled release technology. He earned his Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in biochemistry, cellular, and molecular biology, where he studied the G protein-coupled receptors encoded…
Dr. David Filpula received his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Minnesota and completed postdoctoral training in protein chemistry and molecular genetics at Stanford University and the University of California, San Diego. Subsequently, he served for nearly three decades as a research…
Dr. Ramos-Lopez holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, Spain. She completed her doctoral studies on the development of vaccines against leishmaniasis in a canine model. Then, she pursued postdoctoral training at the Icahn School of Medicine…
Scientific and health breakthroughs are heralded in the press almost every day. You often can trace them back—directly or indirectly—to one or more NIH peer review groups that found promise in an application. To illustrate the point, we share the following stories:
Geneticist Advances…
Dr. Andrea Gobin studied biomimetics and received her Ph.D. from Rice University. She obtained post-doctoral training in naturally derived biomaterials, specifically silk fibroin and emodin for muscular and skin tissue engineering applications, at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.…
Dr. Aruna Behera received her Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from Delhi University, India, and did her postdoctoral training at the Division of Allergy and Immunology, University of South Florida, where she examined the molecular pathogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. Her…
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…
After Receiving a M.D. from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Dr. Nketi Forbang completed a General Surgery Internship at Howard University Hospital. This was followed by a T32-Fellowhip in Integrated Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), School…
Dr. Reigh-Yi Lin received her Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed post-doctoral training at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Lin was an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology of the Mount Sinai…
Dr. Wenjuan Wang received her Ph.D. in population and reproductive health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Before joining CSR, she worked as the deputy director of research for the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program at ICF in Rockville, MD. While there, Dr. Wang…
Dr. Wenyan Han received her Ph.D. in neuropharmacology from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University in China, where she studied neuropeptides and drug addiction. She then completed postdoctoral research training at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the National Institute of…
Dr. Guillermo Bermejo earned his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in the field of biophysics/structural biology, largely focusing on the computational analysis of data from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to facilitate the protein structure elucidation process. He then conducted…
Dr. Santanu Banerjee received his Ph.D. in life sciences from Bose Institute, Calcutta, India and did a brief postdoctoral training at University of Rochester Medical Center (NY), working on the role of transcription factors on T-cell differentiation. From there, he to Massachusetts General…