Research Development
About the Research Development Unit
Leadership
Dr. Meera Nair, Professor and Associate Dean for Biomedical Research, provides strategic leadership to support, enhance, and expand biomedical research at the School of Medicine and oversees the operations of research facilities, infrastructure, processes, and systems to support efficient and high-quality biomedical research. She has developed expertise in utilizing cutting-edge research technologies to tackle biomedical questions, and experience in advising on instrument acquisition, in obtaining research resources and instrumentation grants, and in training students and researchers on the use of various technologies.
Dr. Michelle Porche, Professor, Internal Medicine, and Director of Clinical Faculty Research Development and Scholarly Activities, has extensive experience in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods design, leading federal, foundation, and state funded health services and disparities research studies. She brings this expertise to the consulting and mentoring provided to SOM clinical faculty to support study design and development of their research, scholarly activities, and dissemination.
Dr. Rodriguez is a Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean of Clinical & Population Health Research. He has served as Principal Investigator on multiple RO1 and U grants, leading national teams examining issues in trauma, public health, and critical care. Recognizing the pivotal role that emergency departments play as the “safety net of the safety net”, much of Dr. Rodriguez’s research centers on emergency healthcare access for underserved populations. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed original research articles in high impact journals and was the recipient of the American College of Emergency Physicians Outstanding Contributions to Research award in 2024 and the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine’s Dr. Sheryl Heron Legacy award in 2025. Dr. Rodriguez considers his services as a research mentor to be his most important contribution to research; he has mentored over 200 students, residents, fellows and junior faculty over the past 25 years. He has received multiple mentoring awards, including the UCSF CTSI Mentor of the Year, the Unidos US Xcellence in Leadership Award, and the UCSF Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award. Dr. Rodriguez has served as an advisor to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the only emergency physician on the Biden/Harris COVID-19 Transition Advisory team.
The Research Development Unit provides assistance to School of Medicine researchers who are developing research programs, including clinical research programs. To advance SOM goals of increasing research capacity, we can help with the following:
- Consultation and mentoring on refining research questions and selecting appropriate methods for quantitative and qualitative research
- Support for development of grant proposals, including review in preparation of first submission or resubmissions
- Provide guidance on approaches to data management, statistical and qualitative analysis, and the presentation of research methods and findings in grant proposals and manuscripts (with referral to biostatistician as needed)
- Consultation on data visualization for conference presentations, manuscripts, and grant proposals (with referral to research writer as needed)
- Review of research design and reporting regarding equitable inclusion of marginalized populations
- Consider various types of scholarly activities including writing academic commentaries or creating video blogs that highlight your clinical expertise
- Writing, editing, and illustration assistance, and navigation through human subjects protocol development and review.
- Medical biostatistics consulting for research study design, database development, and data analysis.
- Assistance with clinical study coordination