News
CTSA Program Communications Guidance Document
Learn about the different avenues for sharing, submitting and amplifying CTSA Program-related communications by both NCATS and CLIC
CTSA Program Twitter Channel
Keep up-to-date on what is happening in the consortium
Black Voices in Research: University of Florida CTSI Provides a Platform for Underrepresented Voices
May 14, 2021The University of Florida CTSI is examining long-standing and unspoken issues of racial injustice, equality and diversity within the working environment of the clinical research professional workforce. Dressed in black, Tiffany Danielle Chisholm Pineda stood on a stage and spoke about her experience as a Black research professional working to eliminate personal biases in scientists. “Most of the
June 11, 2021The University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UW ICTR) has developed comprehensive Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) resources to support the translational research process. A recent publication in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science describes the essential role of stakeholder engagement in the evolution of the UW ICTR Community and Collaboration
June 11, 2021Dr. Elizabeth Ofili, a principal investigator at the Georgia CTSA, gives a 4x4 presentation at the Un-Meeting. Researchers across the country gathered virtually last month to discuss outreach to community hospitals for recruitment and enrollment into clinical trials at the CLIC-hosted Un-Meeting “Exploring the Inclusion of Community Hospitals in Clinical Research.” The topic, chosen by the
June 11, 2021Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, professor of clinical internal medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine, and director of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities and the Community Engagement Program of the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center, has been chosen to receive the 2021 Hibbard Williams Extraordinary Achievement Award. The award is intended to recognize a broad range
June 10, 2021People who successfully fight off COVID-19 without showing symptoms have much higher levels of IgG antibodies against the virus’s spike protein than do patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19, reports a research team led by Shikhar Mehrotra, Ph.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in a recent issue of iScience. The researchers screened for the IgG antibody to the viral spike
June 08, 2021Hongfang Liu, PhD, leader of the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Natural Language Processing (NLP) Subgroup, has created a process for extracting important variables from the free text or unstructured portion of the electronic health record (EHR). Liu’s process will allow researchers to test their algorithm on data provided by the N3C to see how well it can de-identify unstructured data-
June 07, 2021The N3C article authored by Noha Sharafeldin, MD, PhD, MSc, et al has been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The authors assembled the largest nationally representative cohort of patients with cancer and COVID-19 to date and identified demographic and clinical factors associated with increased all-cause mortality in patients with cancer. See Outcomes of COVID-19 in Patients With
June 07, 2021‘One quick question’ was the reason Robert Meller, DPhil, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Pharmacology, Morehouse School of Medicine, initially contacted the Georgia CTSA. Dr. Meller was preparing a grant proposal for a research project testing a new technology for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. His question led to discovering a wealth of Georgia CTSA resources available to support
June 03, 2021Abusive head trauma (AHT) is one of the leading causes of traumatic death and disability in infants and young children in the United States. A missed diagnosis can lead to death if the child is mistakenly returned to an abusive situation. For the first time, Penn State researchers, including lead investigator Dr. Kent Hymel, professor of pediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine, have conducted
June 02, 2021The iTHRIV Research Data Commons is a new solution that provides health researchers and data stewards with a single interface to manage, share and use research data throughout its lifecycle, from initial design and approval through data collection and analysis, and ultimately publication. The product facilitates access while enhancing compliance, making it a win for both research teams and
June 01, 2021Heather Siefkes, assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Pediatrics, has received the 2021 Eli Gold Prize. Siefkes works in the Pediatric and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at UC Davis Children’s Hospital and serves as medical director of Project ADAM Sacramento, which helps schools prepare for a sudden cardiac emergency through AED and CPR training. The prize was named for Eli Gold, former-
June 01, 2021Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute released the latest episode of its Engage Podcast discussing research into healthy aging in the LGBTQ community. Britney Wardecker, Ph.D., an assistant professor of nursing at Penn State College of Nursing, discusses her work into understanding the needs and health care preferences of aging LGBTQ community members. Penn State Clinical and
May 28, 2021May is National Cancer Research Month, and Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program hubs are on the forefront of cancer research. From genetic counseling to mining electronic health records, the CTSA Program is approaching cancer research from multiple directions, with the goal of getting treatments to patients more quickly. Click through the map below to see the contributions hubs
May 28, 2021Our ambassador for Postgraduate Education shares his work which examines how value-based healthcare strategy can transform delivery and promote health equity. Junaid Nabi, MD, MPH, serves on a team of “ambassadors” who introduce our courses and training programs to faculty and scientists, both within and outside of Harvard University. A public health researcher and medical journalist, he is
May 28, 2021A leader in Informatics and creator of Harvard Catalyst Profiles discusses his innovative work to make COVID-19 research data available to the world. Griffin Weber, MD, PhD is the co-faculty lead for Harvard Catalyst’s Informatics team. He’s an associate professor of medicine and biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School and at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), where he directs-
May 26, 2021If you missed the webinar on Weds May 13th presented by Kenneth Gersing, MD, Director of Informatics NCATS DCI entitled Studying COVID-19 Using Real-World Data: Lessons Learned and Steps Forward After One Year of the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), you can now access the recording. Topics include: • Lessons learned after one year of studying COVID-19 using real-world data • Future
- May 26, 2021Researchers with University of Iowa Health Care are working to identify ways to overcome access issues among migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
May 20, 2021Paul “Pee-J” Beverly doesn’t remember being airlifted to VCU Health from Lexington, Va., last fall. In fact, he doesn’t remember much of his COVID-19 experience at all. But his girlfriend, Angela Griffin, does. “It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through,” she said. “Not being able to see him, barely being able to talk to him. And knowing it was touch and go. They pretty much-
May 19, 2021
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and affects more than 10 million people around the world. To better understand the origins of the disease, researchers from Penn State College of Medicine and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed an integrative approach, combining experimental and computational methods, to understand how individual proteins may
May 19, 2021In vaccine clinical trials, the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were shown to be about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19. Now a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses real-world data to show that indeed, those who are 65 years and older who are fully vaccinated are 94% percent less likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 than those who have not been vaccinated
May 19, 2021Children are underrepresented and understudied in clinical trials, limiting the number of children-focused research studies and the overall advancement of pediatric medicine. To address this, Mayo Clinic researchers established a first-of-its-kind Pediatric Advisory Board to engage youth as partners in research and enhance pediatric research participation. A description of the board and results of
May 18, 2021Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has joined the All of Us Research Program, an initiative of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that seeks to recruit 1 million volunteers to build a detailed biomedical data resource that reflects the breadth and diversity of the U.S. population. Washington University will help enroll participants who represent the rich diversity of the St
May 18, 2021Tyrah Vann worked in health care for seven years and holds a Master’s degree in public health. She knew about the health disparities for women of color during pregnancy, birth and post-birth. “However, I still fell victim to it,” she said. “Twice.” Her first baby spent two days in intensive care after Vann’s extreme pre-birth pain was ignored. And Vann still experiences health issues that could’ve
May 17, 2021The Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance (Georgia CTSA) reached out to one of its own experts to employ a novel research approach to evaluate its team connections and dynamics. The aim of this research was to understand the complex web of relationships connecting managers at the top of organizations and how these relationships drive the top team’s performance and the organization’s-
May 11, 2021
The brain accounts for only about 2% of our body’s weight, however it utilizes up to 20% of the body’s energy which is mostly delivered through the blood circulation of oxygen and nutrients. The brain, therefore needs a constant and consistent supply of blood and well-functioning blood vessels. Neurological pathologies, such as Alzheimer’s disease have a connection with impaired blood vessel
May 11, 2021Seemingly overnight, the entire world zeroed in on a single research topic. The World Health Organization had already declared COVID-19 a global health emergency, and in CTSA Program hubs across the United States, health and medical experts faced the same urgent challenge: the speed and efficiency of today’s technologically-driven global economy that enabled the Coronavirus to spread as quickly as
May 10, 2021Dr. Vanita R. Aroda, current Director of the Diabetes Clinical Research Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital and former GHUCCTS KL2 scholar, is featured in the piece "Vanita Aroda: the accidental role model… by no accident" published by The Lancet. Article abstract: Clinical academia is still male-dominated in many fields, including diabetes and endocrinology. This makes the achievements of
-
May 10, 2021
Session recordings and slide presentations are now available from the DC CTSA Consortium's 2021 DC CTSA Spring Regulatory Update & Hot Topics in Clinical and Translational Research. Moving Swiftly to Combat the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis (4/23/21) Keynote, featuring David Diemert, MD, FRCP(C) Panel 1: COVID-19 Vaccine Research, Recruitment, and Testing Panel 2: Regulatory Issues Related to
May 07, 2021Oliver Hurst owes his life to a luckily timed move across the country. His father and mother, who was then three months pregnant with Oliver, arrived in Vilonia from California in March 2020. At the time, UAMS’ Kapil Arya, M.D., was developing strategies as a UAMS Translational Research Institute Implementation Science Scholar to establish statewide newborn screenings for spinal muscular atrophy
May 07, 2021A new study by WashU Med maternal-fetal medicine researchers shows that the novel coronavirus infects maternal and fetal cells in the placenta and alters the balance of hormones that regulate blood pressure. This finding, published in the journal Med, helps explain why coronavirus infection has been linked to serious pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia, that threaten the health of both