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CTSA Program Communications Guidance Document
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October 05, 2021What is the real-world impact of our network? That is a question the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program has been trying to answer since its inception. Over the past four years, the Center for Leading Innovation and Collaboration has pitched in on that effort, knitting together several tried and trusted evaluation methods to develop a new Stakeholder-Engaged Research Impact
October 13, 2021The Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research welcomes ten Richmond-area community members, researchers and advocates to a new board that will foster communication between members of the community and Virginia Commonwealth University researchers. The Greater Richmond Community Advisory Board will guide and inform research at VCU by defining research priorities, evaluating projects and
October 12, 2021In 2017, Jeffrey Bazarian, M.D., M.P.H., a concussion researcher at the University of Rochester Medical Center, wanted to pull together a national network of concussion clinics to run multi-site clinical trials. He turned to the University of Rochester Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) and Trial Innovation Network (TIN) for help and ended up connecting with a group already
October 08, 2021In a recent article in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science (JCTS), a Medical University of South Carolina team describes an internship in the College of Graduate Studies (CGS) that aims to build lay communication skills in scientists in training. The internship is a collaboration between the CGS, the Office of Communications and Marketing, and the South Carolina Clinical and
October 08, 2021Sense of smell or taste returns within six months for 4 out of every 5 COVID-19 survivors who have lost these senses, and those under 40 are more likely to recover these senses than older adults, an ongoing Virginia Commonwealth University study found. Among 798 respondents to the ongoing COVID-19 smell and taste loss survey who had tested positive for COVID-19 and reported a loss of smell or
October 06, 2021Inflammasomes were discovered in 2002, and almost 20 years later, the number of diseases for which the molecule has treatment implications continues to expand. “It’s amazing how the implications are growing to so many different diseases, whether it’s gout, heart disease, cancer or addiction,” said P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., VCU’s vice president for research and innovation. “Even more recently, in the
October 06, 2021Moises Huaman, MD, associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Cincinnati and 2020 KL2 Program Graduate, will be one of three researchers for a virtual panel discussion “A Conversation with Latinx Researchers,” from 2:00-3:00p.m. on Thursday, October 14, 2021. Register for “A Conversation with Latinx Researchers”. The webinar will be
October 05, 2021The NCATS Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs help foster small business participation in research and development as well as technology commercialization. These programs are engines of innovation, offering grants, contracts and technical assistance to small businesses and academic research organizations. There are many benefits to
October 05, 2021Guizhi “Julian” Zhu, Ph.D., a Virginia Commonwealth University Wright Center KL2 Scholar alum and assistant professor in the VCU School of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutics, was awarded a five-year grant totaling $1.9 million to study a molecule with implications for the treatment of cancer, genetic diseases and more. The award, which started on Sept. 18, will fund Zhu and his team’s work on
October 04, 2021Efforts to educate and promote the COVID-19 vaccine continue and rates have gone up, but there are still communities struggling to get vaccinated. Whether low vaccination rates are due to misinformation or lack of accessibility, it has become apparent that not all communities in the U.S. are suffering in the same ways from the COVID-19 pandemic. Several groups in California have made it their
October 04, 2021The SC Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) at the University of Southern California (USC) and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) just received a perfect score of 10 – a rare accomplishment – on its $50M application to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to renew the Clinical and Translational Science Award that supports the SC CTSI. We anticipate that this outstanding
October 01, 2021October is Liver Cancer Awareness Month. Viral hepatitis is the leading cause of liver cancer worldwide. There are established treatments and vaccines for prevention. Unfortunately, barriers prevent the people who most need this care from receiving it. Meet two Mayo Clinic health equity researchers-- Essa Mohamed, Ph.D., and his mentor Lewis Roberts, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D., --who have made it their
September 30, 2021As the country rides a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, it faces a riptide that’s threatening its course. The delta variant, the now-predominant strain of coronavirus, prompted President Joe Biden’s call for booster shots for all vaccinated adults on Aug. 18 and underscored discussions at a research summit that ran parallel to the president’s nationwide address. “This is, of course, something
September 29, 2021Maria Chondronikola, Ph.D., RDN, an early-stage investigator, is an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition, and an emergent voice at the University of California, Davis, with an impressive depth of experience in nutrition and metabolism research. Her previous studies have focused on understanding the role of thermogenic adipose tissue in health and disease, the pathophysiology of
September 29, 2021Many children who undergo tracheostomy placement, a surgical placement of breathing tubes for upper airways, endure repeated bacterial respiratory tract infections. These infections lead to frequent hospitalizations. Unfortunately, clinicians have lacked evidence-based guidelines for diagnosing and treating these infections with antibiotics. Now Christopher Russell, MD, MS, a former SC Clinical
September 29, 2021We sat down (virtually!) with Dr. Nhu Tran, a recipient of the SC CTSI Mentored Career Development in Clinical and Translational Science award. We hear about her new K23 grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research, within the National Institutes of Health, and what she hopes to learn. Congratulations to Dr. Tran on this great accomplishment! 1. In layperson’s terms, tell us a little
September 29, 2021In the early days of the pandemic, with commercial COVID tests in short supply, Rockefeller’s Robert B. Darnell developed an in-house assay to identify positive cases within the Rockefeller community. It turned out to be easier and safer to administer than the tests available at the time, and it has been used tens of thousands of times over the past nine months to identify and isolate infected
September 27, 2021OHSU startup, Inherent Targeting, is among the Pacific Northwest-based startups selected to present at the Pacific Northwest Startup Showcase & Social on Tuesday, October 12 from 10am-12pm. Inherent Targeting improves surgical outcomes with high contrast, nerve-specific fluorescent dyes that help surgeons visualize buried nerves and distinguish them from surrounding tissue. This reduces patient
September 23, 2021Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, program director of the UC Davis CTSC Community Engagement program, was invited to provide commentary on another team's publication. The article, published Sept. 15, focuses on farmworkers’ lack of access to health care during COVID-19.
September 23, 2021The UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities, in close collaboration with UC Davis CTSC Community Engagement program, partnered with the Solano County Behavioral Health Division (SCBH) and three community-based organizations to carry out the project. The Solano County Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Cultural Transformation Model (ICCTM) project is anchored in the national Culturally and
September 23, 2021Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), and the University of Kentucky (UK) are teaming up to develop a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) research network to support translational science across the criminal justice continuum. Criminal justice settings provide an opportunity to engage difficult-to-reach
September 22, 2021Digital health technologies are poised to change the way we study health, develop therapies and treat diseases. In the fall of 2020, the University of Rochester Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) launched the Digital Health Seedling, a new one-year award of up to $25,000 for studies that use or develop digital health tools, methods or approaches such as electronic medical
September 22, 2021As part of the University of Rochester Medical Center's (URMC) Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan, the University of Rochester Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) is establishing a new Office for Health Equity Research. The new office will support health equity research across the university and foster a deeper understanding of the root causes of health disparities and the
September 22, 2021Register now for the 10th Annual Health Informatics & Data Science Symposium at Georgetown University. This event will be held, virtually, October 8th from 9 AM - 12:30 PM. Featured are presentations from Dr. Anant Madabhushi, Ph.D.; Dr. Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD., Ph.D.; Iker Huerga, M. Sc.; as well as our Keynote Speaker, Dr. Amy Abernathy who will speak on the topic: "Future of Digital Health
September 21, 2021Our summer internship program mentor discusses her longstanding commitment to working with refugee, asylum seeker, and immigrant communities. Altaf Saadi, MD, MSc, is an instructor in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where she is also associate director of the MGH Asylum Clinic at the Center for Global Health and principal investigator of the Neurodisparities and Health Justice
September 21, 2021A Rochester company that developed a device that reduces the size of eye droplets by 60% won the grand prize of the Minnesota Cup on Monday night, beating nearly 2,000 other companies that entered what has become the largest statewide competition for startups in Minnesota. Led by a Mayo Clinic medical student, Nanodropper Inc. won the $50,000 grand prize, in addition to $25,000 for winning its
September 21, 2021A team of MUSC researchers report in Frontiers in Immunology that they have identified a type of fat known as a sphingolipid that could predict the severity of heart disease in African American patients with lupus. The team was led by Samar M. Hammad, Ph.D., associate professor in the MUSC College of Medicine, and the study was funded in part by a pilot project grant from the South Carolina
September 20, 2021Peter Elkin and Kristi Holmes talk about data science education for informatics in their Insights to Inspire webcast. Insights to Inspire 2021, Informatics: The Journey to Interoperability launched in July to help CTSA Program hubs improve their informatics capabilities. The first five webcasts in the series of 12 provide baseline knowledge to help you get started on your journey. Once you’ve
September 16, 2021Three Virginia Commonwealth University researchers were awarded funding that will support the expansion of their health research and translation of that research into improved care for patients. Wendy Bottinor, M.D., and Mathula Thangarajh, M.D., Ph.D., both from the VCU School of Medicine, and Jiong Li, Ph.D., from the VCU School of Pharmacy, are VCU’s 2021 KL2 scholars. The KL2 Mentored Career
September 16, 2021In March of 2020, the pandemic drove Coloradans to enter lockdown mode. This was no different for researchers on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. The result was that research operations were completely shuttered unless they were related to COVID-19 or essential to patient care. A group of researchers from across the country wanted to learn how different institutions handled closing research down