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CTSA Program Communications Guidance Document
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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 22, 2021Clinical trials help researchers discover and apply critical advances in patient care. Clinical trials follow rigorous scientific processes that usually take many years to complete. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been able to see and experience clinical trials operating on fast-forward. And a lot of people are wondering, "How do clinical trials work?" In this Q&A, the Mayo
June 16, 2021An international team of researchers, led by UC Davis Health, has developed a new therapeutic approach to treating psoriatic arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the joints. Using a novel chemical blocker targeting chemokine proteins, the researchers were able to significantly reduce skin and joint inflammation in a mouse model with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. What is
June 16, 2021The Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences announced three partnerships selected to receive funding through the 2021-2022 Partnership Development and Sustainability Support (PDSS) program. This funding program provides up to $10,000 to new and existing community-academic partnerships for a 9-month period. It enables partners to develop the trust, infrastructure
June 16, 2021Throughout the pandemic, doctors have seen evidence that men with COVID-19 fare worse, on average, than women with the infection. One theory is that hormonal differences between men and women may make men more susceptible to severe disease. And since men have much more testosterone than women, some scientists have speculated that high levels of testosterone may be to blame. But a new study from
June 16, 2021Months after recovering from mild cases of COVID-19, people still have immune cells in their body pumping out antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Such cells could persist for a lifetime, churning out antibodies all the while. The findings, published May 24 in the journal Nature, suggest
June 14, 2021N3C Orientation Sessions A & B will now be offered just once-per-month (once for session A and once for session B). Sessions A & B will continue to alternate on a rotating basis. View the N3C Calendar for scheduled days and times. Previously recorded sessions can still be accessed on demand on the N3C Presentations & Webinars page of the website.
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
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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