Mike's Blog
Mike's Blog can be found every month in the Ansible, the CTSA Program newsletter. Want to receive Mike's Blog in your inbox every month? Subscribe to the Ansible.
- By: Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation A major emphasis of the CTSA Program is ‘translating’ scientific discoveries into practical, implementable interventions, procedures, and general advice that positively impact human health. What has become abundantly clear is that the academic medicine tendency to throw complex scientific analyses through the
- Guest Blog by Dr. Joni L. Rutter, PhD. NCATS Director This is my second guest appearance on Mike’s Blog, but my first time writing as the permanent director of NCATS. While my title is new, I am not new to NCATS or to this incredible community. I joined NCATS in 2019 as deputy director, and I subsequently stepped in to serve as NCATS acting director, a role I held for the past year and a half. At
- By: Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation Rob Califf’s keynote address at the Annual CTSA Program meeting last November was quite sobering and could be succinctly summarized as ‘US health is regressing.’ A recent long read in The Atlantic offers an equally sobering view on the general state of progress in the US across the technological spectrum. While
- By: Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation As 2022 comes to a close, from the federal perspective, we have already begun FY23 (as of Oct 1). As is typical, NIH (along with the rest of the US government) is operating under a continuing resolution (CR) through December 16, now only about two weeks away. There is already talk of another CR extending
- By: Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation While the first in-person CTSA Annual Program meeting in three years was well attended (nearly 400 participants), a recap of my update is presented here, especially for those unable to attend. I unfortunately must start off with some less than pleasant news. Becky Jackson, the long serving PI of the Ohio State
- By: Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation During my undergraduate years, we frequently remarked that our intro textbooks were written by Tom, Dick, and Harry. Tom Apostol wrote the intro math text, Dick Feynman wrote the intro physics text, and Harry Gray wrote the intro chemistry text and since those three typically taught those intro courses (using
- By: Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation As a result of the release of the latest CTSA suite of FOAs, there has been vigorous discussion regarding the usage of ‘translational science’ and ‘translational research.’ And while some use these terms interchangeably, others regard these concepts as distinct as geology versus philosophy. Here then is the
- By: Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation We are now solidly into the ‘dog days of summer’ which does happen to have the singular advantage for those of us in DC that Congress also takes their summer break during this time when the heat and humidity are worst. For those wondering why we use the term ‘dog days,’ this originates with the star, Sirius
- By: Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation Over the last 2.5 years many COVID related concepts have had their day in the sun only to wither and fall by the wayside (‘flatten the curve,’ ‘herd immunity,’ e.g.), all the while the COVID train just keeps on rolling. While many anticipated the omicron wave last winter to be the virus’ last hurrah, since that
- “Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world,” so said Hans Zinnser, one of the infectious disease giants from the early 20th century. Not only did he name a disease (Brill-Zinsser disease), but also isolate the organism (Rickettsia prowazekii) as well as make the vaccine and a textbook. He was also a medical war hero (WWI) and mentored John Enders (who went on to
- By: Sanae ElShourbagy Ferreira, Ph.D., NCATS Health Specialist, Division of Clinical Innovation; Erica Rosemond, Ph.D., NCATS Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation; Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation After over two years of remote work with virtually everything virtual, NIH has embarked on ‘return to work’ (at least 1 day per
- I, like many others will be looking forward to the upcoming ACTS meeting in Chicago this month for the first 3D meeting in two years. Hopefully BA.2 will remain muted, at least in the Chicago area which is currently rated ‘low’ by the CDC’s community level measure. Closer to home in the DC region, there has been some other activity over the past several weeks that has engendered some other
- Guest Blog by Erica Rosemond, Ph.D., NCATS Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation The NCATS team is excited to connect with the CTSA community in 3D at the 2022 CTSA Program Group Meetings in April, in conjunction with the annual Translational Science Meeting! At least this is what we hope! It seems that every second week we are re-assessing the situation with COVID as new
- By: Michael G. Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation As we enter 2022, these words of Yogi Berra - baseball legend and philosopher - ring true and should engender some much-needed humility. Berra also offered sound advice to scientists: “you can observe a lot by just watching,” as well as an appropriate assessment on our overall public health response: “we
- By: Michael G. Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation COVID continues to prove itself remarkably tenacious and provided a Thanksgiving surprise with a new variant of concern, omicron. For those keeping track, we’re now about two-thirds of the way through the Greek alphabet. If we run out of Greek letters, WHO has considered using constellations which means the
- By: Michael G. Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation The last 21 months have witnessed the most significant upheaval in our lives, both professional as well as personal due to COVID (and we’re still not out of the woods yet). During this time, NCATS has managed to issue the next generation suite of FOAs for the CTSA program as well as hold two technical
By: Audie Atienza, Ph.D., NCATS Program Officer; Sanae ElShourbagy Ferreira, Ph.D., NCATS Health Specialist; and Michael G. Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation While SARS-CoV-2 has demonstrated remarkable tenacity in terms of successfully navigating pharmaceutical as well as non-pharmaceutical interventions with waves of new variants throughout this pandemic
First a bit on COVID, then a small request. COVID will surely provide a wealth of material for future Monday morning armchair quarterbacking. One aspect (among many) of the overall public health response that has received harsh and severe criticism has been the approach, style, and substance of communications with the general public. From the WHO’s early tagline of ‘we have no evidence’ to the
A publication in Science Translational Medicine from last month, ‘Undiagnosed SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States’ is noteworthy for several highlights. Beyond the science of the article itself, the fact that this work represents the efforts of two CTSAs (University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for Clinical and Translational Science
- By: Dr. Sanae ElShourbagy Ferreira, NCATS Health Specialist and Dr. Michael G. Kurilla, NCATS Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation Although COVID-19 infections are decreasing and vaccinations among the adult population hover around 50%, COVID-19 is not quite yet in our rear-view mirror due to a combination of uncertainty regarding durability of immunity conferred by either vaccination