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CTSA Program Communications Guidance Document
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July 30, 2021Former KL2 Scholar Dr. Javier López is an associate professor at the University of California Davis and the medical director of the university’s Cardiac and Vascular Rehabilitation Program. He researches biological processes that put patients who had a heart attack and received treatments for it at risk of having another. He also works in a student-run clinic to provide free care to patients
July 28, 2021Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute released the latest episode of its Engage Podcast featuring research into diseases of despair in Pennsylvania communities. Daniel George, associate professor of humanities and public health sciences, discusses the results of a research study that conducted focus groups in Pennsylvania communities affected by diseases of despair. Princeton
July 28, 2021“Funding through the Georgia CTSA Pilot Grants program was invaluable to me as an early career scholar. It has provided me opportunities for ongoing research projects and continued collaboration with leading researchers in my field,” says Dr. Alexis Bender. As a grant recipient, Alexis Bender, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Emory University, has received numerous benefits from funding-
July 27, 2021Financial instability, lack of infrastructure, a deteriorating sense of community and family fragmentation are key contributors to diseases of despair in Pennsylvania communities, according to Penn State College of Medicine and Highmark Health researchers. The researchers conducted four focus groups in Pennsylvania communities identified as having high rates of despair-related illnesses. Diseases
July 27, 2021We are thrilled to announce our recent publication in the journal Learning Health Systems! Congratulations to the pioneering authors behind this groundbreaking work! "Clarifying the concept of a learning health system for healthcare delivery organizations: Implications from a qualitative analysis of the scientific literature" From the abstract: The “learning health system” (LHS) concept has been
July 26, 2021In collaboration with the Technology Transfer and Collaborations & Entrepreneurship offices at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute (OCTRI) announced three new funded projects for the 2021 drug discovery track of the Biomedical Innovation Program. This program supports drug discovery platforms and early-stage therapeutic technology
July 26, 2021A discussion with Andrea Califano and narrative medicine writer, Rita Charon: Art and science unfold in time as chronological sightings overturn until-then received knowledge—from the epic to the novel, from classical portraiture to cubism, from before Copernicus to after Copernicus. Art and science unfold in space as discoverers choose a scale and a scope—from parole to langue, from harmony to
July 23, 2021The CCTSI responded to the pandemic by issuing a rapid-release RFA to address COVID-19. CCTSI leaders called it the COVID-19-Rapid Research Pilot Program. They released the RFA on Monday evening, March 30 and closed the application process just four days later. This new pilot grant program supported the development of novel diagnostic and treatment methods and innovative technologies related to
July 23, 2021Adit Ginde, MD, and the Colorado Clinical Translational Sciences Institute team are spreading the word about monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to lurk in many communities, aided by vaccine hesitancy and the emergence of disease mutations like the Delta variant, physicians are still looking for effective ways to treat those who test positive for the
July 23, 2021LITTLE ROCK — A statewide COVID-19 antibody study led by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) found that by the end of 2020, 7.4% of Arkansans had antibodies to the virus, but there were wide disparities among racial and ethnic groups. UAMS researchers released their findings this week to a public database, medRxiv (med archive). The study included analysis of more than 7,500
July 22, 2021When thinking about diversity and inclusion, consider music. A symphony orchestra is comprised of the strings, the woodwinds, the brass and percussion. Without one, you lose the depth of sound. Without them all, you lose the genius of Beethoven or Mozart. In medicine and clinical research, innovation and widespread impact cannot be achieved unless representation from every section of culture and
July 22, 2021The CTSA program was developed to accelerate new treatments from the lab to patients, enabled to a large extent by patients participating in and benefiting from clinical trials. Clinical trials provide that needed bridge from human subjects to hypotheses to treatments that can directly benefit human health. And, never has this connection been more critical than amid the global COVID-19 pandemic
July 20, 2021No champion race car driver can win without a dedicated pit crew. The same is true in medical research. Thanks to their “pit crew” Mayo Clinic researchers were able to repurpose an experimental therapy, called lenzilumab, for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, and from there into a phase three clinical trial — all in about one year. "I think we’ve accomplished in this year what normally would take
July 20, 2021Two-year faculty fellowship supports junior faculty at critical juncture. This past year, as a new attending physician in pediatric gastroenterology at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dennis Spencer has been juggling his clinical responsibilities and his clinical research, studies which he hopes “may unearth a new prebiotic that would allow us to bolster the gut’s microbiome and protect those at risk
July 20, 2021Medical students from across the U.S. virtually participate in our annual summer c/t research internship program. This summer, students will fire up their computers and learn from Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers as part of our Visiting Research Internship Program (VRIP). This annual program, offered by our Diversity Inclusion program, gives medical school students from across the U.S. the
July 20, 2021Our summer intern discusses her research evaluating healthcare spending & clinical outcomes among disadvantaged populations. Where do you go to school, and what are you studying? I’m an MD-PhD student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m currently in the graduate phase of my training and am studying epidemiology. Who is your mentor and what is your project? I’m excited to be working with
July 19, 2021Shelby Williams, BSN, RN, has been named the Director of Clinical and Translational Science Unit (CTSU) Rainbow at the University of Kansas Medical Center, effective July 6, 2021. Williams will direct the operations at CTSU Rainbow and supervise the CTSU nursing and research staff. She will also serve as a resource for the other Frontiers CTSUs at KUMC Fairway, KU Wichita, and Children's Mercy-
July 19, 2021The federal Health Resources and Services Administration awarded Penn State College of Medicine $2.2 million over the next five years to establish a primary care research fellowship. This fellowship program will train investigators to address various physical and mental health challenges – including the opioid and mental health crises – that affect communities in central Pennsylvania and beyond
July 18, 2021With funding from CTSI, University of Minnesota researchers worked with local Indigenous community partners to develop evidence-based and culturally appropriate COVID-19 resources, creating three distinct fact sheets on staying healthy and staying connected during the pandemic. The project, “Helping Indigenous communities stay connected in light of COVID-19,” was conducted by the Memory Keepers
July 15, 2021The Foundations of Biomedical Data Science at the University of Virginia hosted its fifth annual Biomedical Data Science Innovation Lab (BDSIL): Challenges in Brain Analytics and Data Integration on June 21-25, 2021. The BDSIL is an intensive program partially sponsored by iTHRIV and NIH Grant #R25GM139080 that has virtual and in-person components designed to foster the development of
July 14, 2021Emergency departments across the United States experienced a surge in opioid overdose cases during the pandemic. Now, a program at VCU Health aims to help those patients receive the treatment they need after they leave the emergency department. The new VCU Health Virtual Bridge Clinic creates a direct link between the emergency department and treatment programs for patients with opioid use
July 14, 2021“It was surreal, it seemed like this day would never come at times,” says Jacqueline Zayas, of the many hours spent in the lab and classroom working toward her M.D., and Ph.D. For as long as she could remember, Dr. Zayas, who hails from Miami, Fla., says she would tell her family that she wanted to become a doctor. The M.D. - Ph.D. program, offered by the Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and
July 07, 2021Sample code templates developed by the iTHRIV CTSA team enable rapid analytics onboarding to the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Data Enclave. The National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Data Enclave is an analytics platform containing clinical data from electronic health records from over 55 sites around the country. This data from SARS-CoV-2 positive patients (and matched controls)
VCU Wright Center: COVID-19 survivor and ACTIV-1 trials participant looks forward to traveling again
July 06, 2021When Linda Thompson retired from the Virginia Department of Transportation in 2019, she started a new job the next day — getting fit. “My new job was going to American Family Fitness and getting in the pool and doing water aerobics,” said Thompson, 72. “I was really in bad shape when I retired. So it was time for me to take care of Linda.” Thompson lost 60 pounds over the next year. The exercise-
July 06, 2021Some regions of the human genome where the DNA can fold into unusual three-dimensional structures called G-quadruplexes (G4s) show signs that they are preserved by natural selection. When G4s are located in the regulatory sequences that control how genes are expressed or in other functional, but non-protein-coding, regions of the genome, they are maintained by selection, are more common, and their
July 01, 2021Alberto Ramos, M.D., M.S.P.H., Associate Professor of Neurology, CTSI KL2 Graduate, and Research Director of the Sleep Disorders Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, was awarded a five-year $13 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the impact of obstructive sleep apnea on the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in Hispanic adults.
July 01, 2021Vitamin C, an essential dietary nutrient for humans, has been touted for its immune boosting properties for more than half a century. More recently, research has revealed its greater potential as a treatment for blood cancers. In her ongoing research, Miami CTSI Pilot Award recipient and Principal Investigator Luisa Cimmino, Ph.D., explores the potential of Vitamin C to combat blood cancers such as leukemia.
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June 30, 2021Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute released the latest episode of its Engage Podcast highlighting one of its Translational Research Training Program (TL1) scholars, Brianna Evans. Evans discusses her love of research, her passion for diversity in science and her research project as part of Sue Grigson’s lab. The National Institutes of Health-funded Translational Research
June 29, 2021June is National Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness month. Scientists supported by the CTSA Program are contributing important research to help patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Click on the boxes below to learn more about what these researchers are studying and how the CTSA Program is impacting the field of neuroscience.
