eRoundup for 9/26/08
Atlanta Clinical & Translational
Science Institute (ACTSI)
Weekly eRoundup
September 26, 2008
HeLa Conference: Maternal Fetal Exposure Crisis and Current Reproductive Health Threats TODAY
The MSM Clinical Research Center and MSCR Program are co-sponsoring the HeLa Conference at the Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care (720 Westview Dr. SW, Atlanta, GA 30310) today.
Six MSCR graduates are competing for a Young Investigator Award (YIA) at the conference. Posters for the YIA will be on display throughout the conference and will be judged between 2:00 and 3:30 p.m. The Young Investigator Award presentation is at 4:00 p.m. The poster, Diversity in Biomedical Research: Best Practices for Sustaining Career Success at Morehouse School of Medicine will also be on display.
The ACTSI community is encouraged to attend the conference. Please contact Jackie Ali for more information.
Pre-Solicitation Announcement: Clinical Research Network Feasibility Awards -- Letter of Intent Due October 15
Westat in collaboration with the NCRR and the NIH Roadmap IECRN Initiative invites currently funded CTSA Institutions to submit proposals for Clinical Research Network Feasibility Awards (CRNFA).
Those CTSA investigators are eligible to apply who can demonstrate and provide synergy with ongoing government funded clinical research networks and clinical practice networks; e.g., Agency for Health Research Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Administration, NIH, etc.
Proposals should focus on the following three areas: Translational Science Dissemination Research, Cost-Benefit/Cost-Effectiveness Research, and Community Engagement Research.
It is anticipated that a total of $600,000 will be available to support approximately six awards for a maximum of one year. Westat reserves the right to issue multiple or no awards from this Request for Proposals.
Prospective offerors must submit a letter of intent to bid and/or any written questions regarding the solicitation by October 15, 2008. Responses to all questions will be made available no later than November 3, 2008. Final proposals are due on November 13, 2008 with contract award expected on February 1, 2009. All solicitation documentation and communications should be submitted via email. Further information regarding this solicitation and all requirements for proposal submissions will be available at www.clinicalresearchnetworks.org
Zerhouni to End Tenure as Director of the National Institutes of Health
Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., the director of the National Institutes of Health, announced his plans to step down at the end of October 2008 to pursue writing projects and explore other professional opportunities.
CIN Investigator Named Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Emory University neuroscientist Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD, was recently named one of 15 new Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigators -- considered by HHMI to be the nation's top physician-scientists who will ensure basic research discoveries are translated into improved treatments for patients.
Dr. Ressler is a researcher at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and an ACTSI Investigator doing his clinical research at the Grady Memorial Hospital CIN site. He is the first practicing psychiatrist to be appointed an HHMI investigator.
on October 1, 2008.
New Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Report Released
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health announces a new publication, Ensuring Community-Level Research Protections, based on the recent six-part Educational Conference Call Series on Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and Ethical Issues in Research co-sponsored in partnership with the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care. The report is intended as a resource and discussion piece for a wide variety of groups interested in learning about community-level research protections from unique perspectives. Community-based organizations involved in research, community-institutional research partnerships, IRBs, research ethics boards and community advisory boards will be especially interested in this report.
The report includes:
* Introduction and overview of current challenges in community-based participatory research (CBPR) and ethical issues in research
* Overview and presentation summaries for each of the six educational conference calls
* First-person stories from diverse communities and community-campus partnerships tackling ethical issues in research
* Guidance for what you can do as a community member, IRB administrator/chair/ member, or researcher to take action on the report
* Call series themes, implications, and next steps
* An extensive list of resources, including publications, organizations, and Web sites
The report can be downloaded as a PDF file.
Dr. Jeff M. Sands, ACTSI senior Co-PI, hosts Dr. Peter Agre as the William E. Mitch Lecturer in Nephrology on November 18, at 5:00 p.m. in the Emory University School of Medicine, rooms 110 and 120. Dr. Agre won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his cloning of the first water channel, Aquaporin-1. He is a professor at Johns Hopkins and heads their Malaria Research Institute.
Do you have news, seminars, events of interest to clinical and translational researchers? Send them in and we'll send them out (actsi@emory.edu).