eRoundup for 11/14/08

Dr. Jeff M. Sands, ACTSI senior Co-PI, hosts Dr. Peter Agre’s lecture, Aquaporin Water Channels:  From Atomic Structure to Malaria, 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.

TL1 trainees and Emory University medical students, Alison Dormer and Rosiland Harrington attended the sixth annual Clinical Investigator Student Trainee Forum from November 4 through 5. Nearly 350 medical and dental students from 78 U.S. academic medical centers visited the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. for the forum.

“The forum was a useful experience, in particular because it facilitated interaction between participants of different types of "year-out" programs for medical students, and then also because there was a good amount of interaction with individuals already established in their fields. I got a broader sense of the range of careers available in academic medicine. It was also fascinating to tour the NIH facilities, I would have loved to see more,” said Dormer.

The Clinical Investigator Student Trainee Forum helped prepare the next generation of clinician-scientists for careers in clinical and translational research that will lead to medical discoveries. It covered biomedical advances and addressed practical aspects of career development in clinical research, including the importance of mentoring.

“The forum helped me understand the role of mentor-mentee and what I, as a mentee should be doing to get the best experience from this program. One of the best presentations was given by a team of students and mentors who worked on a Resistant TB project in South Africa. Also, we were able to spend some time on the NIH campus and meet a few of the researchers. I appreciated getting information about the site,” said Harrington.

The Center for Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, Emory Nutrition and Health Sciences Program, and the ACTSI present The Role of Vitamin D in Reducing the Risk of Cancer and Infectious Diseases such as Septicemi , Influenza/Pneumonia, and Periodontal Disease by William Grant, PhD,  Director of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center in San Francisco, Ca. The seminar will be held Thursday, November 20, in Emory School of Medicine, room 190 from noon until 1:00 p.m. Lunch will be provided. Please direct questions to Vin Tangpricha, MD, PhD at vtangpr@emory.edu.

The 4th Annual National Symposium on Predictive Health will be held December 15 through 16, at the Emory Conference Center. The ACTSI Translational Technologies and Resources (TTR) program is co-sponsoring the event. Faculty and staff members from Emory, Georgia Tech, Morehouse School of Medicine, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Kaiser, and the CDC can register free online. During registration, when asked “how did you hear about the symposium?” please credit the ACTSI. For more information or to register please click here.

NHLBI has posted a funding opportunity on Translating Basic Behavioral and Social Science Discoveries into Interventions to Reduce Obesity: Centers for Behavioral Intervention Development: RFA-HL-08-013. Letters of Intent are due December 16, 2008. Please inform ACTSI senior center administrator, Andrew West (404.727.9296) if you are interested in participating.

Through this program announcement with set aside (PAS), NIDA invites applicants to develop innovative drug abuse epidemiology or health services research in cooperation with academic centers supported through the CTSA consortium. Applicants are asked to propose innovative drug abuse research that builds upon the resources available at CTSA sites. A broad range of drug abuse epidemiology and prevention or treatment health services research areas will be supported under the auspices of this PAS, as described in the complete announcement: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAS-09-001.html.

The estimated amount of funds available for support of four to eight projects awarded as a result of this announcement is $2 million for fiscal year 2009 and $2 million for fiscal year 2010. The opening date for applications will be January 5, 2009. For additional information, please contact ACTSI senior center administrator, Andrew West (404.727.9296).

Junior faculty members at the MD or PhD level from a wide variety of disciplines at Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine, or Georgia Tech who are committed to an academic career in clinical and/or translational research and who have excellent potential to become independent clinical investigators are encouraged to apply to the KL2 – Mentored Clinical and Translational Research Scholars (MCTRS) Program. The KL2 award provides support for didactic and mentored research training for junior faculty members committed to a career in clinical investigation. The KL2 award includes 75% salary support per year for the junior faculty member, a technical budget for research costs and tuition, and some salary support for the trainee’s Lead Mentor.

The KL2 – MCTRS Program (formerly K12 program) is part of the Research Education, Training and Career Development (RETCD) Program supported by the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (ACTSI), NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA).

Please see the program’s website, http://www.medicine.emory.edu/RETCD, for more details. Those interested in applying are urged to contact Cheryl Sroka at the ACTSI RETCD program office at 404-727-5096 or csroka@emory.edu.

The Research Education, Training, and Career Development (RETCD) program of the NIH-funded Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (ACTSI) announces new opportunities for clinical and translational research training for PhD graduate students (PhD/MSCR predoctoral track) and medical students. Students enrolled at Emory, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) and Georgia Tech (GT) are eligible. The goal of the program is to provide novel training for PhD graduate students or medical students with outstanding potential for careers in clinical and/or translational research.

Application must be submitted electronically by email, TL1Applications@erooms.emory.edu, and are due no later than March 1, 2009. For PhD graduate students please visit http://www.atlantactsi.org/retcd/documents/TL1_PhD_grad_stud-9-30-08_FINAL.pdf; for medical students please visit http://www.atlantactsi.org/retcd/documents/TL1_MED_STUDENTS-9-30-08-final.pdf. For more information visit www.actsi.org/retcd.

• PAR-07-086 (R01)
• PAR-06-520 (R03)
• PAR-06-521 (R21)

Please inform ACTSI senior center administrator, Andrew West if you plan to participate, 404.727.9296.

Current medical students at Emory University School of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), and other health professional trainees pursuing doctoral degrees in public health, biomedical engineering, nursing and other fields at Emory, MSM and Georgia Tech can apply for short-term (3 month) stipends ($5,190 of salary support during this 3-month training period) funded by the Research Education, Training and Career Development (RETCD) program of the NIH-funded Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (ACTSI). This mechanism will support medical and graduate students who are interested in a short course program focused on clinical and/or translational research under the mentorship of a successful, federally funded faculty mentor. Application for the short-term training program includes several components that should be submitted electronically by emailing TL1Applications@erooms.emory.edu. For more information please visit http://www.atlantactsi.org/retcd/documents/TL1_three-month_program-9-30-08_FINAL.pdf or www.actsi.org/retcd.