eRoundup for 03/20/09

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has been asked by Congress, in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to recommend priorities for spending on comparative effectiveness research (CER) to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The IOM's Committee  on Comparative Effectiveness Research  Priorities seeks your suggestions for the committee's consideration, as they gather input from important stakeholders in this research endeavor. You are invited to submit your priorities by March 27, for incorporation into the IOM database and committee consideration for the final report to the Secretary via the following link:  www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=704JA7NisuyMhdLvocyIFw_3d_3d. Please feel free to share this announcement with colleagues.  For questions or comments, please contact cerpriorities@nas.edu.

NIDA has published an RFI on the Public Comment on Development of a Funding Opportunity Announcement on Translational Research on Minimizing Risks of Managing Pain with Opioids in General and Specialty Medical Settings.  For more information please visit: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-DA-09-006.html.

In a new dual leadership role, Paul Spearman has been appointed chief research officer for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and as vice chair of research in the Emory medical school's Department of Pediatrics. This appointment derives from implementation of a plan approved by Children's Board of Trustees in late 2007 to position Children's as a top-tier pediatric research enterprise, working in partnership with Emory and other institutions, including the CDC, Georgia Tech, and Morehouse School of Medicine. Spearman's appointment coincides with the opening of the new Children's Pediatric Research Center, located on the Children's at Egleston campus. The center is a new clinical interaction research site of the ACTSI. It includes a four-bed inpatient research unit, a four-bed outpatient research unit, a core research lab, and research pharmacy services. Read more...

Investigators and U.S. institutions or organizations with active NIH research grants may request administrative supplements from NCRR for the purpose of accelerating the tempo of scientific research on active grants. Support for these supplements will come from funds provided to NIH through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) of 2009, Public Law 111-5. Consistent with the intent of the Recovery Act, the purpose of this program is to promote job creation and economic development along with accelerating the pace and achievement of scientific research. The NCRR administrative supplement application due date is May 18, 2009. View Administrative Supplements' Areas of Interest...

For CTSAs interested in forming or collaborating with a small business to do biomedical research, the NIH, CDC, FDA, and ACF 2009-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the SBIR/STTR Grant Applications and SF 424 (R&R) Application Guide for SBIR/STTR Grant Applications are now available. The solicitation consists of: Parent funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for SBIR, Parent FOA for STTR, and Narrative descriptions of the programs and research topics. The due dates for CY 2009 are April 5, August 5, and December 5. AIDS and AIDS-related applications are due May 7, September 7, and January 7, 2010. Please see also www.ncrr.nih.gov/sbo.

NCRR announces the availability of CTSA Administrative Supplements to support research on pediatric outcome measures relevant to the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA). These are one-year awards in an anticipated amount of $50,000-$500,000 per project. A maximum of $5,000,000 may be provided for this solicitation. Applications should be submitted to NCRR's, Dr. Mary Purucker, using form PHS 398 and accompanied by a cover letter. This solicitation closes April 30, at 5:00 p.m. EST. Awards will be made by September 30. Click here http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-RR-09-005.html for more information. These awards are being made in partnership with the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD). Please direct any administrative questions Dr. Purucker. Scientific or technical questions related to the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act should be directed to NICHD's, Dr. Anne Zajicek.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) announces a new funding opportunity to enhance the development of clinical partnerships and translational research in the study of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) - Partnerships for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Clinical Translational Research (U19): RFA-AT-09-002. For more information please click here. The NCCAM also announces a new funding opportunity that encourages investigator-initiated applications that propose to develop, enhance, and validate translational tools to facilitate rigorous study of CAM approaches that are in wide use by the public - Translational Tools for Clinical Studies of CAM Interventions (R01): PAR-09-066. For more information please click here.

The Center for Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, the Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute (ACTSI), Emory Nutrition and Health Sciences Program, and Nutrition Colloquium Emory-Children's Center presents a monthly seminar series. Yutaka Niihara, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Division of Medical Oncology/Hematology, will discuss Medical Utilization of Glutamine on Tuesday, March 24, in the Emory Children's Center (2015 Uppergate Drive), Room 202 (second floor conference room) at 1:00 p.m. Please direct questions to Dr. Conrad Cole or Kipp Ellsworth.

The Biomedical Translational Research Information System (BTRIS) team invites you to a series of lectures focused on informatics in biomedical and translational research. This series brings leading figures in the study and use of translational information systems from academic centers across the U.S. and will promote discussion about the future of informatics at the NIH Clinical Center.  The next seminar is March 24, from 2:00 until 3:00 p.m. and will feature Adam Wilcox, PhD, Director of the Systems Technology Interfacing Teaching and Community Hospitals (STITCH) project at New York Presbyterian Hospital. The series will be videocast. Click here for more information about this series and continuing BTRIS news.

The ACTSI's Clinical Interaction Network's (CIN) new Pediatric Clinical Interaction Site at Egleston will hold an open house from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on March 25, in the outpatient research center. The four-bed outpatient unit is located within the Technology-Dependent Intensive Care Unit (TICU) (Tower 2). For more information please contact the center's manager, Christine Spainhour, RN, RRT, CCRC. The center is designed to provide the necessary infrastructure for investigators conducting pediatric clinical research to improve the quality of care and develop better treatments for Georgia's pediatric population. The center's facilities include a four-bed inpatient research unit, a four-bed outpatient research unit, a core research lab, and research pharmacy services. Led by Howard Katzenstein, M.D., Medical Director of the Children's Research Center/Associate Professor of Pediatrics for the Emory School of Medicine and Christine Spainhour, R.N., R.R.T., C.C.R.C., Clinical Research Unit Manager, the Children's Pediatric Research Center strives to become a leading pediatric clinical research facility.

Emory University Office of Clinical Research hosts the Grady Lunch and Learn on Thursday, March 26, from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. on the Grady campus, Faculty Office Building (49 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive SE, Atlanta 30303), Room 103. Guest speaker, Michael A. Young, Grady Health Systems' Chief Executive Officer, will discuss Grady Health Systems and address questions. Anyone working in clinical research is invited, particularly investigators who do investigator initiated trials. Please register with the Office of Clinical Research at www.med.emory.edu/research/cto/schedule.php. Registration is required. Lunch will be provided. Please contact OCR@emory.edu with any questions.

HealthSTAT presents the Annual Cover the Uninsured Week Candlelight Vigil on March 26, at 7:00 p.m. on the steps of Grady Memorial Hospital (Rain Location: Steiner Auditorium). The vigil will feature Sheryl Heron, MD, ESOM Associate Professor and Associate Residency Director in Emergency Medicine, Emory University; Neil Shulman, MD, Department of Medicine, Emory University; Elizabeth Ofili, MD, MPH, ACTSI Co-PI, Associate Dean, Professor and Director of Clinical Research, Chief Cardiologist, Morehouse School of Medicine; Ngozi Anachebe, PharmD, MD, Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs, Morehouse School of Medicine; George Cleach, MD, Emergency Medicine Resident, Grady Memorial Hospital; and Kimberly Manning, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Program Director, Emory University School of Medicine. More information...

The job fair will be held on March 27, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Emory's Student Activity and Academic Center (SAAC). Open to any PI or faculty member who is interested in interviewing research students for their current or future studies. If you wish to participate or interview candidates please fill out the registration form. If you have any questions about the Research Job Fair, please contact Missy Bayliss at melissa.bayliss@emory.edu  or 404.727.3185.

The Morehouse School of Medicine's Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine invites you to the Third Annual Public Health Summit: Reducing and Eliminating HIV/AIDS Disparities through Public Health Strategies in the Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care Auditorium at Morehouse School of Medicine on Wednesday, April 1, from 1:00 until 5:00 p.m. After attending this conference, participants will be able to discuss HIV/AIDS issues, trends and disparities across U.S. and global populations; describe recent research findings regarding effective HIV/AIDS intervention models; discuss national, state and local HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment service delivery systems; and cite at least three new networking contacts with whom they can collaborate on educational, treatment, prevention, or research programs. The invited keynote speaker is Kevin Fenton, MD, Director, Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. Registration begins at noon and a reception will follow the program. For additional information, contact Mary Kidd Davis 404.752.1925.

Morehouse School of Medicine and the ACTSI's Community Engagement & Resources Program present Grant Writing 102 for community-based organizations. The course will be held on April 9, in MSM, NCPC-207 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. Please contact Judy Simmons (404.752.1101, jsimmons@msm.edu) for more information.

To enhance and promote the best practices to train the next generation of investigators in clinical and translational research, the Association for Clinical Research Training (ACRT) and the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) consortium have collaborated to develop a national conference for scholars and leaders in research education. The 2009 conference on April 14-15, in Washington, DC is themed Empowering Individual and Team Success in Clinical and Translational Research. More Information

Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH will return to Emory University School of Medicine on April 16, to discuss The Meaning of Translational Research and Why it Matters. The lecture is hosted by the Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute and will be held in the Emory School of Medicine, Room 130 at 4:00 p.m. Dr. Woolf is a professor of family medicine, epidemiology and community health at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a 1984 graduate of Emory Medical School. He recently published an article in JAMA on the meaning of translational research and is a popular speaker on the subject.

Emory University, Emory Healthcare, and the Translational Technologies and Resources program of the ACTSI presents Basal Ganglia: Function, Movement Disorders and Treatment Options, a symposium honoring the contributions of Mahlon DeLong, MD on April 17, from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. in the Emory School of Medicine Auditorium. The symposium will provide participants with a summary of insights from recent pre-clinical and clinical basal ganglia-related research studies, presented by world-renowned faculty. For questions and registration please call 404.778.7777. Click here for more information and the agenda.

Dr. David Stephens will serve as the moderator on a panel focused on NIH CTSAs and the ACTSI, Maximizing the Potential of CTSAs for Carrying out Multicenter Clinical Trials, and Translational Informatics and Establishing Clinical Trials at Specific CTSA Sites during the meeting of The Society of Clinical Trials from 3:00-4:00 p.m. on May 5. Mike Kutner, PhD, ACTSI Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) program director and Joel Saltz, MD, PhD, ACTSI Biomedical Informatics Program (BIP) director will serve as panel members. The meeting will be held from May 3 until 6, in Atlanta at the CNN Center's Omni Hotel. For more information and registration please visit www.sctweb.org.

The second annual conference to discuss and share best practices and collaborate with communities and health care providers to improve health will be held on the NIH campus on May 14-15. Participants will develop recommendations for academic-community collaborations and partnerships with other community programs to establish research agendas. Please visit the APTR website for updates and to register or contact Dr. Donna Jo McCloskey, NCRR, at mccloskd@mail.nih.gov.

The Society for Clinical Trials meeting in Atlanta on May 3, is hosting a one-day short course on clinical trials. To register please click here. Early registration, by March 20, is $325 and advanced registration, by April 15, is $350.

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 GA Tech can apply for short-term (3 month) stipends ($5,190 of salary support) funded by the Research Education, Training and Career Development (RETCD) program of the 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 www.atlantactsi.org/areas/retcd/documents/TL1_three-month_program-9-30-08_FINAL.pdf.