eRoundup for 05/08/09

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) and Emory University announce the joint MSM-Emory cardiology fellowship. Dr. Raquel Bennett is the first named fellow. This new opportunity is a significant milestone for Emory/MSM collaborative clinical education and research programs. Dr. Bennett will begin the MSCR program at MSM in July and will do research and clinic rotations at Grady. Dr. Anekwe Onwuanyi, attending cardiologist at Grady and credentialed at Emory Midtown, will serve as Dr. Bennett's primary supervising attending.  For the research component, Dr. Elizabeth Ofili, ACTSI co-principal investigator, will serve as lead mentor. Dr. Bennett received her MBBS from the University of the West Indies and completed her residency in internal medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Bennett received the MSM Resident of the Year Award in 2006 and the Resident with the Most Outstanding Performance in Primary Care award in 2007. "This joint fellowship would likely not have happened without the relationship foundation and multi-institutional alliance of the ACTSI," said Dr. David S. Stephens, ACTSI principal investigator.

Emory researchers working on diagnostic and alternative flu vaccine method
David S. Stephens, MD, ACTSI's principal investigator and vice president for research in Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center, was quoted on May 5, inTechJournalSouth.com.  

In an effort to foster interdisciplinary collaborations and promote technology training and awareness, the Translational Technologies and Resources (TTR) program of the ACTSI is pleased to co-sponsor biomedical symposia and other educational events related to translational technologies in research. Limited funds ($5,000-$10,000 per event) are available through the TTR program for co-sponsorship of educational events that align with TTR and ACTSI goals. To apply for funds to support your upcoming biomedical symposium or educational event, please complete an application.  Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. For more information about this educational partnering opportunity, please Deb Smith.

Clinical and Translational Science Award Consortium Steering Committee announced the adoption of a fifth Strategic Goal Committee focused on T1 Translation.  Consequently, the NCRR announced this week they will now accept two, rather than one, applications related to the administrative supplement titled "The CTSA Consortium Strategic Goals." The award is for $300,000 total over one or two years. The application is due on May 18. The mission of the Translating Research Discoveries to Clinical Testing Strategic Goal Committee #5 is to assess the opportunities and barriers to T1 Translation and develop strategies for efficient movement of discoveries and mechanistic knowledge into clinical testing through new models of partnership (both public and private) to develop new prognostics, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Contact Andrew West if you would like to participate. For more information please click here.

The Health Systems Institute (HSI) is pleased to announce its 2009-2010 seed grant funding program for collaborative and interdisciplinary projects to stimulate research with direct relevance to health and healthcare delivery. Now in its fourth year of funding, the Health Systems Institute is partnering with colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Management, Sciences, and Research Centers at Georgia Tech, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Emory University's School of Nursing, the Georgia Tech and Emory Predictive Health Institute, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Atlanta Veteran's Administration R&D Center of Excellence. The research must relate directly to research thrusts and applications in healthcare identified in the call, and the objectives of the project should include an outcome that will benefit recipients of healthcare. Evaluation of each proposal will be on the basis of scientific merit, potential health care impact and significance, the potential for commercialization and the potential of the project to obtain further support upon expiration of seed grant funds. Applications are due May 29, at 5:00 p.m. and all investigators who intend to submit a proposal in this cycle are requested to submit a non-binding letter of intent by May 18, at 5:00 p.m. For more information please visit www.hsi.gatech.edu/seedgrantcfp/.

The P50 Emory Molecular and Translational lmaging Research Center (EMTIC) Pilot Project program offers opportunities for both trainees and established scientists to acquire preliminary data in the quantitative molecular imaging arena on which to base competitive future R01 proposals. Pilot Projects would be supported at the level of $25,000/year total direct costs per pilot project. Imaging modalities of interest include CT, MR, Optical, PET, SPECT and US. The is deadline for submission is May 30. For more information please click here.

NCRR just released a new ARRA funding opportunity entitled Enabling National Networking of Scientists and Resource Discovery (U24) (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RR-09-009.html). The goal of the initiative is to develop, enhance, or extend infrastructure for connecting people and resources to facilitate national discovery of individuals and of scientific resources by scientists and students to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and scientific exchange. Six diverse institutions must collaborate in an application. Letters of intent are due May 18; the receipt date is June 15; with funding by September 2009.

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.

Instrument Development for Biomedical Applications (R21) solicits innovative applications for the development of new or improved instrumentation for biomedical research. Projects should propose tools that can be used by a wide range of biomedical or clinical researchers, and are not limited to a specific organ or disease. Read more

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta welcomes guest speaker P. Pearl O'Rourke, MD, Director of Human Research Affairs for Partners HealthCare System in Boston, to the Children's Pediatric Research Symposium. During the symposium dinner, Dr. O'Rourke will present the exciting lecture, Personalized Medicine: Promising, Perplexing, Potentially Problematic. The symposium will be held on Tuesday, May 12, at The Carter Center, Cyprus Room (453 Freedom Parkway) at 6:00 p.m. Contact Martha Turner, Program Specialist, at 404-785-7744 to register. Seating is limited; dinner is complimentary. The registration deadline is Friday, May 8. Click here for more information.

As part of the BIO Convention, Dr. David Stephens, ACTSI's principal investigator and vice president for research in Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center, will host a dinner to support the rising stars of biotechnology and the teachers who inspired their passion and imagination. The Biotechnology Institute will recognize the winners of the Genzyme-Life Technologies Biotech Educator Award. The banquet will be held Sunday, May 17 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel (265 Peachtree Center Ave) at 6:30 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.biotechinstitute.org/banquet.

The annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center on May 18-21. BIO sponsors include Georgia BIO and the Georgia Research Alliance. Breakout session topics include bioethics, clinical research/clinical trials, devices and predictive diagnostics, exciting science 2009, translational medicine, and much more. The convention hosts two keynote events, Biotechnology and the HIV/AIDS Epidemic by Sir Elton John (May 19, noon) and The Challenges and Opportunities Surrounding Healthcare Reform by Senator Tom Daschle, Senator William H. Frist, MD, Governor Howard Dean, and Karl Rove (May 20, noon). The convention will include super sessions such as Global Biotechnology Innovation: Connecting the Laboratory, the Field, and the Marketplace (May 20, 8:00 a.m.) and social events such as Think & Drink: Industry Is From Mars, Academia Is From Venus (May 20, 5:00 p.m.) at the Georgia Aquarium. Other featured lectures include Taking the Pulse of Bioscience Education in America: A State-by-State Analysis (May 18, 2:00 p.m.) and Federal Science and Opportunities (May 19, 8:00 a.m.) with CDC, NIH, FDA representatives.  In addition, the International Conference on Biotechnology Education will be held at Georgia Tech May 15-19 as part of the week's events. Find out more at www.bio.org.

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 within the NIH intramural program. The next seminar will be on May 19, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. and will feature Umberto Tachinardi, MD, PhD, Executive Director of Academic and Research Applications with the Chicago Biomedicine Information Services (CBIS) and Director of Informatics at the University of Chicago. The series will be videocast.

The ACTSI's Community Engagement & Research Program (CERP) presents a Research-Community Workshop on Obesity. Morehouse School of Medicine and Emory University Rollins School of Public Health faculty cordially invite you or your representative to attend the workshop on Wednesday, May 20, at Morehouse School of Medicine. Click here for more information.

Please join faculty from Emory, GA Tech, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Georgia State for an all-day symposium on May 20, from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. in room 120, Emory SOM (1648 Pierce Dr). The symposium will be focused on collaboration in nutrition science within the ACTSI. Nutrition-oriented investigators will be giving brief talks on their research program and resources, research needs and opportunities for collaboration with other ACTSI faculty. At noon, Carolyn W. Miles, Ph.D., Director of the Clinical Obesity and Nutrition Program of the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition at the NIDDK/National Institutes of Health will present a talk Nutrition Research Initiatives at NIH. Lunch will be provided. For more information please click here.

The Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute (ACTSI) presents The Role of MYH9 Polymorphisms in Glomerular Disease presented by Jeffrey Kopp, MD, Captain, U.S. Public Health Service and Staff Clinician, Kidney Disease Section, NIDDK, NIH. The lecture will be held on May 27, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Emory School of Medicine (1648 Pierce Drive NE), Room 120. For more information please click here.

NCRR has planned a workshop entitled Technology Cores: Designs for Efficient Management and Utilization, on July 14-15, at the National Institutes of Health, Natcher Auditorium. The purpose of the workshop is to discuss the state of existing NIH-funded research core facilities, identify common problems encountered during their operation and use, and raise options to maximize the use and efficiency of core facilities. Anecdotal reports of overlapping cores at institutions, the impact of federal policies, and questions of quality and access led NCRR to issue a Request for Information (RFI) earlier this year, which solicited input from the extramural research community on their concerns and experiences with research cores. Specific areas of interest include ways to encourage optimum use of cores and ways to provide access to core facilities to investigators who currently lack that access. Information about the Technology Cores workshop including registration and a detailed agenda will be posted here.

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.