eRoundup for 07/24/09

Two American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) supplements submitted by the ACTSI were recommended for funding by NCRR. Supplement funding was awarded to two ACTSI programs, the Community Engagement & Research Program (CERP) and the Translational Technologies & Resources (TTR) program.

Dr. Michelle Kegler, CERP co-program director, will serve as the PI for the Administrative Supplement for Collaborative Community Engagement Research. The supplement will increase CERP mini-grant funding from $4,000 to $30,000 over two years and fund training for grantee community organizations. Training for faculty interested in community-based research will also be supported through the ARRA supplement. Dr. Carolyn Meltzer, TTR program director, will serve as the PI for the Administrative Supplement to Advance Translational (T1 & T2) Research.  The supplement will expand collaborative work between the Center for Systems Imaging and Yerkes National Primate Research Center and benefit shared instrumentation grants. The supplement funds will be used for infrastructure and offer themes, resources, and personnel to translational investigators.

Morehouse School of Medicine's Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) was awarded supplements to fund an expanded investigator training program, a fellow faculty program, and a training program collaboration with Stanford. TTR advisory committee member, Dr. Craig Bond's three ARRA submissions were also funded. To get up to date information on ARRA funding please visit http://report.nih.gov/recovery/index.aspx.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle quoted Charles Craig, president of Georgia Bio and credited Emory University, Georgia Tech, Morehouse School of Medicine, and The University of Georgia for providing north Georgia with a wide research bench,  in an article on July 17. 

A new fertility preservation RFA, Fertility Preservation Research: Advancing Beyond Technology (R01) (RFA-HD-09-009), has been published by the NIH and CDC. Please click here http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HD-09-009.html for details. The application is due on October 20.

The HMO Research Network is planning to respond to this announcement.  If there are any interested partners, please feel free to contact Robert L. Davis, MD, MPH, Director of Research for the Center for Health Research, Southeast, (404) 364-7197 or Robert.L.Davis@kp.org.

AHRQ invites applications to develop a prospective clinical registry of orthopedic devices, drugs, and procedures through a practice-based research collaborative and clinical and outcomes data resource (P50 grant mechanism). The goal of this registry initiative is to support the development of a sustainable data infrastructure and to conduct rigorous clinical and scientific research including comparative effectiveness and safety research.  AHRQ envisions utilizing a practice based orthopedic registry across a broad provider network as one of the potentially most effective and productive approaches to develop scientific evidence regarding the short and long term benefits and harms of implantable orthopedic devices and other related services. The registry will be a model and basis for other national device and procedure registries and will actively disseminate study results into clinical practice. The application is due on September 23. For more information please click here.

Ask Emory's Compliance Office is presenting Let's Talk About the Consent Process on Wednesday, July 29, from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. in the Emory University Hospital Auditorium.  Kris West, Office of Research Compliance, will present at this meeting, and will address any questions and/or concerns. For questions about this presentation, please contact the Office of Research Compliance at ORC@emory.edu. For more information on the meeting please click here. 

The upcoming International Swine Flu Conference will be held in Washington, DC on August 19-21. Delegates are attending from the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia Pacific. In addition to insightful presentations and dynamic panel discussions, you can choose from over 30 concurrent breakout sessions. If you have any queries contact Margaret Robinson, (202)536-5000, mrobinson@nfemail.com.To register for this event fill in the registration form and fax it back to (202)280-1239. For more information on the event, please visit http://new-fields.com/ISFC.

The GA Tech/Emory Department of Biomedical Engineering is looking for projects, ideas, problems, and opportunities from any member of the medical/research community for Senior Design Project I and II (BMED 4600 & 4601). The Senior Design Project course uses biomedical engineering and development, FDA regulations and ISO standards, business and management processes, and clinical projects to complete submitted projects and create products. The students start with a problem statement and during the course of an academic year GA Tech's director of design instruction, Franklin Bost, MBA, IDSA, guides the students through the process. Industry advisors and non-profits from around the U.S. suggest global health, medical device, basic science, and clinical projects. The course is two semesters, with project teams beginning each fall, spring, and summer. Students work in teams of four on clinical or research relevant projects with medical, clinical, or PhD project advisors. The course produces BME industry-ready engineers, complete with work skills and technical, business, and clinical literacy. Bost invites anyone with a project idea to contact him. Note: if you would like to be an advisor but have several ideas (or no specific ideas), a team can meet with you to formulate a project idea through clinical observation and idea discussion. Please click here for more information about the courses and here for an idea submission form. Send all forms and questions to L. Franklin Bost, MBA, IDSA. 

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.

The Grady Ponce Clinic was established in 1993 in order to provide the infrastructure necessary to research the growing AIDS epidemic and provide specialized treatment. The Grady Ponce Clinic is a medical office-based ACTSI Clinical Interaction Site and is one of the largest and most comprehensive HIV treatment facilities in the country. In all, the infectious disease clinic provides care for approximately 4,000 patients. The center houses a primary care clinic for men and women, and a family clinic that treats mothers and their children. It also includes a dental clinic, a mental health clinic, a prenatal substance abuse clinic, a research area for clinical drug trials, and an infusion area where intravenous therapies are administered on an outpatient basis. A subspecialty clinic provides for consultations in ophthalmology, dermatology, neurology, hematology, and oncology. The research clinic, staffed by Emory physicians, nurses, and social workers, is one of the few sites in Atlanta that conducts AIDS clinical trials. This site is available to all investigators with an ACTSI-approved protocol. The center provides comprehensive support for clinical investigation with its various core resources and facilities. For more information please click here. To learn how to submit a protocol click here.