eRoundup for 09/25/09

The Grady Clinical Interaction Network site currently located on 8A at Grady Memorial Hospital will be closed Wednesday, September 30-Friday, October 2 for relocation. The unit will be moving to 12A and will reopen, for business as usual, in the new location on Monday, October 5. 

Morehouse School of Medicine's Dr. Gary H. Gibbons of ACTSI's Research Education, Training & Career Development (RETCD) program, Community Engagement & Research Program (CERP), and Translational Technologies (TTR) program received a grant from the NIH to fund genome-wide studies of epigenetic changes, - chemical modifications to genes that result from diet, aging, stress, or environmental exposures - define and contribute to specific human diseases, and biological processes. Dr. Gibbons' study is entitled Vascular Epigenome Dynamics in African-American Hypertensives. Read more...

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has achieved full accreditation from the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP). AAHRPP uses a voluntary, peer-driven educational model to ensure that prospective programs meet rigorous standards for quality and protection. To earn accreditation, organizations must provide empirical evidence through policies, procedures, and practices of their commitment to research that is scientifically and ethically sound, as well as demonstrate continuous improvement. AAHRPP offers accreditation to organizations worldwide that conduct biomedical, behavioral, or social sciences involving human participants. As part of Children's 10-year strategic initiative, advancements in clinical research will help CHOA offer leading-edge treatment to patients now and in the future. Visit www.choa.org/clinicalresearch to learn more about the Children's Pediatric Clinical Research Program. 

The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded nearly $1.6 million in supplemental funding to the Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute (ACTSI). Read more... 

Thanks to the assistance of the Emory Office of Tech Transfer (OTT), Emory University now has summaries of available intellectual property on the CTSA IP website. Click here to view the website.

• Rheumatologist Sam Lim has received a $1 million grant from the Georgia Department of Human Resources to continue his work gathering data for the Georgia Lupus Registry, the largest, most comprehensive population-based lupus registry in the country. The goal of the project is to better understand who gets the disease.
• Endocrinologist Lawrence Phillips presented findings at the American Diabetes Association's annual meeting showing routine screenings and management for diabetes versus no screenings and treatment provide significant cost savings to health care systems-about $20 per person over three years, multiplied by the thousands of Americans with diabetes and prediabetes each system treats.
• Cardiologist Arshed Quyyumi presented research at the American College of Cardiology that shows an injection of stem cells from a patient's own bone marrow after heart attack increases blood flow within the heart and reduces the chance of long-term complications. He and his colleagues used a preparation of bone marrow stem cells mixed with endothelial progenitor cells, which are thought to enrich the lining of blood vessels.
• Pulmonologist Kenneth Brigham has been named the permanent director of the Predictive Health and Society, one of the university's key strategic initiatives, and its components, the Predictive Health Institute and the Center for Health Discovery and Well-Being.
• The American College of Cardiology awarded Nanette Wenger, who has practiced cardiology at Grady Hospital for 50 years, its highest honor of Master. She received this national distinction at the 2009 American College of Cardiology scientific sessions convocation in May.

How will the public learn about major breakthroughs from U.S. research universities? Emory is among the schools whose discoveries are featured on Futurity.org, a new site that aims to bring research news directly to the public. 

Jeff Sands, Director of the Renal Division and Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at the Emory SOM, was named Executive Vice Chair of the department in June.

The September 2009 issue of the NIH Extramural Nexus, with news, tips and important information for the research community, is now available online.

The Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute (ACTSI) and the Emory Center for Clinical and Molecular Nutrition requests applications for a New Investigator in Clinical/Translational Nutrition Research Award program. The program will provide at least one award of $15,000 in total costs to highly meritorious proposals from new investigators who meet the guidelines outlined in the announcement. One additional $15,000 grant may be available in response to this announcement depending on the availability of funds. This program is also in support of a pending P30 NIH/NIDDK application from Emory to fund a Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (NORC). The five top ranked applications received from this request for applications (RFA) will be included in the NIH P30 grant application. Should the P30 NORC grant be funded in 2010, the top ranked applicant in response to the current announcement will receive a $50,000 pilot and feasibility award (direct costs), with the opportunity for a second year of funding ($50,000) depending on research progress. The next four highest ranked applications received for the current announcement will receive a $25,000 pilot and feasibility award (direct costs) for one year from the NORC. Apply now. 

Emory Egleston Children's Research Center is accepting application submissions for the 2010 Seed Grant Program. The deadline is Friday, November 6. To apply, downloadRon Joyner, MD, at 404-727-5747 for more information. application guidelines. Contact

NIH funding to support the development, expansion, or reconfiguration of infrastructures needed to facilitate collaboration between academic health centers and community-based organizations for health science research. In this community research infrastructure program, NIH establishes the role of Community Research Associate (CRA), who will be a community representative and serve as a primary liaison facilitating communication and collaboration between the academic health center and the local community.  Applicants must identify at least one CRA. The NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement, Recovery Act Limited Competition: Building Sustainable Community-Linked Infrastructure to Enable Health Science Research (RC4), RFA-OD-09-010 has just been published in the NIH Guide. Click here for the full announcement. Letters of Intent are due November 12; the application deadline is December 11; and the earliest anticipated start date is July 2010. This initiative is funded under the Recovery Act. 

The Emory Center for Injury Control has created a multidisciplinary Faculty Seed Grant Program to facilitate and promote innovative, preliminary, and interdisciplinary research activities to yield future high-impact injury prevention research. The four categories of grants (One-year Pilot Grants, Grant Application Awards, Community-based, Capacity-building and Translation Research Grants, and Cooperative Grant) are designed to provide incentives and support for researchers to work collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams and community members on projects that can lead to larger grant proposals related to violence and unintentional injury prevention or that support the preparation of a larger grant proposal. The seed grants range in amounts but all reflect total costs (covering both direct and indirect costs, where applicable) for projects lasting one year or less. Application

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.

Morehouse School of Medicine will host the 14th annual HeLa Women's Health Conference on September 25, at the Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care. The conference will focus on reproductive health and cancer, including the relationship between obesity and cancer. Writer Rebecca Skloot, assistant professor of English at the University of Memphis, will be the keynote speaker. Skloot is the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Click here for more information.

The ACTSI cordially invites you or your representative to attend a Community Engagement & Research Program (CERP) research-community workshop on asthma on Wednesday, October 21, at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health at 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Rita Anne Rollins Room, 8th floor. This workshop's goal is to discuss upcoming grant opportunities in asthma. You will meet with researchers and community based organization representatives who are interested in collaborating on grant opportunities. The format of the workshop will consist of a general overview and purpose followed by various breakout work sessions (90-100 minutes) based on research interest. Please feel free to forward this information to other colleagues who may be interested. Read more... 

The Executive Vice President for Health Affairs at Emory presents the Future Makers Lecture Series featuring Darrell G. Kirch, MD president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The lecture will be held on Thursday, October 29, in the Woodruff Health Science Center Administration Building at 5:00 p.m. Please save the date. Read more... 

The NCRR at the NIH presents Widening the Use of Electronic Health Record Data for Research on Friday, October 30, from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. at the Main Auditorium, Natcher Conference Center, Building 45, NIH Campus, Bethesda, MD. Electronic health records have yet to be broadly implemented, but there are large national efforts underway to address this lag in technology adoption. At the same time, adopters of health information technology are looking toward ways of improving health by secondary application of clinical data obtained during healthcare. Case studies in comparative effectiveness research, health disparities, drug safety, and public health will allow sharing of successful roadmaps, identification of challenging areas of mutual interest, and discussion of common tasks that can be addressed in the short term. For more information and to register, click here.

The Mapping Georgia Communities Workshop: An Introduction to GIS & Community Analysis will be held at Classroom Resource Group Learning Center (One Glenlake Parkway, Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30328) on November 12 and 13. Note: These are one day workshops. Participants choose which one day to attend. Beginners and anyone interested in mapping their community is welcome to attend. Now offering ArcGIS training, refresher, and advanced classes (see website for more information). Participants will learn to use ArcGIS 9.3.1 and to create thematic maps, address mapping (geocoding) for incidents and disease, download and map census and American community survey data, conduct spatial queries, download free shapefiles, and create well-designed maps and mapping techniques transferable to all other communities.  Exercises are designed for beginners, intermediate Excel skills are required. For more information and to register click here.

The Gerontology Society of America (GSA) is convening their 62nd Annual Meeting in Atlanta on November 18 through 22.GSA is the oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. This year's them e is Creative Approaches to Aging.  Conference organizers are looking for volunteers in several areas (i.e.  exhibit hall, conference registration, room monitors, etc) . Students, health care professional s, and faculty who agree to volunteer eight hours or more will receive complementary registration. Volunteer registration forms are due October 2. Click here for more information on the GSA annual meeting.

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 Emory Hospital site is a hospital-based ACTSI Clinical Interaction Site that provides comprehensive support for clinical investigation with various core resources and facilities. The Emory Hospital Clinical Interaction Site formally replaces the Emory General Clinical Research Center (GCRC). The site offers an inpatient and outpatient facility, research nursing, phlebotomy, sample acquisition, courier service, biological sample processing, aliquotting, short- and long-term storage, patient scheduling and tracking, population registries and clinical data warehouse information for subject recruitment, bionutrition and exercise physiology expertise and capabilities, endothelial function testing, and practical training for nurses, coordinators, scholars, and investigators. The site provides the infrastructure necessary for Emory, MSM, and Georgia Tech faculty to conduct clinical research. For more information please click here. To learn how to submit a protocol click here.