eRoundup for 09/30/11

The Emory/Georgia Tech Healthcare Innovation Program (HIP), in partnership with the ACTSI, is pleased to invite research seed grant proposals in Healthcare Innovation. The seed grant program will fund multi-investigator, multidisciplinary teams examining healthcare services and clinical effectiveness. Awards will support innovative approaches that address issues of healthcare quality, costs, and/or access that are consistent with the goals of the HIP and the ACTSI. Preliminary Study grants and Complete Project grants will be offered. More information is available here.

The Emory-Egleston Children’s Research Center announces the 2012 Seed Grant Program. The program provides funding for projects in basic, translational and clinical research with goals of understanding the mechanisms and potential treatments for diseases of children. Questions?

National CFARs, the Office of AIDS Research and the International AIDS Society are pleased to announce an opportunity to submit proposals for the CNIHR-Creative and Novel Ideas in HIV Research program. This research grant program is for early career investigators with no prior experience in HIV research.

The 2012 application cycle for the NIH’s Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) is now open. Start your application online. The LRPs repay the outstanding student loans of researchers who are or will be conducting nonprofit biomedical or behavioral research. Opportunities are available in five research areas – clinical, pediatric, health disparities, contraception and infertility and clinical research for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Applicants must hold a MD, DO, MD/PhD, or PhD. PhD applicants must be conducting translational research within a clinical department or hold an appointment in a clinical department. Applications from candidates with a current K Award or equivalent are strongly encouraged to apply and will receive preference. The award amount is $10,000 over one year.

K awardees have the opportunity to apply for a $1,000 grant by submitting an abstract to the 2012 Central Society for Clinical Research Combined Annual Meeting to be held on April 26-27 in Chicago, IL.

Dr. David Smith

Eva Mozes Kor, an identical twin who survived the Holocaust and the macabre experiments of Dr. Josef Mengele, will speak about her experience at Auschwitz and lead an interactive discussion on the concept of forgiveness. She will use this narrative to draw lessons for today’s research community and public-at-large based in the concept of mutual respect and justice. Three presentations: October 4, at 7:00 p.m. in Glenn Memorial Church (1660 N Decatur Rd) Room 102; October 5, at Noon in Emory’s Harland Cinema Theater; and from 5:30-8:30 p.m. a buffet dinner, networking, book signing, speaker discussion will be held in the Carlos Museum at Emory (third floor Reception Hall) and is co-sponsored by the Atlanta Chapter of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals.

The K-Club provides an educational forum to assist fellows and faculty. Mentoring Matters from Mentees will address strategies and approaches for mentees to effectively build and engage their mentoring team. Pediatric researchers and Pediatric junior faculty and fellows interested in academic research careers should attend. The meeting will be held from Noon - 1:00 p.m.  in Egleston, Classroom 5. Questions?

The Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics (ITMAT) at the University of Pennsylvania received a conference grant from NCRR to defray the costs of travel and registration by CTSA representatives to the ITMAT symposium entitled Translational Strategies in Contemporary Science. This meeting is likely to be of particular value to those interested in the translational enterprise as it relates to development of novel therapeutics and the mission of the proposed NCATS. If you are interested in attending, please contact Andrew West.

Emory’s Future Makers Lecture Series presents Sharing Accountability through Online Care by Jeffrey Arnold, founder of Sharecare and founder and former CEO of WebMD. RSVP.

The NANOFANS (Focusing on Advanced Nanobio Systems) Forum meeting will be held from 11:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. at the Nanotechnology Research Center, Marcus Nanotechnology Building, Georgia Tech. Nanomedicine takes nanotechnology one step further with the application of cutting-edge biomedical science to create miniscule “smart devices.” Dr. Thomas Barker (BME, GA Tech/Emory), Dr. Gang Bao (BME, GA Tech/Emory), and Dr. Wilbur Lam (BME, GA Tech/Emory), known for their pioneering work in the area of Nanomedicine, will discuss their current research.

French and American scientists, academics and experts in kidney transplantation will gather to participate in the one-day symposia, Translational Treatments: Advances in Renal Transplantation, at 8:00 a.m. at the Emory Transplant Center. French and American immunologists and transplant physicians will address critical topics on the care of renal transplant patients. Distinguished research scholars, such as Dr. Christophe Legendre (Necker Hospital), Dr. Lionel Rostaing (Rangueil-Toulouse Hospital), Dr. Jean-Paul Soulillou (Nantes Hospital), Dr. Antonio Guasch and ACTSI investigator Dr. Thomas Pearson (Emory School of Medicine), will give presentations, share ideas, and exchange best practices in the diagnosis and management of patients.

The Emory Alzheimer's Disease Research Center hosts a scientific retreat from 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. in the Emory School of Medicine Conference Room 130. The focus of the retreat is Risk Factors and Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) as well as Norepinephrine and Inflammation in AD. There is no charge for the retreat and individuals can register by email.

The third annual FDA Clinical Investigator Training Course, co-sponsored by the FDA’s Office of Critical Path Programs and the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), is now open for registration. The course will be held at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, MD. This intensive, three-day course will enable clinical investigators to gain a greater appreciation of the scientific, ethical and regulatory issues relating to clinical trial data that may be submitted to regulatory bodies.

AAMC Government Relations reports that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2012 funding bill for NIH and other HHS agencies on September 21, after the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee approved the bill on September 20. According to a summary released by the committee, the bill includes $30.5 billion for NIH, a decrease of $190 million (or 0.6 percent) from the FY 2011 level. The bill also provides $20 million for the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) at NIH, which activates its authorization. The summary states, “The bill creates the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) as part of a broader restructuring at NIH that also includes the termination of the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR).”

The FDA named ACTSI co-PI, Barbara Boyan, PhD, and the Atlanta Pediatric Device Consortium a 2011/2012 recipient of the Pediatric Device Consortia Grant. The consortium was awarded $900,000 per year for two years and brings together the resources of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Engineering. The consortium will formalize relationships between the Georgia Technology Translational Research Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Science (TRIBES), which focuses on engineering systems that result in commercial products; the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI), which designs and produces GMP-manufactured prototypes; and the GLP-certified large animal facility at St. Joseph’s Translational Research Institute. The consortium will partner with the ACTSI, which will provide a venue for testing and clinical assessments. The consortium will provide access to services for identifying novel technologies, commercialization plan development and partner with consortium centers to assist with execution.

The consortium will be led by Boyan, along with consortium co-directors Kevin Maher, MD, a cardiologist and researcher specializing in pediatrics with appointments at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Sibley Heart Center and Emory University, and Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and bioengineer with appointments at Emory, the Aflac Cancer Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Tech. Lam recently received ACTSI funding through the Translational Technologies & Resources (TTR) pilot fund for his work, Clinical assessment of a Smartphone otoscope.

Consortium's First Event & Innovation Competition

The Emory+Children's Pediatric Research Center and 2012 Retreat Co-Chairs Drs. Paul Spearman and Gilda Barabino invite the submission of abstracts for oral and poster presentation at the 2012 Pediatric Research Retreat: Frontiers in Pediatric Science on January 27, 2012 at the Emory Conference Center.

Kim Wallen, PhD, ACTSI investigator, behavioral neuroendocrinologist and primate researcher at Emory University

Investigator NPR | Wild Chimps, Stick Dolls: What's at play here?
December 21, 2010

Popular Science | What is the point of the female orgasm
September 21, 2011