Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Announcements

Emory Vaccinology Training Program (VTP) – NIH T32 Opening for Vaccine Safety Fellow
Deadline: Thursday, August 15
The Emory Vaccinology Training Program (VTP) was created in response to an urgent need to train a new generation of researchers in vaccinology. 

CFDE Faculty Writing Retreats for 2024-25
Deadline: Friday, August 16 | Apply
The structure of the retreats will be flexible to allow participants to "take what you need" from the experience: long stretches of writing, focus, deep concentration time, and little else; work with a writing coach to develop a sustainable and productive writing practice; or focus on building a writing practice within a community of other faculty writers and establish a writing group. 

2024 Researcher Appreciation Day
Deadline to Nominate: Friday, August 16 | Nominate
Do you have a colleague who is conducting groundbreaking research, developing new technologies, or pursuing novel and innovative ideas? Has your colleague published exciting research in notable journals or had a newly funded grant? Do you know someone who is advancing the knowledge base in your field? Help us celebrate our researchers by sending your nominations. The committee will select the most outstanding nominations for recognition on Researcher Appreciation Day, Friday, September 13.

Discovery Phase Research Mentors and Projects
Deadline to Submit: Wednesday, August 21 | Submit
The Office of Research is looking for research-active DOM faculty to participate in the Discovery Phase of the medical school curriculum by mentoring a medical student research project. Topics in clinical, translational, or basic science, or in the medical humanities, including creative writing, medical history, business, or law, as they pertain to medicine, are all potential areas as long as they lead to a scholarly product. 

Call for Applications: Executive Leadership Courses for Women
Deadline: Friday, August 23
SOM's Office of Faculty Academic Affairs and Professional Development is pleased to announce a call for applications for two women's leadership courses from Drexel University College of Medicine.  

Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) is a unique leadership development program designed to build a community of exceptional women academic leaders who have broad organizational perspectives and deep personal capacity to address emerging issues in their schools and universities and the society they serve.  

Executive Leadership in Health Care (ELH) builds upon the ELAM fellowship model to include the concepts, tools, and skills that will enable women leaders to bring their full value to healthcare organizations.

Application and Selection Process
Emory SOM will nominate up to two fellows for the ELAM program and one fellow for ELH. If you are interested in being considered as a 2025–2026 nominee, please provide: 

• Short cover letter indicating why you are interested in ELAM or ELH.
• Your curriculum vita in the SOM template.
• A letter or email from your chair indicating their plans for your future leadership involvement. Guidance for writing a compelling chair letter is available online.

All required materials must be submitted to somfde@emory.edu by August 23, 2024. Please indicate in the subject line which program you are applying for. A committee comprised of Emory ELAM graduates will review and select the nominees, who will be notified by mid-September. 

The School of Medicine will subsidize the application fee, but the bulk of the cost will be the responsibility of the department. The selected nominee(s) will be responsible for completing and submitting all required application materials by the October 31, 2024 deadline. 

Emory AI Extraction Core is now available for Grady imaging extraction services
Requesters will still require all the same IRB/ROC/DUA approvals from Grady. After those are in place, the request for imaging extraction can be sent to the Core.

Upcoming Events

LAST CHANCE to Register! R2NEXUS Workshop 3: Preparing Your R01 and Other Grant Applications

NEW! 2.5 CME credit available for each day

Register today for our upcoming Road 2 NEXt sUcceSs (R2NEXUS) workshops! This series is comprised of half-day workshops designed to support current career development awardees and early-career faculty on their paths toward independent funding. Each workshop focuses on a different aspect of research program development, and participants can register for whichever workshop is most applicable to them.

Thursdays at 3 Research Webinar Series: Increasing Probability of Funding Success
Thursday, August 15 | 3 p.m. | Register
This session will discuss how to increase the probability of funding success, including how to find success in both the health sciences and humanities/outside of NIH.

Building a Sustainable Writing Practice
Tuesday, August 20 | noon–1:30 p.m. | Suite 216 Woodruff Library and Zoom | Register
In this workshop hosted by the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, they will explore ways not only to address the zeitgeist of our age — anxiety about time and space to maintain focus in a world full of disruption — but also to re-energize our intellectual work and reconnect with its intrinsic reward and pleasure. 

6^th Annual Pediatric Early Career Researcher Conference
Tuesday, August 27 | 8 a.m.–6 p.m. | HSRB I | Register
Join as residents, fellows, and junior facu lty showcase their work in basic science/translational and clinical/outcomes research. Network with leading experts, gain valuable insights, and launch your research career at this interactive event.

CFDE Writing Support Program
Deadline to Register: Wednesday, August 28 | Register
The Center for Faculty Development and Excellence invites faculty to participate in a semester-long program of remote and in-person writing support structures. Registrants may choose from four options:

1. Writing Discussion Groups: participants read and discuss one another’s work, via Zoom or in-person
2. Writing Time Together Groups: participants gather in person for writing time together
3. Sit Down and Write with the CFDE: twice weekly virtual (and in-person in the CFDE Faculty Writing Room) one-hour group writing sessions and accountability on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 a.m. via Facebook or Slack
4. Writing Coach Message Service: twice-weekly emails with practical writing tips and support, plus one optional individual 30-minute writing coaching session during the semester

Ease of Research Initiative Town Hall Series: Guest Speaker, Robert Nobles, Vice President, Office of Research Administration
Friday, September 6 | noon–1 p.m. | Hybrid, SOM 178P and Zoom | Register
This new series will be hosted on the first Friday of each month throughout the fall, starting in September. Each month, we will be joined by a leader from a regulatory office critical to performing research at Emory.

2024 DOM Research Day
Thursday, November 7 | 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m. | In-person, Emory Student Center
Abstract Submission Deadline: Tuesday, August 20 | Submit an Abstract
The annual Department of Medicine Research Day celebrates research efforts across the department bringing together researchers from all divisions and providing an opportunity to share exciting new findings, facilitate scientific exchange, and identify potential new collaborations. Add to Calendar

Do you have an upcoming event or educational opportunity?

Highlighted Resource

Funding & Award Opportunities

A searchable External Funding Opportunities Database has been compiled from FOAs in this weekly newsletter, including archived COVID FOAs.
Emory credentials are required to view.

Phased Multi-Site Clinical Trial: Testing Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Young Adults With High Lifetime Risk Using Surrogate Outcomes –
Data Coordinating Center (Collaborative U24 Trial Required)
Clinical Coordinating Center (Collaborative UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Required)
Deadlines: Monday, September 9 (LOI); Monday, October 28 (Full application)
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support a clinical trial that will test intervention(s) to reduce the progression of coronary atherosclerosis among young adults who are at low or borderline 10-year risk (<7.5%) for their first atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) event, yet at high lifetime risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). 

CDC: Tuberculosis Elimination and Laboratory Cooperative Agreement
Deadline: Monday, September 9
The purpose of this FOA is to prevent transmission of M. tuberculosis (TB) and prevent progression from latent TB infection to active TB disease. 

Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (P30 Clinical Trial Optional)
Deadlines: Wednesday, September 11 (LOI); Friday, October 11 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to establish centers of excellence in research and research education to increase scientific knowledge leading to better ways to maintain or restore independence in older persons.

Deciphering the Impact of RNA Modifications on Brain Aging and AD/ADRD (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Deadlines: Tuesday, October 1 (LOI); Friday, November 1 (Full application)
The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to catalyze innovative research to elucidate the molecular landscape and functional implications of RNA modifications in brain aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD). AD-related dementias include Lewy body dementia (LBD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), vascular cognitive impairment/dementia (VCI/D), and mixed dementias.

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Discovery and Development of Oral Small-molecule Direct-acting Antivirals Targeting Viruses of Pandemic Potential
Deadline: Friday, October 4
The purpose of this FOA is to build a more robust pipeline of candidate antiviral drugs suitable for widespread use in the community in future outbreaks and/or pandemics.

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Maximizing the Scientific Value of Secondary Analyses of Existing Cohorts and Datasets in Order to Address Research Gaps and Foster Additional Opportunities in Aging Research
Deadline: Friday, October 4
The goal of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to encourage the use of existing cohorts and datasets for well-focused secondary analyses to investigate novel scientific ideas and/or address clinically related issues on: (1) aging changes influencing health across the lifespan (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (ADRD)), (2) diseases and disabilities in older persons, and/or (3) the changes in basic biology of aging that underlie these impacts on health (the hallmarks of aging).

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) Using the Collaborative Cross (CC) Mouse Model for Immunoregulatory and Infectious Disease Research
Deadline: Friday, October 4
The goal of this NOSI is to highlight interest in receiving grant applications focusing on the following area(s): (1) Use of mouse lines from the Collaborative Cross (CC) and recombinant inbred intercrosses of CC lines (CC-RIX) to advance understanding of host genetics involved in immune system development, regulation, and function during homeostasis and immune stimulatory conditions; (2) Screening of CC mouse lines to identify and characterize new mouse models suitable for specific studies and disease models within the mission of NIAID (i.e., fundamental immunology; asthma or allergic disease; autoimmune disease; primary immune deficiency; cell, tissue or organ transplantation; infectious disease); (3) Development of novel CC mouse lines that more closely mimic human genetic variations and immune responses, and validate the genetic factors identified in the CC lines with human samples or human studies.

Promoting Innovative Research in Treponema pallidum Pathogenesis (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Deadlines: 30 days prior (LOI); Monday, November 4 (Full application)
The purpose of this NOFO is to support basic and exploratory research projects to advance our understanding of Treponema pallidum bacterial pathogenesis.

Mechanisms of Reciprocal Interactions between HIV Associated Neuroinflammation and CNS Persistence: Implications in HIV Neuropathogenesis and Cure (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Deadlines: Tuesday, October 8 (LOI); Friday, November 8 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to examine mechanisms of reciprocal interactions between HIV-associated neuroinflammation and central nervous system (CNS) HIV persistence.

Alzheimer's Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) Clinical Trials (R01 Clinical Trial Required
Deadlines: Thursday, October 17
The purpose of this FOA is to develop and implement multi-site Phase Ib to III clinical trials of promising pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions that may prevent, delay, or treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other age-related dementias using the Alzheimer's disease Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) trial coordination and management infrastructure.

Congratulatory Corner

Jason Cobb (Renal Medicine) received funding from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP for a project entitled, “A multicenter randomized double-blind placebo-controlled phase 3 study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Anifrolumab in adult patients with active proliferative Lupus Nephritis.”

Heba Iskandar (Digestive Diseases) received funding from AbbVie, Inc. for a project entitled, “A phase 3, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Risankizumab subcutaneous induction treatment in subjects with moderately to severely active Crohn’s Disease."

Sheetal Kandiah (Infectious Diseases) received funding from Regents of the University of Minnesota/Leidos Biomedical, Inc/NIH for a project entitled, “Strategies and Treatments for Respiratory & Viral Emergencies (STRIVE).”

Nitu Kashyap (General Internal Medicine) received funding from Yale New Haven Health System Corp/CDC for a project entitled, “Yale New Haven Health System High Impact Pathogens - Surveillance, Training and Emergency Response (YNHHS HIPSTER).”

Arezou Khosroshahi (Rheumatology) received funding from Nkarta, Inc. for a project entitled, “A phase 1 study of NKX019, a CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor - Natural Killer (CAR NK) cell therapy, in subjects with autoimmune disease.”

Zhiyong Lin (Cardiology) received funding from the American Heart Association for a project entitled, “Regulation of smooth muscle cell plasticity in atherosclerosis.”

Molly Perkins (Geriatrics) received funding from the NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING for a project entitled, “Investigating informal caregivers' involvement in end-of-life care among assisted living residents with advanced dementia and its influence on resident and caregiver outcomes.”

Daniel Perrien (Endocrinology) received funding from adMare BioInnovations for a project entitled, “Testing the ability of AMB-001 to reduce heterotopic ossification.”

Bashar Staitieh (Pulmonary) received funding from Weill Medical College of Cornell University/NHLBI for a project entitled, “1/2 Doxycycline for emphysema in people living with HIV: The DEPTH trial.”

Have you or a colleague recently received an award or grant funding?

Recent Notable Publications

William Bender (Pulmonary)
Surie D, Yuengling KA, DeCuir J, Zhu Y, Lauring AS, Gaglani M, et al; Investigating Respiratory Viruses in the Acutely Ill (IVY) Network. Severity of respiratory syncytial virus vs COVID-19 and influenza among hospitalized US adults. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Apr 1;7(4):e244954. Read more

Kaylin Dance, Jonathan Colasanti, and Lauren Collins (Infectious Diseases)
Erguera XA, Koester KA, Diaz Tsuzuki M, Dance KV, Flores R, Kerman J, McNulty MC, et al. Acceptability of long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy among people with HIV receiving care at three Ryan White funded clinics in the United States. AIDS Behav. 2024 Jul;28(7):2226-2238. Read more

Terry Jacobson (General Internal Medicine)
Bays HE, Kirkpatrick CF, Maki KC, Toth PP, Morgan RT, Tondt J, et al. Obesity, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular disease: A joint expert review from the Obesity Medicine Association and the National Lipid Association 2024. J Clin Lipidol. 2024 May-Jun;18(3):e320-e350. Read more

Modele Ogunniyi (Cardiology)
Tamirisa KP, Ogunniyi MO, Chen MH, Contreras J, Tong AT, Kadiyala M, et al; ACC’s Sandra J. Lewis mid-career leadership inaugural cohort. Insights from mid-career women in cardiology. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2024 Jul 9;84(2):219-222. Read more

Francois Rollin, Colin Washington, and Maura George (General Internal Medicine)
Rollin FG, Washington C, George M. Residual confounding and misattribution of risk in sleep inequities. Sleep Med. 2024 May;117:220. Read more

Nadine Rouphael and Alberto C Moreno (Infectious Diseases)
Grigoryan L, Feng Y, Bellusci L, Lai L, Wali B, Ellis M, et al. AS03 adjuvant enhances the magnitude, persistence, and clonal breadth of memory B cell responses to a plant-based COVID-19 vaccine in humans. Sci Immunol. 2024 Apr 5;9(94):eadi8039. Read more

Guillermo Umpierrez (Endocrinology)
McCoy RG, Herrin J, Swarna KS, Deng Y, Kent DM, Ross JS, Umpierrez GE, et al. Effectiveness of glucose-lowering medications on cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes at moderate cardiovascular risk. Nat Cardiovasc Res. 2024 Apr;3(4):431-440. Read more

Peter Wilson (Cardiology)
Small AM, Melloni GEM, Kamanu FK, Bergmark BA, Bonaca MP, O'Donoghue ML, et al. Novel polygenic risk score and established clinical risk factors for risk estimation of aortic stenosis. JAMA Cardiol. 2024 Apr 1;9(4):357-366. Read more

Have you or a colleague recently published an article? 

Spotlighted Researcher

Shaimaa Sakr
Visiting Fellow – Cardiology

What is your professional background?
I am a cardiologist from Egypt, currently working as a postdoctoral research fellow at Emory University in the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine(DOM). I have six years of clinical experience focusing on diagnosing and treating cardiovascular diseases in clinical practice. Since 2023, I have been involved in cardiovascular research, with a particular interest in diabetes, atherosclerosis, and the regenerative capacity in CAD populations. My work aims to bridge clinical practice and research to improve patient care and treatment strategies.

Which division do you work in, and who is your mentor?
I work in the Division of Cardiology in the DOM at Emory University School of Medicine under the supervision of Arshed Quyyumi, MD.

Briefly describe your research. Why is it important?
My research focuses on the role of inflammation in patients with CAD and its relationship to other risk factors like T2D. Our team has discovered a new inflammatory biomarker that significantly mediates the effect of T2D, which could redefine how we stratify risk factors. Additionally, I am working on proteomics and its relation to obesity and atherosclerosis in both the general population and CAD patients. We will publish some very interesting and novel findings in the next few months. I am honored and proud to be part of Emory, and I can confidently say it is totally worth it.

What do you like most about Emory?
What I like most about Emory is the diversity, equality, and opportunities it offers. Two years ago, I had no knowledge of research, but now I am conducting research as a first author at one of the top-ranked universities. This speaks volumes about the opportunities Emory provides.

What is your favorite movie or TV show?
"Seinfeld"

What do you like to do in your spare time?
In my spare time, I enjoy cooking, especially making my favorite orange cake. I also like playing pool, ping pong, cycling, walking, and dabbling in guitar and piano. I have a lot of hobbies to keep me busy!

What is a fun fact about you?
A fun fact about me is that my favorite type of motorcycle is a chopper, I love motorcycles.