Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Announcements

2024 DOM Faculty and Staff Awards
Deadline: Monday, June 24 | Nominate
Do you know a faculty or staff member who goes above and beyond in their role? The Office of Faculty Development is pleased to announce that faculty and staff award nominations are now being accepted for the 2023–2024 academic year.

Women’s Leadership Development Course
Deadline to apply: Monday, June 3
Hosted by the Emory School of Medicine (ESOM), this eight-month leadership development course is specially designed for mid-career women faculty to strengthen the network among women faculty members, enhance leadership skills and career development, and empower women to assume and excel in leadership positions.

The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases Implementation Science School
Applications Due: Monday, June 17
The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases Implementation Science School is an intensive program for early-career researchers, facilitated by some of the field’s most prominent global experts. Through lectures, small group sessions, facilitated group work, and panel discussions, trainees learn how to study and implement research findings into policy and practice, select and apply theories, models, and frameworks, and create a professional network for future collaborations.

Data Analytics and Biostatistics (DAB) Core provides high-quality biostatistics and IT data management services to DOM faculty by leveraging existing services in the Rollins School of Public Health and the Information Technology Department. The DOM offers 10 hours at no charge for approved DOM investigators who do not have grant funding; however, the requestee is responsible for time exceeding 10 hours. Learn how to submit your request and how to write DAB Core services into future grants, below.

Upcoming Events

NIH Office of Research on Women's Health: 8th Annual Vivian W. Pinn Symposium
Wednesday, May 15 | 1–5 p.m. | Virtual
This year’s event is titled “Synergy in Science: Innovations in Autoimmune Disease Research and Care” and will focus on a convergence of cutting-edge insights and collaborative efforts related to autoimmune diseases.

FAALI Lecture Series: Documentation Tips To Get Credit for Complex Care
Friday, May 17 | noon–1 p.m. | Zoom

Atlanta MWCCS Science Seminar Series
Friday, May 17 | 1–2 p.m. | Zoom | Register
Virtual science seminar series, featuring Dr. Rebecca Abelman, MD (Assistant Professor, San Francisco Healthcare System, University of California, San Francisco) presenting, “The Menopausal Transition in Women With and Without HIV."

2024 DOM Health Equity Day
Tuesday, May 21 | 9 a.m.–2 p.m. | Register
This half-day conference aims to raise awareness and encourage action around the systemic health disparities that exist across racial, ethnic, cultural, and social groups, while also recognizing interventions and research across the department centered on health equity and historically underrepresented groups in medicine. The event brings together stakeholders from all divisions and ranks, providing a platform to share compelling new findings, facilitate scientific exchange, and identify opportunities for collaboration.

GA CTSA: TL1 Visiting Science Working Group Debate: Smart Medicine or Algorithmic Dilemmas: The Pros and Cons of AI in Healthcare
Tuesday, May 21 | 11 a.m. | Zoom | Register
The event is hosted by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Emory University School of Medicine and co-sponsored by Coordination, Communication, and Operations Support (CCOS). Please contact Adisa Kalkan with any questions.

2024 Juha P. Kokko Lecture in Nephrology
Tuesday, May 21 | 5 p.m. Lecture; 6 p.m. Reception | Emory Student Center, Multi-Purpose Room 1
Title: Universal Donor Kidney Speaker: William H. Fissell, MD, (Associate Faculty of Nephrology and Hypertension, Vanderbilt University Medical Center)

MATLAB basics: Data analysis, geographic mapping, and AI
Wednesday, May 22 | 10:30 a.m.–2:20 p.m. | Math & Science Center, room W201 | Register

• 10:30 a.m.–noon | Low code data analysis and geographic mapping with MATLAB 
  Learn how to analyze, visualize, and model data using interactive tools in MATLAB.
• noon–1 p.m. | Lunch break with pizza
• 1–2:30 p.m. | Data science and AI: AI for beginners
  A workshop tailored for beginners, where we will demystify the fundamentals of AI and demonstrate the MATLAB tools that enable researchers to easily apply AI to their work.

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.

Cell and Gene Therapies for HIV Cure: Developing a Pipeline (P01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Deadlines: 30 days prior (LOI); Thursday, August 22 (Full application)
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support multi-project research programs for the development, characterization, and advancement of gene- and cell-based approaches to achieve long-term remission or elimination of HIV. 

Partnerships for the Development of Tools to Advance Therapeutic Discovery for Select Antibiotic-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Deadlines: 30 days prior (LOI); Thursday, August 22 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to support milestone-driven projects focused on developing and utilizing novel predictive models, assays, tools, and/or platforms based on penetration and efflux of small molecules to facilitate therapeutic discovery for select Gram-negative bacterial pathogens: carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE), and multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

DoD Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s Transforming Diagnosis Award (TrDA)
Deadlines: Thursday, August 22 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to build knowledge, capacity, technology, and/or research to reduce or overcome important barriers to obtaining a diagnosis, meaningful disease monitoring, and accurate prognosis.

Neuropathological Interactions Between COVID-19 and ADRD (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Deadlines: Wednesday, September 4 (LOI); Friday, October 4 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to solicit applications that propose studies in animal, cell culture, and/or human tissue models to elucidate the mechanisms by which COVID-19 interacts with and/or modulates ADRD-relevant phenotypes to support studies that are disease mechanistic in nature and must incorporate ADRD outcomes, risk factors, pathologies, or relevant comorbidities. 

Engineering Durable HIV Vaccine Responses (ENDURE) (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed
Deadlines: 30 days prior (LOI); Wednesday, October 9 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to support basic and applied research to understand and improve durable immune responses to candidate HIV vaccines.

Safety and Early Efficacy Studies of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy for Chronic Pain in Older Adults (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Required)
Deadlines: Tuesday, September 10 (LOI); Thursday, October 10 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to support a clinical trial network involving multiple institutions to collect safety and early efficacy data of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) in defined groups of older adults living with specific chronic pain conditions.

Coordinating Center for Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet (U01 Clinical Trial Required)
Deadlines: Monday, September 16 (LOI); Thursday, October 17 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to continue support for the TrialNet Coordinating Center (TNCC) that identifies people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) at stages before and after onset of clinical symptoms and enrolls them in trials and studies aimed at prevention of progression to clinical disease and preservation of insulin production. 

Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet Clinical Network Hub (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Deadlines: Monday, September 16 (LOI); Thursday, October 17 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to continue support for the Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet Clinical Network Hub (HUB), a screening and clinical activities coordination unit for clinical trials focusing on the prevention of and early intervention in type 1 diabetes (T1D). 

Congratulatory Corner

Guillermo Umpierrez (Endocrinology) received funding from Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. for a project entitled, “A parallel-group, randomized, prospective, interventional, double-blind, multicenter global Phase 3 study to investigate the efficacy and safety of finerenone versus placebo, in addition to standard of care, in participants with chronic kidney disease and type 1 diabetes.”

Arshed Quyyumi (Cardiology) received funding from NIH NATL Institute On Aging/University Of Georgia for a project entitled, “Effect of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet on heart failure status in older adults.”

Siva Bhavani (Pi, Pulmonary), Colleen Kraft (Infectious Diseases), Greg Martin, David Murphy, and Andre Holder (Co-Is, Pulmonary) received funding from Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation/Kaiser Permanente for a project entitled, “Precision Resuscitation with Crystalloids in SEpsis (PRECISE).”

Rebecca Levit (Cardiology) received funding from NHLBI for a project entitled, “Very early drivers of neutrophilic inflammation in cardiac ischemia-reperfusion.”

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

Recent Notable Publications

Joel Eggert and Byron Au-Yeung (Rheumatology)
Turner L, Van Le TN, Cross E, Queriault C, Knight M, Trihemasava K, et al. Single-cell NAD(H) levels predict clonal lymphocyte expansion dynamics. Sci Immunol. 2024 Mar 15;9(93):eadj7238. Read more

Tracey Henry (General Internal Medicine)
Burnett JR, De Lima B, Wang ES, McGarry K, Kim DI, Kisielewski M, et al. How are we teaching advocacy? A national survey of internal medicine residency program directors. J Gen Intern Med. 2024 May 6. Read more

Jeffrey Wang, Alexis Okoh (Fellow, Cardiology), Rebecca Steinberg (Resident), Apoorva Gangavelli (Medical Student), Krishan Patel (Hospital Medicine), and Alanna Morris (Cardiology)
Wang J, Okoh AK, Chen Y, Steinberg RS, Gangavelli A, Patel KJ, at al. Association of Psychosocial Risk Factors With Quality of Life and Readmissions 1-Year After LVAD Implantation. J Card Fail. 2024 Apr 13:S1071-9164(24)00120-9. Read more

Vikas Sukhatme (Renal Medicine)
Parsell MC, Greenleaf MN, Kombara GG, Sukhatme VP, Lam WA. Engaging cancer care physicians in off-label drug clinical trials: Human-centered design approach. JMIR Form Res. 2024 Feb 15;8:e51604. Read more

Have you or a colleague recently published an article? 

Spotlighted Researcher

Wendy Zinzow-Kramer
Senior Research Specialist - Rheumatology

What is your professional background?
I earned my PhD in Genetics and Molecular biology here at Emory in the laboratory of Dr. Boss. After that, I did a postdoc in the department of Psychology with Donna L. Maney, PhD in her lab. There I studied the genetic basis of social behavior in white-throated sparrows. My work since then has been focused on understanding immune system responses. First in the lab of Byron Au-Yeung, PhD, and now in Matthew Woodruff’s lab.

In what division do you work, and who is your mentor or PI?
I work for Matthew Woodruff in the Lowance Center for Human Immunology.

Briefly describe your research. Why is it important?
Our lab is interested in characterizing immune system composition both before and during an autoimmune response. We are using high-dimensional flow cytometry and single cell spatial transcriptomics to characterize immune cells at the single cell level. Ultimately, these data will help us to design and test therapies to treat disease. To this end, we are collaborating with the Santangelo lab that was recently awarded funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop cutting-edge therapies to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. I am very excited to participate in this ground-breaking project.

What do you like most about Emory?
I have benefitted most from the opportunity to collaborate with so many talented individuals. All of my work here at Emory has greatly benefited from collaborations I have had with faculty from other departments and institutions.

What is your favorite movie or TV show?
I am looking forward to the new season of “Dr. Who” that will be airing this month.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Twice a week I go to Fleet Feet in downtown Decatur for their run/walk group. It’s a nice opportunity to meet people, spend time outside, and get some exercise. 

What is a fun fact about you?
A few years I decided to try out medium distance running. I ran my first 10 mile race at the end of October, followed by my first and second half marathons in November.