Announcements
Newsletter Schedule
What’s Up in DOM Research newsletter will be paused until further notice.
Extended Deadline: Ease of Research Initiative Town Hall with Robert Nobles, Vice President, Office of Research Administration
Friday, September 6 | noon–1 p.m. | Hybrid, SOM 178P (lite snacks) and Zoom | Register
Registration deadline extended: Thursday, September 5
Dr. Nobles’s office provides strategic guidance and supports all aspects of research administration at Emory. This is an excellent opportunity to hear directly from ORA leadership and ask your questions. (We STRONGLY encourage in-person attendance for maximum engagement and interaction with colleagues and the featured leaders.)
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.
NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP)
Begins Sunday, September 1
As part of the LRP application process, every applicant is required to identify an “Institutional Business Official” (IBO) who will verify to NIH on the employer’s behalf the applicant’s base salary and availability of time and resources to conduct the proposed research. When completing their LRP applications, all applicants employed by Emory through the SOM or by the Pediatric Institute should identify me as their IBO using my NIH Commons ID, which is JBARWICK.
NOW OPEN! 2024 DOM Research Day
Thursday, November 7 | 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m. | In-person, Emory Student Center
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.
Upcoming Events
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.
Emory@Grady Women's Sexual Health Summit
Thursday, September 5 | 8–5 p.m. | Steiner Auditorium on Grady campus and virtual | Register
This inaugural meeting will feature clinical and scientific advances in the area of women's sexual health and has been designed for physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, pharmacists, clinical research staff, and other health professionals who are actively involved in research or clinical care related to sexual health. Topics include HIV/STI prevention, HPV, gender-affirming care, and more! For more information, contact: WSHS@emory.edu
K-Club: How to Deliver a Great Research Presentation
Monday, September 9 | noon | HSRBII N-600 or Zoom | Register
Brittany Murray, MD, MPhil will discuss strategies for an engaging oral research presentation.
2024 Emory Max Cooper Prize Symposium
Thursday, September 12 | 9 a.m.–1 p.m. | HSRB Auditorium | Register
Honoring Dr. Max Cooper, whose historic discoveries have forever changed the understanding of the adaptive immune system. The 2024 prize recipients will highlight their contributions to the field of immunology.
Research Appreciation Day
Friday, September 13
Streamline Your Practice: How to Use Artificial Intelligence in Today’s Ambulatory Care
Friday, September 20 | noon–1 p.m. | Zoom | Register
This is an overview of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help clinicians and educators today in the clinical setting. During this session we will introduce the technology, discuss how it can be adapted to various clinical and educational workflows, and explore some future directions for application
2024 State of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center
Monday, September 30 | 4 p.m. | WHSCAB Auditorium and Zoom
Do you have an upcoming event or educational opportunity?
Highlighted Resource
Communicating your research findings: A critical part of research is communicating your findings, including manuscript development, finding your H-index, utilizing the library, and accessing poster and presentation resources including, updated Emory Branded poster templates.
Funding & Award Opportunities
A searchable External Funding Opportunities Database compiled from FOAs in this newsletter is available. Emory credentials are required to view.
Novel Preclinical Models of NeuroHIV in the cART Era (R61/R33 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Deadlines: Friday, November 1 (LOI); Monday, December 2 (Full application)
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to promote a significant improvement in the translational relevance of NeuroHIV models, specifically in the context of chronic HIV infection of the CNS in the modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) era under conditions of viral suppression.
Halting Tuberculosis (TB) Transmission (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
Deadlines: 30 days prior (LOI); December 4 (Full application)
The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to understand the critical drivers of tuberculosis (TB) transmission at the individual and population levels in high-burden settings; to develop effective methods to measure rates of TB transmission that rely on an increased understanding of the biomedical basis of transmission and related risk factors; and assess potential interventions, including low-cost and low-tech options, to prevent TB transmission and detect infectious TB.
Safety and Efficacy of Amyloid-Beta Directed Antibody Therapy in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia with Evidence of Lewy Body Dementia and
Amyloid-Beta Pathology (U01 - Clinical Trial Required)
Deadlines: Tuesday, December 24 (LOI); Friday, January 24 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to solicit applications proposing Phase 2 placebo-controlled, clinical trials to determine the safety and efficacy of monoclonal antibody therapies directed against amyloid-beta compared to placebo in diverse "mixed dementia" populations with a focus on Lewy Body Dementias (LBD).
NHLBI Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA) (R35 Clinical Trial Optional)
Deadlines: 30 days prior (LOI); February 19 and April 28, 2025; 2026; 2027 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to promote scientific productivity and innovation by providing long-term support and increased flexibility to experienced Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PDs/PIs) who are currently PDs/PIs on at least two NHLBI R01-equivalent awards or an NHLBI R35 award in the 6th or 7th year of funding and whose outstanding record of research demonstrates their ability to make major contributions to heart, lung, blood and sleep (HLBS) research.
NHLBI Emerging Investigator Award (EIA) (R35 Clinical Trial Optional)
Deadlines: 30 days prior (LOI); February 19 and April 28, 2025; 2026; 2027 (Full application)
The purpose of this FOA is to promote scientific productivity and innovation by providing long-term support and increased flexibility to experienced Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PDs/PIs) who are currently PDs/PIs on at least two NHLBI R01-equivalent awards (of which one must be an NHLBI-funded NIH Early Stage Investigator (ESI) award) and whose outstanding record of research demonstrate their ability to make major contributions to the heart, lung, blood and sleep (HLBS) research.
Scalable Solutions Office: Office-wide Innovative Solutions Opening for Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health
(ARPA-H)
Deadline: March 14, 2025
The purpose of this FOA is to develop approaches that will leverage an interdisciplinary approach and collaborative networks to address challenges of geography, distribution, manufacturing, data and information, thereby improving health care access and affordability.
Would you like assistance reviewing your grant proposal? DOM researchers can request grant writing and editing services from Janet Gross, PhD on projects including resubmissions, career development awards, and multicenter grants. These services are offered through a cost-sharing effort between the department and the researcher’s division and must be approved by both.
Congratulatory Corner
Dean P Jones (Co-I, Pulmonary) received funding from the National Institute Of Environmental Health Sciences for a project entitled “The Omics and Mixtures Integration on Traffic Exposure and Preterm Birth (OMIT-PTB) Study.”
Jesse Waggoner (Infectious Diseases) received funding from the Georgia Research Alliance for a project entitled “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award - RNAES: Simple and economic RNA extraction and storage from clinical samples.”
Arshed Quyyumi (Cardiology) received funding from the Medpace Clinical Research, LLC/Tenax Therapeutics, Inc. for a project entitled “A phase 3, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of Levosimendan in Pulmonary Hypertension patients with Heart Failure With Preserved Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (PH-HFpEF).”
Tracey Henry (General Internal Medicine) received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a project entitled “Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship.”
Jessica Williams (Rheumatology) received funding from LUPUS THERAPEUTICS LLC/Lupus Research Alliance for a project entitled “Project CHANGE (Community-based Health Action Network to Generate Trial Participation and Eliminate Disparities) Program.”
Jessica Alvarez (Endocrinology) received funding from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for a project entitled, “Centralized Endocrine & Diabetes Data Repository-Cystic Fibrosis (CEDaR- CF).”
Kunal Bhatt (Cardiology) received funding from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for a project entitled, “A phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Amyloid Depleter ALXN2220 in adult participants with Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM).”
Daniel Graciaa (Infectious Diseases) received funding from Boston University for a project entitled “Revealing protective immunity to influenza using systems immunology (PRISM).”
Ishan Mehta (Pulmonary) received funding from Dompé farmaceutici s.p.a. for a project entitled, “Phase 2, proof-of-concept, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, multicenter study to assess efficacy and safety of reparixin as add-on therapy to standard of care in adult patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RESPIRATIO).”
Have you or a colleague recently received an award or grant funding?
Recent Notable Publications
Terry Jacobson (General Internal Medicine)
Szarek M, Bhatt DL, Miller M, Brinton EA, Jacobson TA, Tardif JC, et al; REDUCE-IT Investigators. Lipoprotein(a) Blood Levels and Cardiovascular Risk Reduction With Icosapent Ethyl. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2024 Apr 23;83(16):1529-1539. Read more
Modele Ogunniyi (Cardiology)
Gelfman LP, Blum M, Ogunniyi MO, McIlvennan CK, Kavalieratos D, Allen LA. Palliative Care Across the Spectrum of Heart Failure. JACC Heart Fail. 2024 Jun;12(6):973-989. Read more
Cecile Lahiri (Infectious Diseases)
D'Souza G, Tewari SR, Troy T, Webster-Cyriaque J, Wiley DJ, Lahiri CD, et al. Oncogenic Oral Human Papillomavirus Clearance Patterns over 10 Years. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2024 Apr 3;33(4):516-524. Read more
Francois Rollin (General Internal Medicine)
Gonzalez CJ, Krishnamurthy S, Rollin FG, Siddiqui S, Henry TL, Kiefer M, Wan S, Weerahandi H. Incorporating Anti-racist Principles Throughout the Research Lifecycle: A Position Statement from the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM). J Gen Intern Med. 2024 May 14. Read more
Are you properly citing the DOM in your publications? Emory Department of Medicine places a strong emphasis on its broad and innovative research programs. Publications are an integral part of the research. To track departmental impact, we must cite affiliations correctly. Please use the following template in all publications. Example: Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine (replace with your division)
Spotlighted Researcher
Ralph Tanios
Post Doctoral Fellow – Infectious Diseases
What is your professional background?
I am a foreign medical graduate with a medical degree from the American University of Beirut and a master’s degree in biomedical sciences from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Which division do you work in, and who is your mentor?
I work in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. My inspirational mentors are Dr. Nadine Rouphael, a revolutionary pioneer in vaccine research, and the universally revered Dr. Kimberly Workowski whose groundbreaking research accomplishments reformed sexual health treatment guidelines.
Briefly describe your research. Why is it important?
Of the ten clinical research projects I am currently involved in, the three that best demonstrate the wide spectrum of my research field are:
1. Flu Challenge Study, in which we designed and implemented a controlled environment for establishing influenza infection in humans. We can use this model to test the efficacy of novel vaccines and preventive measures (ex: masks) in minimizing seasonal Influenza virus transmission.
2. Doxy Short Course study to assess whether three days of Doxycycline therapy is just as effective as the 7-day standard for treating Chlamydia. If successful, a shorter course of Doxycycline can ensure that individuals (and their gut flora among other microbiota) aren’t exposed to antibiotics for longer than necessary while also decreasing the risk for potential side effects, improving adherence, and lowering the chance for antibiotic-resistant Chlamydia strains to develop.
3. Transgender Immunology study that investigates the impact of hormone replacement therapy on the immune system. This project is near and dear to my heart because I one day plan to start my own non-profit transgender clinic and research center that offers subsidized multidisciplinary medical services to transgender individuals, among other LGBT community groups. This research project will help us determine whether the vaccine requirements of individuals taking hormone replacement therapy differ from those who do not. I believe the field of medicine should adopt a patient-tailored approach as opposed to focusing solely on developing a panacea.
What do you like most about Emory?
My favorite part about Emory is the diversity and inclusion in both the student body and the staff. There is a large focus on social and economic development, with a plethora of student-led initiatives aimed at fostering a culturally rich, inclusive, representative, collaborative, and integrated community.
What is your favorite movie or TV show?
My favorite movie is Mean Girls for its quotable witty humor, its complex portrayal of human nature, and the character development in a deceptively simplistic façade.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Spare time? I cannot begin to fathom such a concept.
What is a fun fact about you?
I designed and implemented an MCAT teaching program that provides underrepresented minorities in medicine with the resources they need to optimize their chances of being accepted into medical school, and I am currently working on designing a sister program that I can hopefully bring to Emory University.
"What's Up" is brought to you by Emory University's Department of Medicine Office of Research.
