TRI has issued the call for Letters of Intent and Request for Proposals for its Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Scholars Program.

The Scholars Program, which begins January 2021, was established to increase community-partnered research at UAMS to better serve the research needs of the Arkansas community and ultimately to reduce health disparities.

This program is led by TRI’s Community Engagement Program and will provide participants with the foundational knowledge of CBPR and skills to:

• Develop meaningful, equitable partnerships (academic researcher and community partner)
• Learn together how to conduct community-based participatory research
• Jointly develop and submit a scientifically sound funding proposal for targeted pilot funding of up to $50,000 from TRI. (Participation in this course does not guarantee an award)

Find additional information here.

Apply here.

Deadlines: 

• Letters of Intent (encouraged but not required): Aug. 15, 2020
• Grant Proposal: Oct. 1, 2020

For any questions, contact: Rachel Hale rbhale@uams.edu

TRI is excited to release its 2020 Annual Report, a celebration of the work we are supporting at UAMS and with our partner institutions.

Since 2009, translational research has become embedded in our culture at UAMS, and last year’s Clinical and Translational Science Award has created exciting new opportunities to further advance our goals.

This engagingly crafted Annual Report highlights the innovation derived from our programs and support and that reach communities across Arkansas.

View it here. 

LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has developed and begun using high-accuracy antibody testing to determine the magnitude of COVID-19 infection in Arkansas and inform the decisions of policymakers.

As part of the research program, UAMS will collect blood samples from nearly 7,500 Arkansas adults and children through October. By early August, a robotic-assisted immunoassay machine will enable processing of 2,500 samples per day for workplace, school and other community settings. UAMS researchers are now processing only up to 180 samples per day by hand.

The effort is supported by $3.3 million in federal coronavirus aid that was then allocated by the Arkansas Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act Steering Committee created by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Unlike diagnostic tests, COVID-19 antibody testing looks back into the immune system’s history. A positive antibody test  means the person was exposed to the virus and developed antibodies against the virus. It will give state leaders a good idea how many Arkansans have been infected with the virus since it first came to the state, even if they did not become ill or have symptoms.

“It will be critical for policymakers to estimate how many Arkansans have been previously infected as they consider reopening schools, allowing mass gatherings, and keeping workplaces safe,” said UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA.

“As much as we may want to, we know we can’t test everyone with the antibody test right now, but we can design a program that will give us an estimate of how many Arkansans have

had COVID-19,” said Laura James, M.D., director of the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

Seroprevalence is the proportion of people in a population whose blood serum tests positive for a particular disease. There are two study components: a laboratory component and a statewide epidemiology component.

The lab component was initiated in early March by Josh Kennedy, M.D., associate professor, College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, along with Karl Boehme, Ph.D., and Craig Forrest, Ph.D., both associate professors in the College of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

Boehme and Forrest developed and validated the high-accuracy antibody test using components provided by Florian Krammer, Ph.D., a microbiology colleague at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and blood samples that Kennedy acquired.

“This vital research would not have been possible without their collaboration and original laboratory science,” said James, also associate vice chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research.

The researchers’ achievement inspired leaders across UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Hospital to come together in support of the statewide project.

The epidemiology component of the study, led by the UAMS College of Public Health, will utilize the contact tracing call center to enroll study participants and college health histories and blood samples from individuals who represent the entire state. It will provide the first results about the prevalence of asymptomatic Arkansans.

The epidemiology component is being led by College of Public Health Dean Mark Williams, Ph.D., and Benjamin Amick, Ph.D., associate dean for research. Key College of Public Health team members are epidemiologists Wendy Nembhard, Ph.D., Victor Cardenas, M.D., Ph.D., and Lori Fischbach, Ph.D., and biostatistician James Selig, Ph.D.

“Providing accurate estimates is vitally important in helping policymakers plan for implementing protective and treatment measures in Arkansas,” Williams said. “Without this information, public health officials are just guessing, and there is a chance they will guess wrong.”

Significant UAMS guidance and resources have also come from Shuk-Mei Ho, Ph.D., vice chancellor for Research and Innovation, and Stephanie Gardner, Ed.D., Pharm.D., provost, chief academic officer and chief strategy officer.

Other collaborators and support have come from the Translational Research Institute’s Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, including its informatics core, led by Fred Prior, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics in the College of Medicine. Other collaborators from the College of Medicine include Erika Olgaard, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Pathology, and Jeff Moran, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, who will oversee the robotic component of the study; and Jessica Snowden, M.D., associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, will oversee the pediatric component.

“This is truly a team science effort involving the expertise of diverse but complimentary experts who have come together to develop a solution to address COVID-19 in Arkansas,” James said.

“This is a great opportunity for us as basic scientists to be able to apply our skillset to a question that has huge public health ramifications potentially worldwide and definitely for the state of Arkansas,” Forrest said. “Many tests on the market have proven to be inaccurate or provide no useful information beyond a positive or negative result. We’re confident we have a test that’s reliable and meaningful and will serve Arkansas well.”

The UAMS antibody test requires a small amount of blood, although more than a pin prick. Its validity testing shows it is not fooled by antibodies for other coronaviruses.

Boehme said the antibody testing will serve as a springboard for researchers to answer deeper questions about COVID-19 in other studies, such as:

• How many antibodies are present when tested?
• How robust is the immune response?
• How much antibody is required to provide immunity?
• How long does immunity last?

“For other coronaviruses, the antibody response may wane after a year or two,” Boehme said. “The duration of immunity has implications for a vaccine; will the vaccine be effective for life or will it be a yearly vaccine like with the flu?”

The UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) today announced four recipients of its biomedical informatics-focused pilot

grants.

The recipients are required to use translational biomedical informatics approaches to health care issues that particularly affect rural individuals and/or that directly examine or impact rural health. They will receive up to $50,000 for their one-year projects and are expected to develop findings that lead to larger programs of research with national funding.

The awardees, all from the College of Medicine, are:

Hari Eswaran, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology; Identification of Pregnant Women at High Risk of Maternal Morbidity

Hari Eswaran, Ph.D. - Identification of Pregnant Women at High Risk of Maternal Morbidity

Se-Ran Jun, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics; Using Genomics to Track Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) Linking Rural and Urban Health in Arkansas

Se-Ran Jun, Ph.D.

Sacha McBain, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry; Digital PTSD Screening and Intervention to Meet Rural Needs

Sacha McBain, Ph.D.

Tuhin Virmani, M.D., Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Neurology; Utilization of a Neuroinformatics Research Platform (ARIES) to Develop Quantitative Tools for Clinical Assessment and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease Patients in Rural Arkansas

Tuhin Virmani, M.D.,Ph.D.

Recipients of the Translational Biomedical Informatics Awards were selected by a study section of UAMS and external faculty reviewers, as well as community reviewers.

TRI is supported by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, grant UL1 TR003107.

Clinical Trials Day is Wednesday, May 20, and TRI, along with others in UAMS’ research community, are celebrating all week. Why? Because with COVID-19, clinical research has never been more important. There are now more than 30 COVID-19 research studies at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Research Institute.

TRI has posted three short videos of UAMS research participants with inspirational stories on its social media channels.

View this brief video by TRI Associate Director John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D.

All of these videos are TRI’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/uamstri/, and Twitter page: @TRI_UAMS.

Please visit and share!

Laura James, M.D., director of the UAMS Translational Research Institute, has been elected to the national Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) Board of Directors.

She joins 13 other directors at large from Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program institutions across the United States.

James has been director of the institute since 2014 and is UAMS associate vice chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research. She has a 25-year history of translational research in clinical pharmacology and toxicology at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Hospital. As a clinician-scientist and founder of the startup company Acetaminophen Toxicity Diagnostics LLC, she is leading development of a rapid diagnostic test for acetaminophen liver injury. In 2014 she was named inaugural fellow of the Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA).

The role of the ACTS board is to govern, establish policy and make strategic decisions about the future of the organization. ACTS supports research that continually improves team science, integrating multiple disciplines across the translational science spectrum. It is also the academic home for translational research education and career development, and is an advocate for translational science.

Translational research is the process of taking findings and discoveries (new medicines, health interventions, etc.) and “translating” or applying them to everyday practices that improve health.

The CTSA Program is administered by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health. TRI received a five-year, $24.2 million CTSA, grant UL1 TR003107 in July 2019 and is one of more than 60 CTSA-supported institutions nationally.

Before Arkansas had its first COVID-19 case, the reality of the impending pandemic was already setting in for UAMS faculty as cancellations for scientific conferences worldwide were announced one after another like falling dominos.

For scientists and academics, presenting to their peers at conferences is one of the main ways other than publications that they share their latest findings, learn about advances in the field, and gain the kind of resume fuel that can make or break careers as they work toward promotion and tenure.

For each presentation, there might be years of work behind it. This can be especially disappointing for the clinical faculty who are hardest hit by the pandemic. It often requires more effort for them to find the time to conduct research as they try to balance it with their clinical and educational duties.

Theresa O. Wyrick-Glover, M.D., an associate professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, was an invited lecturer at the Philadelphia Hand Symposium, a conference she has participated in for the past 10 years.

“It is a large meeting with national and international participants,” Wyrick said. “It was canceled the week of the meeting. I had obviously put a great deal of effort into my presentation and work product and was very disappointed that I was unable to present it.”

Wyrick’s was a story repeated countless times across campus.

The staff in the Faculty Affairs office are highly attuned to the promotion and tenure needs of faculty and saw an opportunity to help. They created an online Scholarly Product Repository so UAMS faculty will have a place to publicly display the work they would have otherwise showcased at the canceled events of spring 2020.

“This project is designed to provide faculty with a public avenue to share the information that they would have otherwise shared at conferences, nationally and internationally,” said Beatrice A. Boateng, Ph.D., assistant dean for faculty assessment and evaluation in the COM and director of evaluation in the Translational Research Institute.

While the project began with the College of Medicine, it has been expanded to include all colleges. Students can also submit their work.

Boateng repurposed existing database software used in the institute to quickly begin accepting peer-reviewed and accepted abstracts, posters and other scholarly work via an easy-to-use interface. The research will soon be posted online, thanks to existing infrastructure in the COM.

“Several research faculty and their chairs have expressed gratitude for this tool, and Dr. Boateng was a key player in making it happen so quickly and so well,” said Erick Messias, M.D., Ph.D., associate dean for Faculty Affairs. “She has been a great addition to the Faculty Affairs team and has definitely helped to strengthen our partnership with the Translational Research Institute.”

Wyrick said it gave her a way to salvage would could have been lost time and effort.

“The UAMS Scholarly Product Repository gave me an opportunity to present and showcase my efforts and to make the content available to an interested audience,” Wyrick said. “Additionally, this platform allows me to list this presentation on my CV, which is important for promotion and tenure.”

Brenda Burks, assistant director for the Faculty Center, said it also gave the staff in the Faculty Center a way to support the wider UAMS community during difficult times.

“I felt like it is important for those of us who are non-clinical to find a way to really focus our efforts during COVID-19,” Burks said. “So much is being asked of our clinical faculty right now. It was important to me to find a way to support them that felt meaningful.”

To make a submission, visit the UAMS Scholarly Product Repository online.

The March-April TRIbune highlights an important CTSA collaborative with 66 UAMS faculty taking part. The External Reviewer Exchange Consortium involves nine institutions and enables an efficient network for sharing the workload of pilot grant application reviews.

It is one of the first formalized reviewer exchanges with an online dashboard for streamlining the process.

This issue of the TRIbune also highlights funding awards to researchers as part of new TRI initiatives. These include our Data Scholars, Team Science Vouchers, and Health Sciences and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) Scholars.

And check out the list of publications that received TRI funding or other TRI support.

Read The TRIbune.

A five-year, $765,789 grant to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences ((UAMS) will support teaching graduate students advanced analytics to address racial and ethnic health disparities.

The grant, from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), establishes the Arkansas Center for Health Disparities T32 Pre-doctoral Research Training Program.

Mick Tilford, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the UAMS College of Public Health, led the grant application with support from the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

“Minorities are much more likely to experience chronic diseases and have other poor health outcomes,” Tilford said. “Exhibit A is COVID-19. African-Americans make up only 13% of the U.S. population, but 33% of hospitalizations are from this demographic.”

He and Jonathan Bona, Ph.D., will co-direct the T32 program, which will select two graduate students per year. Bona is an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics.

Tilford believes that developing the skills needed to analyze large sets of data by computer will lead to a better understanding of the complex relationships between social determinants of health and population health outcomes.

With multidisciplinary, team-based science as part of the T32 training, Tilford said the program will produce a new generation of researchers to address health disparities and to improve health equity.

“This is the only NIMHD T32 research training program in the state,” he said. “It will serve as a model for improving disparate population health outcomes in the state, region and nation.”

The program builds on the research infrastructure of the NIMHD-funded Arkansas Center for Health Disparities Center of Excellence and five Ph.D. programs across the colleges of Public Health, Pharmacy and Nursing with support from the Department of Biomedical Informatics.

The T32 training will include collaborations with the Translational Research Institute, Regional Campuses and Institute for Digital Health & Innovation at UAMS, and the Institute for Advanced Data Analytics at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

The Translational Research Institute is supported by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, grant UL1 TR003107.