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The TRIbune – New Look and Now Monthly!

This month TRI is unveiling its redesigned TRIbune newsletter.

We’ve made a couple of other changes, too. While we will continue to inform you about TRI activities that benefit UAMS’ research enterprise, more emphasis will be on your work as researchers.

In this issue, we highlight the experience of Marie Burdine, Ph.D., in the TRI-supported fastPace entrepreneurship training program. Burdine, whose lab is spearheading promising work for the Division of Surgical Research, is also the subject of the newsletter’s new Q&A Researcher Profile.

Also new: Research on the Horizon, a brief study overview with a UAMS principal investigator utilizing TRI services – this month featuring Kevin Sexton, M.D. This issue has exciting news about a big milestone for ARresearch.org, and we have your and your colleagues’ publications that cite TRI support. Check it out!

TRI Graduates 17 in Latest Community Scientist Academy

Kate Stewart, M.D., MPH, (left) who leads the Community Scientist Academy, presents a graduation certificate to Ashley Young.

Ashley Young, one of 17 graduates of the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s spring 2018 Community Scientist Academy, said graduation night was bittersweet.

“I loved it. I’m sad that it wasn’t longer,” the Little Rock resident said of the six-week program. “I loved the interactive activities, and I loved how we had a different speaker each week. I also loved the people I met so it’s been a great experience all around.”

The Translational Research Institute established the Community Scientist Academy in 2016 on the recommendation of its Community Advisory Board. Its purpose is to increase community understanding about the research process and offer research decision-making opportunities to communities, patients and other stakeholders. These opportunities include reviewing grants; advising on research projects; serving on community review boards, community advisory boards, and patient and family advisory councils; and assisting with ARresearch, the Translational Research Institute’s research participant registry.

Through four academies it has graduated 44 Arkansans from diverse communities and a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. The academies are free and open to the public. The next academy is Sept. 25 through Oct. 30. Classes will be each Tuesday, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Contact Nicki Spencer, 501-526-6629 or ndspencer@uams.edu, to

Attendees heard from UAMS researchers during each weekly class.

Academy graduate JaJuan Johnson of Little Rock thanked the Translational Research Institute in an email for “an insightful six weeks of engaging with medical research experts.”

“I cannot begin to list the areas that most resonated with me, but I can definitely say I am more enlightened and trustworthy of medical research,” Johnson said.

He said the academy deepened his understanding on the importance of community collaboration in medical research.

“I Iook forward to continued work with the Translational Research Institute and will encourage others to get involved,” he said.

Angela Aikens said she was inspired to attend the Community Scientist Academy after being diagnosed last year with empty sella syndrome, a condition involving the pituitary gland that caused her chronic migraine headaches.

Jajuan Johnson said the academy was enlightening and made him more trustworthy of research.

“I just really thank God for research,” said Aikens, of Little Rock. “This opportunity to attend and to take part in the discussion and to listen to the physicians and the researchers over the past few weeks really gave me a birds-eye view of what all goes into the research process.”

Victoria Akins, M.D., who was a geriatrician at UAMS until she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma three years ago, attended the Community Scientist Academy as way to stay connected with UAMS.

“I realized that as a physician and as a patient at UAMS, I’m in a unique position to educate the community,” said Akins, of Jacksonville. “The academy enables me to better explain research to community people and to explain to physicians how the community is involved.”

Janet Bowen, a retired UAMS registered nurse, said the academy has provided insight and new perspective.

“Instead of one Institutional Review Board, there are now four,” she said, noting that she was a member of UAMS’ single board in the 1980s. The Institutional Review Board must approve all research that involves human participation.

She was also interested to hear how important grant funding has become. “I was just astounded to hear about the importance of grant funding, and in fact if they don’t have it they may not have a job.”

The graduation keynote address was given by Anna Huff Davis, community representative for the Translational Research Institute Leadership Council and liaison with the UAMS Fay W. Boozman

Ti Davis participates in a class exercise.

College of Public Health.

Davis, a past academy graduate, asked the graduates to encourage their family, friends and community to participate in research, either as a study participant or as a community co-investigator.

“Just imagine what would happen if we aren’t involved?” said Davis, also director of the Mid Delta Community Consortium. “I’m hypertensive, and if the medication that I take had not been tested on someone, I don’t know where I’d be today. I don’t even know if that medication would be available. I might not even be here because that medication might not be available for me.”

Seeking Five Years of Funding, TRI Submits Application to NCATS

One year of bridge funding was great news last year for the Translational Research Institute (TRI), but it set the stage for a big challenge.

While the September 2017 Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) allowed TRI time to strengthen its next application for five years of funding, it meant producing a fourth CTSA application in four years, a mammoth undertaking for TRI Director Laura James, M.D., and numerous faculty and TRI staff.

Work on the application began almost immediately after the bridge award was announced, said James, also UAMS associate vice chancellor for clinical and translational science.

“We dedicated ourselves to the application, but we also remained committed to our ongoing initiatives and innovative plans in collaboration with research leaders across our hub [UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH), Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI), and Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS)],” she said.

1,864 Pages

“Until you’ve been in the middle of this type of grant application, it’s hard to understand the amount of work involved in weaving together a consistent and compelling story that clearly explains the incredible progress achieved at UAMS since our first CTSA grant in 2009, as well as the exciting vision we have for the future,” James said.

The latest journey concluded on May 24, 2018, when James and 32 other UAMS faculty submitted the 1,864-page document to the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). TRI is seeking five years of funding – $26.1 million – in an application with three funding components: the main component, an Institutional Career Development Core (KL2 Program) and National Research Service Award Training Core (the Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program).

The application describes numerous core strengths at UAMS and how various research champions at UAMS, ACH, and CAVHS will work as a team to enhance the health of Arkansans through transformative research.

Challenges and Opportunities

TRI’s strategy for the application was to craft a story that reflected the unique challenges and opportunities in Arkansas.

“Our clinical and education footprint around the state is very strong, as reflected by the numerous outreach clinics and expansive telemedicine program,” she said.

The application emphasizes plans for not just strengthening UAMS’ research footprint, but also for addressing the needs of Arkansas’ underrepresented communities.

“For our research to be relevant for Arkansans, it really needs to engage those who traditionally have not been in the center of clinical and translational research,” James said. “It needs to align with the health care needs of special populations, including children and older adults, as well as underrepresented minorities, and individuals with low health literacy.”

The quality partnerships that TRI has developed with other CTSA sites over the last four years strengthens the application. “We have partnerships that are centered on research itself, as well as partnerships that address research processes, such as grant reviews, or that are building off our successes in engaging community members to help us with decision-making,” James said.

Washington Delegation

UAMS and TRI leaders were buoyed by the May 7 visit from a delegation that included NCATS Director Christopher Austin, M.D., staff from U.S. Sen. John Boozman’s office and the Senate Health and Human Services (HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee.

The day began with welcomes from James and Donald R. Bobbitt, Ph.D., president of the University of Arkansas System, followed by 17 faculty and a community representative giving brief presentations highlighting individual scientific programs and/or TRI programs. Faculty from informatics, pharmacy, public health, pediatrics, psychiatry, family and preventive medicine, pharmacology and toxicology, biochemistry, and internal medicine gave presentations, as did research leaders from ACRI and CAVHS. The day concluded with a small-group discussion that included new UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, and Lawrence Cornett, Ph.D., UAMS vice chancellor for research.

Congressional staff attending were:

Laura Friedel, staff director/clerk, HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
Mackensie Burt, Legislative Director, Office of U.S. Senator John Boozman

NCATS representatives attending with Austin were:

Adrienne Hallett, associate director, Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis, NIH
Pamela McInnes, D.D.S., M.Sc., deputy director, NCATS, NIH
Michael Kurilla, M.D., Ph.D., director, Clinical Innovation, NCATS, NIH
Mary Purucker, M.D., Ph.D., director, CTSA Program Hubs, Clinical Innovation Division, NCATS, NIH
Samantha Jonson, MPS, special assistant to the director, NCATS, NIH

“We were encouraged with the nature of the questions from NCATS as well as their comments about our programs,” James said. “It was clear that we are on the right path.”

While “third time’s a charm” is the best known maxim, James said she would be happy to make it “four’s a charm” for this CTSA application.

“I feel confident that we’ve delivered a competitive application,” she said.

May-June TRIbune

This issue of The TRIbune features the Translational Research Institute’s (TRI) recent submission of its 1,864-page Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) application. After receiving a one-year bridge award last year, TRI submitted its application to the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) on May 24 for five years of funding.

As TRI Director Laura James, M.D., notes, while there are no guarantees, she believes TRI has submitted a competitive application. A May 7 visit from NCATS leaders and congressional staff affirmed that TRI is headed in the right direction. We also highlight some key numbers related to the application, and our TRI & Me features TRI Associate Director John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D. We also include the latest publication citations by researchers whose work has benefited from TRI resources or funding.

New Pilot Awards Available for CTSA Inter-institutional Studies

The Western States Consortium, which includes the UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) and four other Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) institutions, has issued the call to all faculty for pilot award applications.

The purpose of the pilot awards is to promote inter-institutional collaboration by funding innovative, translational research projects that involve two or more of the four Western States Consortium members. Awards of up to $25,000 will be provided by each participating institution.

In addition to TRI, the Western States Consortium members are the University of Kentucky, University of New Mexico, University of Kansas Medical Center, and University of Utah, all part of the national CTSA consortium supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Applications are due August 10, 2018, at 5 p.m., (CT). Each proposal’s lead principal investigator will submit one combined proposal via an online application system.

For additional details, view the Request for Applications (RFA) document.

If you have any questions, please contact Nia Indelicato at NLIndelicato@uams.edu or 501-614-2287.

Key Dates:

Application Release Date: June 15, 2018
IRB Submission Deadline: July 13, 2018
Application Deadline: Aug. 10, 2018, 5 p.m. Central Time
Notice of intent to fund at each CTSA: Aug. 24, 2018
Just-In-Time Period: Aug. 24, 2018 – Aug. 31, 2018
Submission to NIH for Prior Approval of Human Subjects: Sept. 21, 2018
Funding Cycle: Nov. 1, 2018, through Oct. 31, 2019

New Course for Research Community Partners Replaces CITI Training

A new human subjects training video is now available for community members working in partnership with UAMS faculty researchers.

The online Arkansas Community Researcher Training (ArCRT) is a community-friendly course that was produced as an alternative to CITI training. Human subjects training is required by the UAMS IRB and federal research funding agencies.

The UAMS Translational Research Institute and Office of Research Compliance worked with a community focus group to create the course.

“We took an existing face-to-face community partner training program and modified it for this online learning tool that can be used throughout the state,” said TRI Executive Director Amy Jo Jenkins. “We also added some local flavor with eight research staff from TRI, the Compliance Office and the Myeloma Institute conducting the training. It was a lot of fun!”

UAMS Communications and Marketing produced the videos, while the final product, including the instructors’ narrations and avatars were produced by the UAMS Office of Educational Development.

Researchers can view the training via UAMS Blackboard. Sign in with your UAMS login and click on “My Communities.” In the search field, type “Arkansas Community Researcher Training.”

Community partners can access the training at uams.gosignmeup.com.

Click on “Create Account” and fill out the form. In the search field, type “Arkansas Community Researcher Training.”

[button text=”View Illustrated Instructions” url=”https://tri.uams.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/80/2018/06/ArCRT_Registration_Instructions.pdf” target=”_blank” type=”btn-play” /]

For questions or assistance, contact Kim Givens, KGivens@uams.edu, 501-686-6879.

ArCRT was funded in part by TRI and its Clinical and Translational Science Award from the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

UAMS Clinical Trials Day Punctuated by Success Stories

In May 2006, Harold “Hap” Peterson was advised to get his affairs in order by UAMS cancer specialist Laura Hutchins, M.D. He had late-stage melanoma, a type of skin cancer, with tumors spreading throughout his body.

He was shocked to hear he had only three to six months to live. “I said, ‘I don’t feel sick at all,’” he recalled while attending the May 21 UAMS Clinical Trials Day celebration.

Patients and other visitors to the Cancer Institute were treated to snacks and punch as part of the UAMS Clinical Trials Day celebration.

In addition to radiation treatments, Hutchins, a hematologist oncologist and associate director of clinical research at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, prescribed Dacarbazine, a chemotherapy medication. It worked, but for just two years. There were no other approved medications available to help him. Hutchins suggested a compassionate use clinical trial that was testing an experimental melanoma drug called Ipilimumab.

He jumped at the chance, and it saved his life.

After about five years on the drug, he was cured.

“If I could speak to people who are questioning whether to go on a clinical trial, I would just be thrilled to tell them about my experience,” said Peterson, of Hot Springs Village.

Ipilimumab was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2011.

“There was no cure for this, and I’m sitting here 12 years later,” the retired airline pilot said. “I play golf four times a week, I travel, I do anything I want to do – I feel like a 21-year-old.”

A clinical trial is medical research that requires the participation of people. Clinical trials study such things as new medications, medical devices (such as a knee replacement), and even diets, to find out if they are safe and effective. Many clinical trials test new treatments to learn if they are more effective and/or have less harmful side effects than the standard treatment.

Homer Paul recently completed participation in a Parkinson’s disease clinical trial at the Translational Research Institute.

Another clinical trial participant at UAMS Clinical Trials Day, Homer Paul of Conway, recently helped test an experimental Parkinson’s disease drug. Existing drugs have helped Paul manage his disease, and agreed to volunteer to participate in the study testing an extended-release drug. The trial required him to spend 12 hours at a time for multiple blood draws and neurological tests at the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

During one visit, a fire alarm required evacuation of the building. Only two hours into his regimen, the study team walked Paul outside and found a secluded spot nearby to continue his neurological and blood tests until they were allowed back inside.

“They were pretty adamant about getting blood samples exactly on time,” he said. “It was kind of funny because I thought, ‘these nurses are relentless.’ I started calling them the A-Team.”

While Paul has managed his condition with existing drugs over the last 10 years, he said the extended release drug could help even out the highs and lows of today’s medications.

“I’m glad to be a part of it,” he said. “It’s my way to contribute to the cause and to the cure. At the end of the day, you want the quality of life for people to improve.”

Clinical Trials Day is celebrated around the world on or near May 20 each year in memory of the first randomized clinical trial, May 20, 1747, which discovered that citrus fruit could prevent scurvy in sailors.

“Clinical trials not only look at new drugs but also help pave the way toward examining new sensitive methods for determining patients’ response to treatment,” said Faith Davies, M.D., deputy director of the UAMS Myeloma Institute and director of the Phase I Clinical Trials Program for the Cancer Institute and Myeloma Institute. “Bringing new drugs which attack the cancer cells in different ways to our patients is really important and will hopefully improve response and survival rates and decrease side effects.”

“Clinical trials are an important foundation of biomedical research, advancing medicine and saving untold lives with the development of treatments that so many of us take for granted,” said Laura James, M.D., director of the UAMS Translational Research Institute and associate vice chancellor for clinical and translational research. “Clinical Trials Day honors the work of the professionals who develop and conduct clinical trials and all individuals who have previously participated in clinical trials. Their past participation made it possible for current patients to benefit from new innovations to advance health outcomes.”

The Clinical Trials Day celebration was sponsored by UAMS’ Translational Research Institute, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Myeloma Institute and Research Compliance Office.

TRI’s Amy Jo Jenkins to Lead International Society of Clinical Research Professionals Board

Amy Jo Jenkins, M.S., C.C.R.P., executive director of the UAMS Translational Research Institute, has been named president-elect of the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA) Board of Directors.

SOCRA, a nonprofit, charitable and educational membership organization, provides an internationally recognized certification program for clinical research professionals (CCRP®).

Jenkins founded the Arkansas SOCRA chapter in 2011. It has been recognized a record six consecutive years by the international association for providing the most continuing education hours of any of its 63 chapters. She was elected to the SOCRA Board of Directors in 2016 and will become president in 2019.

“I believe education empowers people to be outstanding in both their personal lives and professional careers,” said Jenkins, also an instructor in the UAMS colleges of Public Health and Pharmacy. “As president, I will work with the Board of Directors to further establish SOCRA as the global leader in clinical research education and professional certification. It will be a privilege to serve the diverse and robust clinical research workforce that makes up SOCRA’s membership.”

Clinical research professionals certified by SOCRA work with volunteer participants in studies at UAMS’ main campus in Little Rock and clinics across the state, including its eight regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.

“The continuing education we provide ultimately improves the quality of research in our state,” Jenkins said. “This will be evident for anyone who volunteers as a research participant.”

BioVentures fastPace Course Helps Researchers Grasp Business Basics

Even a classroom full of experienced researchers with Ph.D. and medical degrees still found useful things to learn about business during the fastPace course organized by BioVentures.

“We enrolled in the class because we thought we had a good idea, but we didn’t really know how to take it to the next step,” said Marie Burdine, Ph.D. “We didn’t know the channels to take, what the patent process was like or if this was even a good idea. That’s why we took the course, to get more information about the process. We learned how to do market research and got great feedback on how to target more people to generate more revenue.”

Burdine is an assistant professor in the Division of Surgical Research in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery.

FastPace was developed by FastForward Medical Innovations at the University of Michigan and is designed for the busy medical academician with an early-stage project. It blends in-person and online education to help faculty researchers and clinicians learn the basic components of biomedical commercialization and prepare a successful business case for funding and developing partnerships.

FastPace is one of the newest courses offered by BioVentures and the researchers and clinicians who enrolled was the first class at UAMS to complete the course. Course sessions for the four-week course in biomedical commercialization started in late March.

Burdine teamed up with her husband, Lyle Burdine, M.D., an assistant professor in the College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery and a transplant surgeon, to develop a nanoparticle for treating clostridium difficile, a bacterial infection of the colon commonly referred to as C. diff. The nanoparticle binds to toxins caused by C. diff and removes them from the colon.

On April 27, there were 10 teams that finished the fastPace course. Five were in the device/diagnostic track, three were in the therapeutics track and two were in the health information technology track. Seven teams were from the College of Medicine, two from hospital staff and one from University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Nancy Gray, Ph.D., head of BioVentures, served as site director and lead instructor for fastPace. Curtis Lowery, M.D., Nancy Rusch, Ph.D., and Hari Eswaran, Ph.D., served as co-instructors.

Lowery chairs the College of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Eswaran is a professor in the same department. Rusch chairs the College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and leads the educational efforts of the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

“The fastPace course was designed to teach members of the biomedical community how to develop a business case to secure funding, determine commercial viability of an innovation, build a business network and instill confidence in making a business presentation,” Gray said. I think it achieved all those things and a fuller understanding of what’s needed to take something from the lab to the market.”

Robert Griffin, Ph.D., professor in the College of Medicine’s Department of Radiation Oncology, was part of the Wild Parsnip team with Samir Jenkins, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the same department. The team’s product is a cancer therapy based on one of the chemicals in wild parsnip that is activated by ultraviolet light to be toxic to cancer cells. The treatment is designed for patients with cancer that is recurrent, in an anatomical position that’s not conducive to surgery or where a residual tumor is still present in the patient.

“I have a little bit of background working with other small companies, but fastPace is more in-depth and focused,” Griffin said. “We were pushed to get a lot of stuff done in a month. It usually takes a year to do this sort of thing. The most valuable part of the course was the understanding we gained about the different stakeholders that you have to convince and what is the value at each stage of development. With cancer, you think of the patient first, but there are a lot of steps before that. That was useful.”

By Ben Boulden

Public Invited to Attend UAMS Community Scientist Academy

Arkansans interested in having a voice in research programs at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) or simply learning how research is done are invited to participate in UAMS’ Summer 2018 Community Scientist Academy.

Sponsored by the UAMS Translational Research Institute, the Community Scientist Academy will be on Tuesdays each week May 22 through June 26, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on the UAMS campus in Little Rock.

For questions and to register, contact Nicki Spencer, ndspencer@uams.edu, or (501) 526-6629. The training is being offered at no cost to participants.

Participants in the Community Scientist Academy will interact with UAMS researchers and community members involved in research in small roundtable discussions and other interactive sessions. They will learn:

How researchers decide what health issues to study
The research process
The benefits of individual and community organizations’ involvement in research

Graduates of the Community Scientist Academy will become more knowledgeable volunteers with additional opportunities to help influence UAMS research decisions on behalf of their communities. Examples include serving on:

Standing community advisory boards
One-time community boards created to advise researchers on specific studies
Panels that decide what research grants get funded

For graduates who are leading community organizations, there may also be opportunities to partner with UAMS on community-based research projects.

“The Community Scientist Academy will provide the basic knowledge to strengthen the public’s voice on research steering committees, mentoring committees, review committees, research projects, and in other leadership capacities,” said Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., who leads the Translational Research Institute’s Community Engagement program. “We want our fellow Arkansans to understand what we do because their input makes a big difference in our efforts to improve health.”

UAMS researchers conduct clinical studies and community-based studies. Its clinical studies are conducted in UAMS’ hospital and clinics across the state, including at its main campus in Little Rock, its eight regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.