In this month’s TRIbune newsletter, we’re highlighting the success of three TRI entrepreneurship trainees: Samir Jenkins, Ph.D., Amanda Stolarz, Ph.D., and Aaron Storey, Ph.D. Stolarz participated in a 2016 TRI-supported training, and Jenkins and Storey were part of the 2019 inaugural class of TRI Health Science Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) Program. All are advancing translational research using their TRI supported training and NIH small business funding. 

Our TRI Study of the Month features UAMS’ Gohar Azhar, M.D., and Jeanne Y. Wei, M.D., Ph.D., and their work on a multi-center study of lipid lowering in older adults.

We also highlight the six UAMS researchers who are part of two research projects that received TRI Team Science Voucher Awards.

Read The TRIbune.

UAMS’ Erhan Ararat, M.D., and Laura Gressler, Ph.D., have been named TRI Data Scholars for 2022.

Ararat is an assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics.

Project title: “Evaluation of Metformin for the Symptoms and treatment of Asthma on a Pediatric Population.”

Gressler is an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy Division of Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy.

Project title: “Leveraging Natural Language Processing Methodologies for the Refinement of Signal Detection Algorithms in Electronic Health Records.”

As part of the one-year program, data scholars receive close mentoring from UAMS faculty in conducting a data-oriented research project. They also receive 20% salary support and reimbursement for tuition and fees up to $5,000 to support coursework in data science or data analytics.

This month’s TRIbune newsletter highlights the successful use of a TRI Pilot Award to secure an NIH grant by Se-Ran Jun, Ph.D., in the Department of Biomedical Informatics. Jun’s translational  research could play a significant role in the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections.

We also include the announcement of our nine new KL2 Scholars and the recipient of our inaugural Team Science Champion Award, Tuhin Virmani, M.D., Ph.D., who will use the funds to investigate the potential for remote assessment of people with Parkinson’s disease.

Our TRI Study of the Month features Krishna Nalleballe, M.D., and his clinical trial of a new thrombolytic agent.  Read The TRIbune

TRI is proud to release its 2022 Annual Report, a magazine-style showcase of translational research achievements at UAMS and our partner institutions.

This report highlights researchers’ innovative efforts to address the health issues of Arkansans. TRI has played both leading and supporting roles in these endeavors, thanks to our NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Clinical and Translational Science Award as well as institutional support. 

The report also covers the many ways TRI is working to help UAMS-affiliated researchers reach their goals, and it includes some great success stories.  View it here.

Could this be a cure for writer’s block? Join the Summer 2022 Writing Challenge for friendly competition and motivation to write and submit your manuscripts! The challenge runs through Aug. 31.

You are eligible to participate in the summer writing challenge if you have received a TRI award, utilized a service or resource and/or if you have been partially or fully supported since Jan. 1, 2017.

The challenge is open to personnel at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.

Last year’s competition boasted 85 separate manuscripts submitted. This year’s competition hopes to bring additional submissions.

At the conclusion of the challenge, TRI will host a mixer with food, fun and announcements of this year’s prizewinners at both the Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas campuses.

Submit your writing at this link. Need writing resources? Visit the TRI website here.

Join the fun!

The UAMS Translational Research Institute today announced Tuhin Virmani, M.D., Ph.D., as the recipient of its first $75,000 Team Science Champion Award, allowing his further investigation of the potential benefit for remote assessment of people with Parkinson’s disease.

Remote assessment ­— or digital health — is a broad term used to describe the services clinicians can offer long-distance patients through email, text message and video chat. Through these mediums, clinicians can make contact, prescribe care, offer advice and monitor progress.

Virmani is an associate professor in the College of Medicine Department of Neurology, director of the Movement Disorders program, and director of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America Center of Excellence at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He began the remote assessment research in 2021 with a pilot grant from the Translational Research Institute.

Virmani, who was selected from five applicants, aims to discern the quality of care that remote assessments offer to Parkinson’s patients in rural communities. By incorporating UAMS Regional Programs and the UAMS Rural Research Network, this study aims to determine which patients may benefit from utilizing care facilities closer to home to obtain specialist health care.

The grant will also fund the team’s efforts to strengthen its biomedical informatics tools that analyze voice and handwriting samples collected remotely.

A key criterion of the Team Science Champion Award is for candidates to exemplify cross-disciplinary collaboration. Virmani’s research team includes neurologists, biomedical informatics researchers, a psychiatrist and a high school student. Anu Iyer, a student at Little Rock Central High School, joined the team in 2021. She is applying machine learning methods to analyze voice samples of Parkinson’s patients with the hope of someday detecting the disease by voice.

“Dr. Virmani’s team has all the qualities we are looking for, and it is a project that can address one of the many complex health challenges of Arkansas’ rural populations,” said Laura James, M.D., director of the Translational Research Institute and UAMS associate vice chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research. “We look forward to seeing the outcomes from this promising interdisciplinary team.”

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to progressive decline in motor function (balance, dexterity, tremors) and non-motor function (mood disorders, cognitive impairment, sleep disruption). These symptoms make travel difficult, which has a bigger impact on rural residents. Of the four movement disorders neurologists in the state, three practice at the Movement Disorders Clinic at UAMS. Nearly 75% of that clinic’s patient population reside in rural communities.

Delivering quality medical care remotely has the potential to improve patient outcomes. It is unclear, however, if it is possible to deliver high quality care to Parkinson’s patients using digital health. The population is comprised of mostly elderly patients who may not have the needed technology at home or may lack the ability to use it. This is the question Virmani and his team hope to answer with TRI’s Team Science Champion Award funding.

The Translational Research Institute is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, under Clinical and Translational Science Award UL1 TR003107.

Story by Seth Hooker

LITTLE ROCK —The first rapid diagnostic test for acetaminophen toxicity has cleared a major hurdle on its long road to the marketplace from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

The test’s inventors, UAMS’ Laura James, M.D., Jack Hinson, Ph.D., and Dean Roberts, Ph.D., received a three-year, $3.2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant to conduct the final phase of study before seeking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the blood test.

The grant will include the final development of the new laboratory test AcetaSTAT, a rapid assay to diagnose acetaminophen liver injury, and a clinical trial involving multiple centers to evaluate the test’s performance.

The new blood test can detect blood markers for liver injury from acetaminophen overdose in about 20 minutes. Acetaminophen is the most common drug for pain and fever, and it is the most common cause of liver failure in the United States.

“It has been a long journey, but it has been fun and exciting because we’re moving toward a big contribution in health care,” said James, who founded her company, Acetaminophen Toxicity Diagnostics (ATD) LLC, in 2006 with Roberts and Hinson. James also serves as the director of the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

ATD developed the test in conjunction with UAMS and Arkansas Children’s.

Physicians have no FDA-approved test to confirm the diagnosis of acetaminophen liver injury. They must rely on patient history and nonspecific tests of liver injury when evaluating patients with liver injury due to acetaminophen overdose.

William M. Lee, M.D., a liver disease specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, is a co-investigator on the clinical trial and has been involved in prior testing of the assay. James also credits him for giving her the idea to pursue a rapid, point-of-care test.

“I have been impressed that the assay provides a reliable yes/no answer as to whether acetaminophen is responsible for the liver injury,” Lee said. “I look forward to seeing AcetaSTAT being available in any Emergency Department worldwide. Having the test will ensure that more patients receive the right diagnosis and appropriate treatment.”

James is optimistic about the assay’s prospects for FDA approval, given its past performance. She has assembled a strong, interdisciplinary team to conduct the multisite clinical trial. The team members include (in alphabetical order):

• David Baker, CEO of ATD
• Hans Boehringer, Ph.D., vice president, Technology Development, DCN Diagnostics; consultant
• Ruofei Du, Ph.D., UAMS Department of Biostatistics; co-investigator
• Maryam Garza, Ph.D., College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics; co-investigator
• Hinson, chief scientific officer; co-investigator
• Brendan O’Farrell, Ph.D., president, DCN Diagnostics; consultant
• Jeannette Lee, Ph.D., professor, UAMS Department of Biostatistics; co-investigator
• Fred Prior, Ph.D., distinguished professor and chair, College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics; co-investigator
• Roberts, director of Research and Development; co-investigator

Jessica Snowden, M.D., associate professor and chief, Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics; and co-leader of the NIH-funded IDeA (Institutional Development Awards Program) States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network Data Coordinating and Operations Center; co-investigator

Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Stambough, M.D., Assistant Professor, Hip and Knee Reconstruction, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, College of Medicine

Summary: A randomized trial evaluating a preoperative, medically supervised weight loss program. The program includes meal plans, nutritional supplements, and daily engagement via a smartphone app. 

Significance: Patients with body mass indexes above 40 are prohibited from having certain elective surgeries, such as hip and knee replacements. The study will help determine if the intervention is effective in helping patients achieve weight-loss goals that are known to improve surgery outcomes.
 

TRI Services: Budget development, Medicare coverage analysis, regulatory services.

Sponsor: 20Lighter, LLC

TRI’s KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Scholars Program announced nine new scholars for 2022-2023, its largest-ever class.

These promising early-career researchers receive two years of funded support and mentored translational research training. The program selects scholars through a competitive application process and provides 75% salary support and up to $25,000 a year for research, tuition, travel and education.

Additional scholars were selected this year thanks to funding support from the College of Medicine, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. 

The scholars, their project titles and primary mentors are:

Jennifer Andersen, Ph.D.

Jennifer Andersen, Ph.D., assistant professor, Northwest Regional Campus, Office of Community Health and Research

“Feasibility and Acceptability of a Remote Glucose Monitoring Program for Pregnant Marshallese Women whose Pregnancies are Complicated by Diabetes”

Primary Mentor: Hari Eswaran, Ph.D.

Timothy “Cody” Ashby, Ph.D., M.S.

Timothy “Cody” Ashby, Ph.D., M.S., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics

“Determining Multiple Myeloma Risk and Heterogeneity at a Single-Cell Resolution”

Primary Mentor: Fenghuang Zhan, M.D., Ph.D.

Nishank Jain, M.D.

Nishank Jain, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrolog

“Platelet, Inflammation and Thrombosis in Chronic Kidney Disease”

Primary Mentor: John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D.

Akilah Jefferson-Shah, M.D., M.Sc.

Akilah Jefferson-Shah, M.D., M.Sc., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology. 

“Delineating Individual and Population-level Factors that Contribute to Disparate Pediatric Asthma Outcomes and to Develop Predictive Models for Identifying Children at Risk for Poor Outcomes”

Primary Mentor: Tamara Perry, M.D.

Nakita Lovelady, Ph.D., MPH

Nakita Lovelady, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.

“A Feasibility Study for the Implementation of a Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program in the Rural South”

Primary Mentor: Nickolas Zaller, Ph.D.

Sayem Miah, Ph.D.

Sayem Miah, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

“Targeting BRK with PROTAC to Halt Metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer”

Primary Mentor: Alan Tackett, Ph.D.

Deepa Raghavan, M.D.

Deepa Raghavan, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care; medical director, VA Medical ICU

“Implementation of COPD Clinical Practice Guidelines with Incorporation of Telehealth”

Primary Mentor: JoAnn Kirchner, M.D.

Jennifer Rumpel, M.D.

Jennifer Rumpel, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Neonatology Section

“Advancing Care of Neonates with Acute Kidney Injury Utilizing the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium Database”

Primary Mentor: Laura James, M.D.

Amy Sato, Ph.D.

Amy Sato, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Physiology and Cell Biology

“Identification of Cardioprotective Signatures Induced by Targeting MuRF1 and Vitamin D Signaling in Glucocorticoid-Associated Cardiac Disease”

Primary Mentor: Marjan Boerma, Ph.D.