The September TRIbune is here!
The cover story spotlights the 2025 Research Expo, where faculty and trainees explored UAMS research resources. Also featured: a recap of the Consortium of Rural States (CORES) meeting hosted by TRI, winners of the Summer Writing Challenge, and announcements of upcoming opportunities. These include the Oct. 14 Advancing Arkansas Lifespan Research Conference, K12 Career Development Award information sessions, and TRI pilot funding call for applications.
When Stephanie M. Lopez-Neyman, Ph.D., MPH, RD, spotted a poster at UAMS for Research Expo 2025, she scanned the QR code and registered. A new faculty member in the College of Health Professions, she saw the event as a chance to discover the resources that could help launch her research career.
“It was a good opportunity to find out what’s available,” said Lopez-Neyman, an assistant professor in the college’s Department of Dietetics and Nutrition. “There are quite a few things I didn’t know about that will be helpful as I develop my research program.”
Lopez-Neyman was one of 128 faculty, staff and trainees who attended the Expo and the UAMS Research and Innovation New Research Faculty Orientation on Sept. 10 at the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging.
The afternoon began with the orientation, where leaders from across UAMS gave brief overviews of the many research services available to faculty. TRI Director Laura James, M.D., concluded the orientation with a brief summary of key TRI training and funding opportunities, and she announced the winners of TRI’s Summer Writing Challenge (story below). The Expo then offered attendees a chance to meet one-on-one with representatives from nearly every research support program at UAMS. The event included food and drinks, giving participants a chance to visit in a relaxed setting.
James said the back-to-back events provided an efficient way for faculty to learn about research resources, network with colleagues, and connect with the experts who can support their work.
“It was wonderful to see so much energy in the room,” she said. “Everyone seemed to enjoy the chance to network and walk away with resources to help their research.”
Johnny Rider, Ph.D., associate professor of occupational therapy in the College of Health Professions, made the trip from the UAMS Northwest Campus in Fayetteville to Little Rock. He said the event delivered exactly what he was hoping for.
“Totally worth it,” said Rider, who joined UAMS this year from Touro University in Nevada. “As a researcher, it’s overwhelming in a good way to see how many services are available and to learn about the different programs for grants, such as the (TRI) K12 (Mentored Research Career Development Scholars) program. It was also helpful to hear the presentations and then immediately talk with everyone at the Expo.”
Lopez-Neyman said she left the Expo with new connections to the TRI STARs research training program for early-career faculty, the TRI Clinical and Translational Science Pilot Awards program, and the Rural Research Network. She also shared ideas with BioVentures LLC and the Institute for Digital Health Innovation representatives.
Clay Jackson-Litteken, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Microbiology, said he left with plans to attend an upcoming information session for the TRI K12 Scholars program.
College of Public Health doctoral students Wilberforce Twinamatsiko and Melissa Walker said they came to learn more about implementation science opportunities and to meet peers outside the classroom.
Tamer Kaoud, Ph.D., a new assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, described the Expo as “everything we need in one place.”
The August issue of The TRIbune takes you from Little Rock to Bangkok, where UAMS postdoctoral fellow Henry Palfrey, Ph.D., and his PulseArk Technologies team earned international recognition for a device designed for the early detection of internal bleeding. The story showcases how TRI’s T32 Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) Program, in partnership with the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business, is teaching researchers like Palfrey to translate discoveries into tangible health benefits.
This month’s Study of the Month spotlights a clinical trial led by Harmeen Goraya, M.D., testing an investigational drug (Auxora) to reduce kidney–lung “crosstalk” in acute kidney injury. TRI is providing full research support, from regulatory guidance to clinical coordination.
You’ll also find details on the upcoming Research Expo and New Research Faculty Orientation (Sept. 10) and the Advancing Arkansas Lifespan Research Conference (Oct. 14).
Read the August TRIbune (PDF).
The Consortium of Rural States (CORES) Multi-Institutional Pilot Program has awarded funding for four one-year projects beginning July 1, 2025. Each project involves at least two of the nine consortium member sites.
The CORES institutions are funded by the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). The sites are:
MUSC was welcomed to the consortium in June – after the deadline for this year’s CORES pilot grant applications.
The CORES pilots support translational science projects aimed at identifying and overcoming barriers to conducting research in rural settings. Each collaborating site funds up to $25,000 to support the project.
The awarded collaborations are:
Dartmouth (lead), Penn State, Iowa and Utah
Utah (lead) and UAMS
UK (lead) and Penn State
Utah (lead), Dartmouth, Iowa, UNM,
Researchers at UAMS and the University of Utah have been selected for pilot funding from the Consortium of Rural States (CORES) to study the risks posed by extreme heat to patients recovering from surgery, particularly in rural areas where such health risks are understudied.
The University of Utah is the lead site with John F. Pearson, M.D., as principal investigator. Jill Mhyre, M.D., serves as the UAMS principal investigator.
Pearson is an associate professor of anesthesiology and a researcher in climate health and environmental epidemiology. His work focuses on the impact of air pollution on perioperative health outcomes.
Mhyre is the Dola S. Thompson Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology. Her research focuses on obstetric quality and safety.
The project is one of four recently announced by CORES. Each collaborating site, supported by Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), receives up to $25,000 to support their one-year projects.
Extreme heat events threaten public health nationwide, but privacy protections have made it difficult to link local weather data with patient outcomes in large surgical registries. The collaboration is developing privacy-preserving methods to safely combine environmental exposure data with surgical records, addressing a key translational science barrier.
NCATS, which funds about 60 CTSA institutions nationwide, is dedicated to applying translational science to overcome barriers to the research pipeline. The approach developed by the UAMS and Utah researchers aims to better understand and protect patients at risk during heat waves. Their findings could inform national health policy.
In the June-July issue of The TRIbune, we spotlight how TRI’s T32 Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) training positioned Stephen Shrum, Ph.D., to land a key leadership role with a UAMS research team and startup company developing a potential radiation protection drug.
This issue also highlights an effort by TRI’s Community Engagement Core to cultivate partnerships with Garland County community organizations and leaders.
We also include information about our 2025 Annual Report, the TRI Summer Writing Challenge, and the new cohort of K12 Mentored Research Career Development Scholars.
Henry Palfrey, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and his business startup team, PulseArk Technologies, reached the semifinals and earned a Best Presentation Award in the Bangkok Business Challenge, one of the world’s leading student startup competitions.
Palfrey is a third-year postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of John D. Imig, Ph.D., and a trainee in the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s T32 Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) Training Program.
The event, held May 22-24 at the Sasin School of Management in Thailand, marked a milestone for PulseArk and its five-member team.
“The competition in Bangkok gave us valuable feedback and momentum as we continue advancing VoluSense toward market entry,” Palfrey said, referring to the startup’s device designed for the early detection of internal bleeding — often before changes in traditional vital signs occur. The technology is being developed and tested through a collaboration between engineers at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and medical professionals at UAMS.
“It’s one thing to develop promising science but quite another to translate it to the clinic,” said Palfrey, PulseArk’s chief technology officer. “This experience reinforced our progress on both fronts.”
Selected from over 300 applicants representing 82 institutions across 16 countries, PulseArk was one of only 20 teams invited to the semifinals—and one of just four from the United States.
In Imig’s lab, Palfrey investigates radiation-induced kidney injuries and explores pharmacotherapeutic strategies on how to mitigate such injuries. As part of the two-year HSIE fellowship, he completed a year-long New Venture Development course at UA’s Sam M. Walton College of Business, where students build startups around innovative technologies — an experience that led Palfrey to join PulseArk Technologies.
VoluSense’s development is supported by a $1.9 million grant awarded in 2024 by the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. The project is led by principal investigator Morten Jensen, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering at UA. Hanna Jensen, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Surgery, is overseeing the device’s translational and clinical phases. Co-investigators Jingxian Wu, Ph.D., and Robert Saunders, Ph.D., both faculty members in electrical engineering at UA, round out the research and development team.
The device is designed to detect subtle changes in blood volume by analyzing venous pressure waveforms. Using proprietary algorithms, these waveforms are converted into a blood loss score that indicates the presence or absence of hemorrhage. This approach enables clinicians and first responders to identify bleeding earlier than current methods allow.
The technology is protected by two pending U.S. patents, and PulseArk currently holds exclusive development rights granted by BioVentures LLC at UAMS.
Since last fall, the PulseArk team has competed in several pitch competitions, including the 2025 Ivey Business Plan Competition at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada; the 2025 Heartland Startup Challenge in Bentonville, Arkansas, where they took first place in the elevator pitch event; and the final round of the 2025 Arkansas Governor’s Cup in Little Rock.
The team’s next steps include finalizing the prototype and initiating preclinical studies this summer, while also securing additional seed funding to support product development, Palfrey said. PulseArk plans to begin pilot deployments in Arkansas hospitals in preparation for a targeted market launch in 2028.
“Entrepreneurship training gave me the toolkit to navigate regulatory, financial and clinical challenges all at once,” Palfrey said. “Now we’re applying those lessons.”
“Dr. Palfrey and the PulseArk team have demonstrated extraordinary vision and determination in bringing global recognition to this technology,” said Imig, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy and director of the T32 program. “Their success in Bangkok is a testament to their innovation and teamwork, and it highlights the impact of their interdisciplinary training.”
Other members of the PulseArk team include BreeAnna Scott, chief executive officer and current M.S. candidate in biomedical engineering, as well as recent UA graduates Victoria Bourgeois, MBA, chief strategy officer; Asha Lee, M.S., chief financial officer; and Tanner Moore, M.S., chief product officer.
The Translational Research Institute’s T32 program is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Clinical and Translational Science Award #T32 TR004918.
The Translational Research Institute (TRI) is proud to share its 2025 Annual Report, a magazine-style publication emphasizing the impact of translational science to improve lives in Arkansas and beyond. This year’s issue spotlights the researchers, programs and partnerships that are speeding the pace of discovery with tangible health benefits.
The report includes examples of consequential research by TRI’s K12 graduates addressing unmet needs, implementation of life-changing medical practices, and machine-learning and other advances to benefit rural health research. You’ll also read about exciting new opportunities for research available through TRI’s partnerships with elite research networks across the United States.
Browse the full report here to learn how TRI is supporting innovative research across the translational spectrum.
Trenesha Hill, Ph.D., wanted to ensure that she and her mentees weren’t talking past each other, so she signed up for TRI’s “Entering Mentoring” workshop, which uses an evidence-based approach developed by the University of Wisconsin’s Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER).
“I attended to enhance my mentoring practices and make a positive impact on my mentees’ development,” said Hill, an assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Division of Psychology. “The practical tools, like communication‑style assessments and personalized mentorship contracts, will help me set clear expectations.”
Held in April, the workshop drew 16 faculty from across UAMS and was led by five CIMER-certified UAMS facilitators:
Participants engaged in modules on building trust, effective communication, aligning expectations, goal setting, progress monitoring and navigating challenges, all grounded in CIMER’s evidence‑based, interactive mentor training curriculum.
Van der Plas was invited to facilitate after demonstrating her enthusiasm and skill in prior trainings. “CIMER engages participants rather than lecturing about best practices,” she said. “It encourages conversations about mentoring and adapting the tools provided. Mentorship has been invaluable in my career, teaching skills, modeling behaviors, and advocating for me, and I aim to pay that forward.”
Hayes highlighted the workshop’s lasting influence: “Mentoring is the role we play in academia that has the most long‑lasting effect. Using collaboration and real‑world vignettes makes CIMER tangible and easily implemented in daily mentoring activities. I hope participants walk away with tools they can use every day with their mentees.”
For Gunnar Boysen, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, the workshop filled a crucial gap. “Mentorship, leadership and communication training weren’t part of my Ph.D. curriculum in chemistry,” he said. “CIMER was the perfect opportunity to beef up on these skills. In the end, I realized I need to be a better listener and to build my own mentoring team.”
As lead facilitator, Allen emphasized how the CIMER training can greatly improve mentoring practices.
“This evidence-based curriculum provides mentors with tools to build trust, align expectations and communicate clearly, which ultimately strengthens relationships and helps accelerate research translation,” he said.
Four early-career researchers have been selected to receive two years of funded translational research training and support in the UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) K12 Mentored Research Career Development Scholar Awards Program.
The promising researchers were selected for the 2025-2027 program period through a competitive application process. Beginning July 1, the K12 scholars will receive two years of mentored translational research training, 75% salary support and up to $25,000 a year for research, tuition, travel and education.
The scholars, their project titles and primary mentors are:
Meghan Breckling, Pharm.D., assistant professor, College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmacy Practice and Center for Implementation Research
Project: “Improving Opioid Education and Naloxone Use in Rural Community Pharmacies”
Primary mentor: Benjamin Teeter, Ph.D., Pharm.D., associate professor, College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmacy Practice and Center for Implementation Research
Maegan Calvert, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC)
Project: “Neural Patterns of Affect in Parent-Child Interactions”
Primary mentor: Andrew James, Ph.D., professor, Department of Psychiatry, interim director, BIRC
Mokarram Hossain, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Project: “Novel Immunotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer: Extracellular Matrix-Targeting Myeloid Engager”
Primary mentor: Alan Tackett, Ph.D., professor, College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry
Whitney Norris, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, College of Nursing Department of Nursing Research
Project: “Multivariate Coherence Neurofeedback for Trauma Treatment: A Mechanistic and Feasibility Pilot Trial Using High-Density EEG”
Primary mentor: Linda Larson-Prior, Ph.D., professor, College of Medicine Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Science
Funding for the K12 scholars program comes from TRI, supported by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Clinical and Translational Science Awards K12 TR004924 and UM1 TR004909, the UAMS College of Medicine, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.
