Laura James, M.D., director of the UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI), has been named to the national Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program Steering Committee.

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 in July and is one of more than 60 CTSA-supported institutions nationally.

James will serve for three years, and as one of 20 Steering Committee members she will enable information and idea sharing among her peers in the CTSA Program and NCATS leadership to advance clinical and translational science.

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

James has been director of TRI 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 Translational Research Institute (TRI) has awarded three pilot research grants to UAMS faculty.

The grants of up to $50,000 are for one-year projects, and the researchers’ findings will be used to leverage larger grants from the National Institutes of Health or other federal funding agencies to expand on their work. The awardees were selected by a review committee that included UAMS faculty, faculty reviewers from an outside institution, and local community reviewers.

Below are the College of Medicine researchers and their project titles, including links to their videos explaining their pilot proposals:

Henry K. Wong, M.D., Ph.D.

Henry K. Wong, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Department of Dermatology; “Targeting the CTCL (Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma) Microenvironment for Growth Control.” CTCL is a cancer of the immune cells that grow in the skin.

Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D.

Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry; “Incarcerated Pregnant Women in Arkansas: Increasing Research Capacity and Piloting Lactation and Doula Support Services.” As part of the study, childbirth support will be provided for up to 24 incarcerated women.

Kristin Zorn, M.D.

Kristin Zorn, M.D., associate professor, director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Division of Genetics; “Assessing Statewide Variation in Hereditary Cancer Care Utilization in Arkansas.” The study will use the Arkansas All-Payer Claims Database, which has de-identified patient care records from Medicaid, Medicare, private insurers and state employees. The data will help researchers better understand gaps in care. The findings will be taken back to the affected communities where the public will be invited to guide future research efforts.

The UAMS Translational Research Institute’s Seventh Annual Community Partner Celebration recently honored 35 community partners for their crucial work in improving the health of all Arkansans and their exceptional partnerships with UAMS.

Held Nov. 8 at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in downtown Little Rock, this year’s celebration included a recognition ceremony and dinner, live music, display boards commending the vital services of the nominated community partners, and locally sourced gift bags for the over 100 attendees. The event was organized by the institute’s Community Engagement Program.

Nicki Spencer, program manager for the Community Engagement Program, opened the celebration, followed by Dawna Baker, the museum’s program assistant, who shared the historical significance of the celebration’s location.

UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, thanked the attendees for helping UAMS address serious health issues in Arkansas. He cited program examples created by and for the community, including the institute’s Community Scientist Academy.

“Your insights infuse and enrich the work we are able to do to improve health care outcomes here in Arkansas,” Patterson said. “These acknowledgments come from the heart. They come from the sense that we would not be able to fulfill our mission to the state without the work that you do.”

The community partners recognized at this year’s celebration were:

• Allstate Insurance – Southern Region
• Apple Seeds Inc.
• Arkansas Bank of America
• Arkansas Birthing Project
• Arkansas Community Health Worker’s Association
• Arkansas Department of Health – Family Health Branch
• Arkansas Department of Education – Special Education
• Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care
• Arkansas Rehabilitation Services
• Arkansas STEM Coalition
• Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition
• Boys, Girls, Adults Community Development Center
• Child Care Aware Central and Southwest
• Child Care Aware North Central
• Child Care Aware Northeast and Southeast
• Child Care Aware Northwest
• Child Care Aware West Central
• Lee County Cooperative Clinic
• Little Rock School District EXCEL Program
• Marshallese Educational Initiative
• Museum of Discovery STEM Program
• North Arkansas Partnership for Career Education
• Northwest Arkansas Food Bank
• Our House Inc.
• Parkinson’s Foundation
• Planting a Seed Foundation
• The Confess Project
• Tri County Rural Health Network
• 12th Street Health & Wellness Center Community Advisory Board
• Urban League of Arkansas

Individuals

• Linda Young, Little Rock School District
• Annice Steadman, Little Rock School District
• Terry Zuerlein, M.D.
• Kristi Palmer, M.D.
• Sameer Wagle, M.D.

High school student Kaniya Lawson was excited to learn that research could be part of her possible career as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. She was among the 24 Little Rock School District students who graduated from the fall 2019 UAMS Translational Research Institute’s  Community Scientist Academy.

“They had actual researchers come in and show us professions that I didn’t even know existed,” said Lawson, a member of the academy’s fall graduating class of Little Rock School District EXCEL students.

Lawson and her fellow graduates came from across the school district as students in the EXCEL Advanced Medical Sciences Program. The 10-week academy that ended Nov. 21 helped her understand that she could incorporate research into patient care.

“I never thought about that direction of the health care field at all,” she said. “You can be hands-on with patients and still be a researcher.”

The students worked closely with the institute’s Community Engagement team on their PhotoVoice project. The project included taking a photo that depicted a health-related issue affecting themselves, their family, and/or their community. The students wrote a caption to accompany their photos to explain the issue, what has been done and what can be done to help address the issue.

Jaky’ra Bolden, whose poster was titled, “Grief and Mental Health Stigma,” spoke at the graduation, telling her fellow graduates, parents and teachers that the exercise was valuable to her.

“Photovoice gives us a chance to express ourselves,” she said. “We also get a chance to address real-world problems.”

Brian Gittens, Ed.D., vice chancellor, congratulated the students and gave an inspirational talk before they received their graduation certificates. Afterward, the students stood by their posters and discussed them with graduation attendees and other interested visitors outside the UAMS Rahn Building auditorium. During these presentations, the students used the public speaking skills they learned in the academy.

“There is a story in every picture,” Bolden said, encouraging the audience to visit the poster presenters. “Let us take you on a journey through our minds.”

Zoe Holland’s poster was about the harm to sea turtles from discarded plastic straws. She read about the issue and watched videos showing how straws can become lodged in the turtles’ noses. “I wanted to figure out how to prevent it.”

Holland said the academy made her think of research in new ways.

“When I first came in I didn’t really think we were going to learn much – they were just going to talk at us the whole time,” she said. “I wasn’t really a big research person when I first came in, and now I’m more open-minded to it, because they really explained the different kinds of research, and the people that work at UAMS came and spoke to us every single class. That really opened my mind to more options for research.”

In the past two years, the academy has been modified to reach different populations by increasing the academy length, including the PhotoVoice project for the students, and adding a one-day intensive academy session for veterans in Arkansas.

The traditional version of the academy, which held its first class in 2016, is six weeks and designed for community members to increase community understanding about the research process and offer research decision-making opportunities to communities, patients and other stakeholders.

Opportunities offered to academy graduates include reviewing grant applications; advising on research projects; serving on community review boards, community advisory boards, and patient and family advisory councils.

The Translational Research Institute (TRI) and the Center for Implementation Research (CIR) have selected five UAMS/ACH clinical faculty as UAMS’ first class of Implementation Science Scholars.

Using the principles of implementation science, CIR faculty will guide the scholars through 10 didactic sessions per year and provide oversight and mentoring for their experiential implementation science projects. The two-year program will provide 20% salary support (up to salary cap).

Below are the scholars and their project titles:

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In this month’s TRIbune newsletter, we feature the recent success of Pearl McElfish, Ph.D., MBA, in acquiring multiple national awards. McElfish and her

team are testing a promising intervention to address the diabetes crisis in the Marshallese community of northwest Arkansas. In recent months she has been awarded more than $10 million, which is in addition to the more than $20 million in federal funding that she was already overseeing as principal investigator. McElfish says a TRI pilot award and community engagement assistance were springboards for her success.

We also highlight the leadership of TRI Executive Director Amy Jo Jenkins, M.S., CCRP, CCRC, CCRA, in her work with the Society of Clinical Research Associates Inc. (SOCRA). This year, Jenkins took over the international organization as its president.

In addition, our Study of the Month features Benjamin Tharian, M.D., principal investigator, and we report what attendees had to say about the first UAMS Research Expo, which TRI co-sponsored with the UAMS Office of Research Compliance.

Read The TRIbune.

Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., was smiling as she gestured toward the room packed with community engagement-themed research posters at the Sept. 25

UAMS Showcase of Medical Discoveries.

“Community-engaged research has grown a lot in the 22 years I have been here,” said Stewart, who leads the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s Community Engagement Program. “We would not have been able to do this 22 years ago, so it’s very exciting to me.”

In fact, there were more poster applicants than organizers had room to display.

Shuk-mei Ho, Ph.D., UAMS vice chancellor for research, approached Stewart about having the community-engaged theme for the Showcase.

“Community-based research is going to be in all of our research going forward,” Ho told attendees at the Showcase.

Involving the community as partners is already helping researchers generate exciting new hypotheses and questions to address health, she said.

“Researchers are receiving grants because they are able to understand the community in such a deep manner,” Ho said. “Community-engaged research also

ties in really well with our efforts to address rural health issues and disparities in health care using digital health technologies such as smart phones, interactive live video, wearable devices and personal computers.”

She also noted that UAMS researchers have been extremely successful in winning Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grants, established under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to advance community-based/engagement research.

Among the poster presenters, Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., A.P.R.N., FNP-BC, associate professor in the UAMS College of Public Health, has been the recipient of numerous PCORI grants. Her research has focused on developing a network of faith leaders across Arkansas to address depression and other health disparities for African Americans.

The poster she was presenting with her colleague, Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D., assistant professor in the College of Public Health, speaks to their efforts to increase the number of faith-based partners by

training them to become partners and co-investigators on research.

The poster was accepted for presentation at a recent PCORI conference and was well received, Bryant-Moore said.

“We were approached by a number of people from across the United States that were interested in the program,” she said, adding that she plans to apply for a PCORI award that will allow her team to disseminate tool kits and trainings on the program beyond Arkansas.

Stewart, a professor in the College of Public Health, noted that community-engaged research is critical to addressing fear and distrust of research due to past unethical treatment of research participants, especially minorities.

She was presenting a poster that showed her team’s work leading the UAMS Community Scientist Academy, a Translational Research Institute program.

“It’s really taken off,” she said of the academy, which invites the public to learn about the process of

research at UAMS. “We’re giving them a 30,000-foot level introduction to the process, and the reason for the process. A lot of times for people in the community, research needs to be demystified, so we also give them an opportunity to meet and interact with our researchers.”

Amy Jo Jenkins, M.S., CCRP, CCRA, CCRC, TRI Executive Director, was installed as president of the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA) during a Sept. 27 ceremony in San Antonio, Texas.

Jenkins led the establishment of the Arkansas chapter of SOCRA and is a past chair. SOCRA  chapters offer no-cost clinical research continuing education to enhance research quality, to protect research participants, and to improve the health of the global community.

This year’s SOCRA Annual Conference welcomed about 1,200 attendees. The three-day conference offered the latest information and tools, best practices and training to help its members stay up to date and compliant in their clinical research practice. The program featured over 100 academic sessions, a peer-driven poster session, and an exhibit program.

TRI had three scientific posters accepted for presentation at the conference. The posters and their presenters are:

Beatrice Boateng, Ph.D., TRI director of evaluation and associate professor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics; “Sensitive Research Study Records: Do they Belong in the Patient Medical Record? – A Preliminary Study”

Pam Christie, B.A., CRS, TRI senior project manager, research recruitment, stakeholder engagement, “Stakeholder Engagement Makes a Difference: Improving the Site Selection Processes for Clinical Trials”

Mtonya Hunter-Lewis, MBA, CPC, CCRP, TRI associate director, regulatory support, “Utility of a Web-based Research Protocol Development Tool: One Institution’s Experience”

The UAMS Research Expo was a new experience for Yuet-Kin “Ricky” Leung, Ph.D., and one that will help get his research on solid footing as a new faculty member.

“I’ve never seen this kind of expo before, and it’s very helpful for me,” said Leung, an associate professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. “I had no clue before how many units or service groups were available to help me.”

Leung, along with about 150 other UAMS faculty and research staff, stopped by the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute to check out the 30-plus research services represented at the Sept. 10 Research Expo.

This year’s Expo marked an expansion of the Translational Research Institute (TRI) Open Houses held the past two years. TRI and the UAMS Office of Research Compliance co-sponsored the event, inviting all UAMS-wide research service providers as well as its partners, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI) and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.

The Expo is a fun, relaxed way for researchers to talk directly to the research service providers all in one place. This year’s event also included ice cream, hors d’oeuvres and door prizes drawn by Stephanie Gardner, Ed.D., UAMS provost and chief strategy officer.

Gardner also welcomed attendees, noting that the Expo helps researchers find critical resources that will help them get their studies off the ground more quickly and produce high quality findings.

Nidhi Kapoor, M.D., assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Neurology, is already familiar with many of TRI’s research services, she said, but the event made her aware of additional research amenities. “Every time I go to one of these meetings, whether it’s the Research Expo or the faculty resource fair last month, I tend to learn something new. I meet more people, and I learn about new resources and more help that’s available to busy clinicians like me.”

New this time for her, Kapoor said, was TRI’s Implementation Science Scholars program, which is accepting applications through Sept. 20.  “I am considering submitting an application,” she said.

She also gleaned other valuable information, such as protocol building services with the Institutional Review Board, and how the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs can help with her with future grant applications.

Jami Jones, research program director at the Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention, was finding some promising new connections for her center’s researchers based at ACRI.

“I’ve been visiting booths looking for ways that our researchers can utilize the various services offered through UAMS,” Jones said. “I think that both ACRI and UAMS offer great support for research and it was exciting to learn about new resources and opportunities for collaboration. It was very interesting to learn about the data warehouse (Arkansas Clinical Data Repository – AR-CDR); I didn’t know about it, and I think we can utilize that.”

She also discovered exciting possibilities in her visit with the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation booth. She said researchers at ACRI are

interested in using mobile applications in their studies but app developers are lacking. The institute, she learned, is working on finding app developers. “I’m very excited about that,” Jones said.

Chenghui Li, Ph.D., an associate professor in the College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy i, said having all the services in one place helped her clarify what each p rogram does.

“I just didn’t realize how many different services were part of the research enterprise; I knew some of them,” Li said, who is new to UAMS.

Li found assistance from TRI’s Clinical Trials Innovation Unit.

“I actually have a specific project that I needed information for, and they were very helpful,” she said. “They also provided individuals’ names for further contact. Gary D. Lewis, M.D., a new assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology, enjoyed the whole Expo experience.

“I thought it was great as a new faculty member to learn and meet all these people who I’m going to be working with, and to figure out what resources are available,” Lewis said.  “Since I am new here, I just wanted to try to make sense of all the resources that are available.”

While he is still plotting his research path, he sees promise in TRI’s ARresearch participant registry, its Community Engagement program and the resources available at the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation.