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:

• Antiño Allen, Ph.D., professor, College of Pharmacy and TRI associate director of Pathway Initiatives
• Jennifer Vincenzo, Ph.D., MPH, PT, associate professor, College of Health Professions
• Corey Hayes, Pharm.D., Ph.D., MPH, associate professor, College of Pharmacy
• Ellen van der Plas, Ph.D., associate professor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics
• Tuhin Virmani, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor, College of Medicine Department of Neurology

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.

This month’s TRIbune newsletter highlights the recent TRI AI Research Symposium, which featured UAMS artificial intelligence innovations presented by research leaders in the field and with enthusiastic support from College of Medicine Dean Steven A. Webber, MBChB, MRCP. You’ll also read how the symposium helped inspire an AI approach to the work of two UAMS researchers: Gwen Childs, Ph.D., and Melanie MacNicol, Ph.D.   

Our TRI Study of the Month features Leah Tobey-Moore, PT, DPT, MBA, an assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry whose research is supported by a TRI pilot grant and is assisted by TRI’s Anja Rassman, B.S.N., RN, CCR, and Lisa Richardson, RN, CRS.  

This issue also includes a story about TRI’s three new T32 Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship postdoctoral fellow trainees: Meaghan Kingren, Ph.D., Carol Morris, Ph.D. candidate, and Quinshell Smith, Ph.D.

Read The TRIbune.

UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, recently visited the hospital lobby to thank researchers and clinical trial participants during UAMS’ Clinical Trials Day celebration, emphasizing the critical role that clinical trials play in advancing patient care.

“Clinical trials are designed to determine whether we are treating patients better or not,” Patterson told staff and visitors gathered in the lobby on Tuesday, May 20. “It’s kind of the last step in all the hard work that gets done in research to finally bring it to the bedside.”

UAMS research departments staffed information tables from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the hospital lobby, offering free food, beverages and giveaways to patients and employees. Research staff from the Translational Research Institute, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Office of Research Regulatory Affairs, Office of Research Compliance and the Institutional Review Board participated in the celebration.

Clinical Trials Day is observed worldwide on or near May 20 each year, commemorating the first randomized clinical trial that began May 20, 1747, and discovered that citrus fruit could prevent scurvy in sailors. The day recognizes clinical research professionals and volunteer participants for their contributions to medical advances achieved through clinical trials.

Patterson acknowledged the extensive work required to conduct clinical trials, from enrolling patients to completing regulatory approvals. “The work that we do to enroll patients in clinical trials, convince them of the extra work that they need to do to get involved in it, the regulatory work, the approvals that have to happen — it’s an awful lot of work, but it’s so  important,” he said.

Patterson praised trial participants and their families, noting their willingness to take on additional responsibilities for the benefit of medical research. “I hope that you thank the patients who are getting enrolled in clinical trials and their families for the work that they do,” he said.

In addition to the snacks and beverages, research staff provided information about clinical trials conducted at UAMS. 

UAMS conducts medical research across multiple areas, testing a range of new therapies including drugs and medical devices. Clinical trials at UAMS offer Arkansans access to experimental cutting-edge treatments before they become widely available.

“This really is a critical step and why we are at UAMS and not somewhere else,” Patterson said.

UAMS College of Medicine Dean Steven A. Webber, MBChB, MRCP, joined other UAMS leaders and researchers April 29 for the Translational Research Institute (TRI) AI Research Symposium, highlighting the use of artificial intelligence in biomedical research

“Many of our faculty are already leading the way in several areas of AI-driven research, and that’s clearly something we want to see at UAMS,” Webber said in his welcome address.

The symposium was led by Fred Prior, Ph.D., distinguished professor and chair of the College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics, and Mathias Brochhausen, Ph.D., professor and vice chair for Academic Programs and Faculty Development in the Department of Biomedical Informatics. Prior also leads TRI’s Comprehensive Informatics Resource Core and Brochhausen is TRI’s associate director for Strategic Collaborations.

“It’s a great opportunity to share with you some of the research that we are doing in this field,” Prior said. “We use AI tools every day; we develop new ones, and we’re helping UAMS learn how to use these technologies to advance clinical practice and biomedical research.”

Webber, also UAMS executive vice chancellor, said that AI is now touching almost every facet of health care, including research, diagnostics, risk prediction, clinical documentation, medical education and revenue cycle enhancement.

“We have to embrace these changes and make them work for us in a positive way,” he said.

The three-hour symposium drew over 50 attendees and featured presentations by:

Yasir Rahmatallah, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Parkinson’s Disease Identification by Voice Assessment Using Pre-trained CNN

Jonathan Bona, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
AI and Natural Language Processing

Aaron Kemp, MBA (Ph.D. candidate), co-director, NeuroCognitive Dynamics Lab; instructor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Using Artificial Neural Networks to Mine for Markers of Abnormal Neural Network Activity among People with Parkinson’s Disease

Webber praised the research integration involving biomedical Informatics, clinical informatics and the clinical and translational science infrastructure provided by TRI.

“We have to continue to further strengthen that integration so that the AI research that’s going on here starts to directly impact the health of our patients that we serve, and I know we are poised to do that,” he said. 

Wendy Ward, Ph.D., professor and associate provost for faculty with UAMS Academic Affairs, described how AI is benefiting UAMS across its missions.

Examples include clinical tools that can draft Epic inbox responses, recommend assessments and diagnoses, generate discharge summaries and optimize billing codes. On the education front, she said UAMS has trained 100 educators in interactive AI modules, launched a journal club and student AI club and is developing a generative-AI course.

Both Prior and Ward touted the Department of Biomedical Informatics’ Creative Health AI (CHAI) Salon, an incubator of open-session workshops to develop AI solutions and collaborations. It has already produced two grant proposals and a Nature-Scientific Reports publication. A continuing medical education course on AI fundamentals is also in the works.

The symposium also included Prior’s call to action for cleaning, standardizing and curating research data to prevent “garbage in, garbage out.”

Brochhausen added that machine learning is even more powerful when combined with ontologies.

“Ontologies organize and translate information and provide an enterprise-wide vocabulary, very much like a data dictionary, but with the added power to manage that dictionary automatically, prevent contradictions, and support integration, reasoning and explainable AI,” he said.

Prior warned that “garbage in, garbage out applies even more forcefully in the world of AI,” noting that algorithms require vast quantities of high-quality, well-labeled data to train effectively.

Near the symposium’s conclusion, Prior announced that UAMS is building the legal and technical framework to offer researchers the use of large-language AI models that ensure patient data never leaves UAMS firewalls.

“If you give your data to a large language model on the Internet, it will happily reuse that data,” he said. “If it’s patient data, you’re spreading it all over the planet. Not a good thing.”

He hopes to roll out an upgraded model capable of handling images and text by summer, with hands-on training available in the fall.

TRI Director Laura James, M.D., praised Prior and Brochhausen for leading the symposium and for making it accessible to a broad audience. 

“I’m excited about where UAMS is with artificial intelligence and the things that will be developed in the near future,” she said.  

“Let me start by telling you a story,” Ankita Shukla, M.D., told the TRI Research Day audience before briefly weaving a narrative of a new mother’s fears and how they relates to her research. Her opening was a technique she learned in TRIumph, TRI’s new communications training that helps scientists explain their work to general audiences.

Nine early‑career K12 Mentored Research Career Development Award Program scholars completed the TRIumph training this year, led by Julien Mirivel, Ph.D., from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Three of the scholars — Shukla, Lauren Appell, M.D., and Brian Piccolo, Ph.D., —  used their newly honed skills to deliver engaging talks at Research Day. View their presentations here: https://youtu.be/faeDeJnoiPw.

TRIumph focuses on two main pillars: “macro‑structure,” or how presenters organize material, and delivery techniques such as voice, eye contact and movement that foster audience connection, said Mirivel, a professor of applied communication, book author and professional speaker.

“Public speaking is not about transmitting information,” he said. “It’s about connecting with your audience.”

Shukla, an associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Neonatal‑Perinatal Medicine, illustrated that principle in presenting her K12 project PERFORM: Persistent Effects of Intrauterine Growth Restriction on Infant Brain Development. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, her study compares neural patterns in infants born small for their gestational age. After her opening story, she guided listeners through the science with clear explanations and analogies.

“The training changed the way I will deliver presentations from here on,” Shukla said. “Even if I don’t give all the scientific nitty‑gritty, I’ll make sure I engage my audience with my passion. If I’m passionate and excited, they will be, too.”

Lauren Appell, an assistant professor of pediatric hematology/oncology, admitted she once dreaded public speaking. “I hate speaking in public,” she confessed. Her project, Stronger All: A Strength & Outpatient Exercise Regimen for Children with Newly Diagnosed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, tests whether structured exercise can improve treatment tolerance and quality of life.

Through TRIumph’s practice sessions, first a three‑minute elevator pitch, then an eight‑ to 10‑minute talk, Appell said she gained confidence.

“Practice made me more confident for something that can be very intimidating,” she said. “I’m sold; I’m all in. It’s a really effective way to engage and communicate important things.”

Piccolo, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, said the most valuable technique he learned was how to structure his presentations.

“This framework limited my presentation to three major elements that helped me effectively communicate my research to a diverse audience at Research Day,” said Piccolo, who is also associate director of the Biostatistics and Data Innovation Team at the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center. “With this framework, I can avoid a data deluge and ensure that I have concise points that will keep an audience engaged and interested.”

Members of TRI’s Community Advisory Board (CAB) praised the scholars’ clarity on Research Day. The Rev. Willie Wade, founder of Difference Makers of Hot Springs, said the presentations “broke down an important barrier between scientists and the communities they aim to help. We need the community involved in research since they are the most impacted by the outcome.”

Prior to Research Day, the nine K12 scholars presented to community members who provided official critiques of their talks. Among them was Victoria Akins, a TRI Community Scientist Academy graduate who served as a grant reviewer and advisory‑board member.

“The presentations were very clear and understandable, especially after the question‑and‑answer section,” she said. Akins suggested allowing questions after each presentation and encouraged scholars to “give a little more information about what sparked their interest and what they envision the long‑term impact to be.”

Esther Dixon, executive director of Diamonds in the Rough of Hot Springs and a TRI CAB member, said the presenters on Research Day “used key points that were relatable and spoke on a level that everyone, whether you were a scientist or community member, could understand, and left you eager to learn more about their work.”

TRI is assessing TRIumph’s impact with pre‑ and post‑training surveys and presentation evaluations to document improvements in structure, language and delivery.

Editor’s note: We have updated our Research Day 2025 coverage to include videos. Please see links below.

Spanning two days for the first time, TRI Research Day 2025 showcased advancements in translational science with a focus on harnessing clinical data in Arkansas and across the United States.

Day 1 featured a keynote by Elizabeth A. Shenkman, Ph.D., who discussed leveraging OneFlorida+’s data network containing information on 28 million patients for clinical trials (https://youtu.be/CaNNwb4Y574). Day 2 shifted the focus to community engagement and maternal health, highlighted by a keynote from Sharla Smith, Ph.D., addressing challenges and opportunities in improving maternal care outcomes.

Attended by 169 UAMS faculty, staff, trainees and community partners, TRI Research Day on April 10–11 highlighted how translational science — powered by large‑scale data networks and community engagement — can accelerate the pace of discovery.

DAY 1
With the theme “Integrating Data to Further Translational Science,” this day included a poster session and oral presentations by TRI-supported early-career researcher trainees and pilot awardees. The day was capped by Shenkman’s keynote, in which she described the many ways that data linkages across the U.S. through OneFlorida+ PCORnet, which includes UAMS, is powering impactful biomedical research.

Shenkman is professor and chair of the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics and co-director of the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

She also highlighted OneFlorida+ key linkages: birth and death certificates, Medicaid and state Children’s Health Insurance Program claims, prenatal screening, environmental exposome data, social determinants of health, and adverse events. Tumor registry and biospecimen data also offer cancer research possibilities, while monthly data uploads ensure timeliness.

“OneFlorida+ is an exceptional data repository,” she said, noting that UAMS investigators can query aggregate data and obtain site‑specific cohorts.

A hallmark of OneFlorida+ PCORnet, Shenkman noted, is the ability to re‑identify patients with IRB approval, a critical feature for clinical trials conducted in real-world settings, also known as pragmatic trials. “That is really important for carrying out pragmatic clinical trials,” she said, emphasizing that UAMS could leverage the network to recruit diverse cohorts and streamline study enrollment.

After her presentation, Shenkman encouraged UAMS to capitalize on its multidisciplinary strengths. “UAMS has a really diverse faculty in terms of their multidisciplinary training and backgrounds,” she said. “You have great clinicians and great biomedical informaticians. Bringing all that talent together to work with the data and apply for PCORI grants will lead to new and novel ways to address our country’s pressing health care issues.”

Her talk was followed by a demonstration by a panel of data experts on how to navigate the process of accessing and leveraging data for a potential study on congenital syphilis. With TRI Director Laura James, M.D., serving as moderator, the panel introduced the Arkansas All Payer Claims Database at the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) and highlighted how state insurance claims data can complement resources like electronic health records data from UAMS or Arkansas Children’s Hospital available through ARLife, a program in development by TRI.

Shenkman joined the panel, whose members included:

• Kenley Money, MFA, director of Information System Architecture at ACHI
• Nichole Stanely, Ph.D., director of Analytics at ACHI
• Pele Yu, M.D., chief medical information officer at Arkansas Children’s and professor of pediatrics, biomedical informatics and public health.

Day 2
Community-Engaged Research Takes Center Stage on Day 2

Day 2 of TRI Research Day spotlighted the power of community engagement in improving health outcomes, with a focus on maternal health. The day opened with a compelling keynote by Sharla Smith, Ph.D., founder of the Kansas Birth Equity Network (KBEN), who is working to reduce maternal mortality through grassroots partnerships and translational science.

With the theme “Community Engaged Research Day: Impacting Community Health through Translational Science,” the day also included:

• Presentations from three early-career K12 scholars who participated in TRIumph, TRI’s scientific communications training, to help them explain their research to a general audience.
• Roundtable discussions led by TRI community partners who received research training and seed funding.
• A panel discussion about Arkansas’ maternal health challenges.

Smith, a graduate of the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, is leading an NIH-funded study aimed at improving clinical care for pregnancy-related hypertension and preeclampsia.

Healthy Blue, a Medicaid-supported health plan, is also providing mini grants totaling $50,000 to grassroots KBEN members and organizations working to address gaps in maternal, paternal and infant health.

The network engages over 160 members in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the state of Kansas. “We meet bimonthly on Zoom with parents, doulas, midwives, health organization leaders, researchers and physicians. Everyone’s at the table trying to find solutions,” Smith said.

The Day 2 roundtable discussions (https://youtu.be/MJFySV5f5w8) allowed attendees to hear from the leaders of three community-based organizations who participated in TRI’s six-month training Community Partners Educated as Arkansas Research Leaders (CPEARL), which is led by the institute’s Community Engagement Core. In addition to learning how to conduct research that would benefit their organization, they each received seed funding of $2,500. The organizations’ leaders gave a 10-minute overview of their work and took questions from the attendees. The organizations, presenters and use of the seed funding were:

• Women and Children First, Sarah Bradburry, New Mom and Baby Care Baskets
• Healing in the Hood, Shelly Gillespie and Sandy Gillespie, O.P.P.S. Boxing Club
• Giving. Others. Ambition. Together. (GOAT), Kelvin Parker, Building Young Champs

Since going through the training in 2022, Parker said the knowledge he gained through CPEARL has helped him grow his afterschool GOAT program for 10–12-year-olds in Little Rock from three days a week with about a dozen children to five days a week with 45-50 children.

“UAMS is where it all started,” he said of his program, which teaches key life skills. “I learned so much. I was able to get into the grant writing, find funding sources and get my name out in the community a little more, and we’ve grown rapidly.”

Research Day concluded with the 2022 documentary “Giving Birth in America: Arkansas” highlighting the challenges that Arkansas women face in accessing maternal health care, focusing on the impact of limited insurance coverage and limited access to health care in rural areas. A panel discussion followed with UAMS’ Alexandra Marshall, Ph.D., moderating. Marshall is associate professor and chair of the College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.

The panelists were:

• Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, professor, College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.
• Katy Allison, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor, College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.
• Zenobia Harris, Ph.D., executive director, Arkansas Birthing Project.

Oral Presentations Highlight Work in TRI Programs

Research Day 2025 included oral presentations from eight researchers in four TRI programs, listed below with their project titles.

K12 Mentored Research Career Development Award Program Scholars

• Katy Allison, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education
  Remote Patient Monitoring in Pregnancy Care: Using Implementation Science to Improve Uptake and Sustainability; https://youtu.be/wvfyllKHzuc
  
• Shiloah Kviatkovsky, Ph.D., M.S., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
  Effects of Collagen Peptide Supplementation on Connective Tissue Remodeling, Functional Outcomes, and Wound Healing after Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA); https://youtu.be/LRdoDqDhZLY

T32 Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship Trainees

• Ashley Pike, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, Psychiatric Research Institute, College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry
  A Quantitative Connectome Approach to Cognitive Function in MS; https://youtu.be/ts8P66IXod0
  
• Henry Palfrey, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
  VoluSense: Revolutionizing Early Bleeding Detection to Improve Uptake and Sustainability; https://youtu.be/y_D_zDjyp60

Implementation Science Scholars

• Jarna Shah, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology
  Implementation of Perioperative Nutrition Screening; https://youtu.be/ogH_VzdZzas
  
• Stephen Foster, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
  Improving Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Management in Primary Care; https://youtu.be/EqZUrSOI658

Pilot Awardees

• Laura Hays, Ph.D., APRN, associate professor, College of Nursing
  Is it Time to Let Go? Issues of Control: A Patient-Mediated Health Information Exchange Leveraging Family Health Histories and Genomic Information; https://youtu.be/GGCrMd1GGhY
  
• Jonathan Bona, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics
  Accelerating Insights with an Open Drug Information Toolkit; https://youtu.be/eksjLf33KB0

Research Day 2025 Poster Contest Winners

Judges selected winners from six categories in the 2025 Research Day Poster Contest, which included 24 total posters. The winning poster presenters, announced by TRI Director Laura James, M.D., are:

Best Overall Impact (tie)

Mollee Steeley Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, Health and Legal System (HEALS) Lab

Exploring Parenting-Related Stress among Postpartum Mothers Receiving Medications for Opioid Use Disorder

Alicija Urbaniak, Ph.D., instructor, College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Repositioning Monensin: Enhancing Anti-Cancer Activity and Immune Modulation in Breast Cancer Cells

Best Overall Scientific Content

Nicholas Callais, M.D., surgical resident research fellow, College of Medicine Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Research

A New DNA-PKcs Inhibitor with Improved Solubility and Specificity

Best Translational Science

Katy Allison, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior & Health Education

Implementation Determinants and Strategies for Remote Patient Monitoring in Obstetrics

Community Advisory Board Choice

Tiffany Miles, Ph.D., instructor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Section of Developmental Nutrition

Community Developed and implemented Obesity Intervention in Marvell, Arkansas

Best Overall Visual

Megha Sharma, M.D., associate professor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology

Breaking Translational Science Barriers in Neonatal Health Equity

People’s Choice Award

Alexa Escapita, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, College of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

A Longitudinal Study on the Effects of Diabetes on the Neurodevelopment of Infants

The April TRIbune newsletter features TRI Research Day 2025, a two-day gathering that drew 169 attendees from across UAMS and its partners at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and the Central Arkansas Veterans Health System.

This fourth annual event, expanded for the first time to two days, included insightful keynote addresses from Elizabeth Shenkman, Ph.D., from the University of Florida, and Sharla Smith, Ph.D., from the University of Kansas Medical Center. The event also included outstanding oral presentations from TRI-supported faculty and postdoctoral trainees.

The theme for Day 1 of the event was “Integrating Data to Further Translational Science,” and Day 2’s the theme was “Community Engaged Research Day: Impacting Community Health through Translational Science.”  Read The TRIbune.

The March issue of The TRIbune announces exciting changes for TRI’s K12 Mentored Research Career Development Scholar Award Program. These include changes in leadership with Mario Schootman, Ph.D., taking over as principal investigator and director. He is joined by co-directors Josh Kennedy, M.D., a 2015 graduate of the program, and Jason Farrar, M.D., who was named co-director last fall. Other changes in store include a greater emphasis on translational science, communication and community engagement as TRI focuses on meeting the requirements of its new grant and the recommendations of its External Advisory Board.

The newsletter’s Study of the Month features Sisira Yadala, M.D., who is the UAMS principal investigator on a multi-site epilepsy study.

The TRIbune also highlights Research Day on April 10-11, the Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Science program, and it features Spyridoula Maraka’s, M.D., recent success leveraging her TRI Implementation Science Scholar training to secure a VA Merit Award.

Read The TRIbune.

We’re thrilled to invite all UAMS-affiliated faculty and staff to join us for two inspiring days celebrating innovation in translational research! 

Location: Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Conference Center, 10th floor.  

The themes for this year’s expanded TRI Research Day are:

Day 1: Integrating Data to Further Translational Science

Day 2: Community Engaged Research Day: Impacting Community Health through Translational Science

• Dynamic keynote speakers
• Oral presentations from TRI-supported investigators
• A poster session highlighting research from TRI’s funding and training programs
• Community-engaged programming
• Great opportunities for networking! 

Meet Our Keynote Speakers: 

• Elizabeth A. Shenkman, Ph.D., University of Florida
  Presentation: Translating Discoveries to Practice Using Real World Data and Clinical Settings
• Sharla Smith, Ph.D., MPH, University of Kansas Medical Center
  

Register now to save your spot. Registration deadline is Monday, April 7.

NEW: View the agenda here.

We can’t wait to see you there!

Contact: Christi Madden, cmadden2@uams.edu.