TRI’s September newsletter, The TRIbune, features a new initiative to help UAMS graduate students learn how to become entrepreneurs. Led by Nancy Rusch, Ph.D., and Nancy Gray, Ph.D., TRI co-sponsored the recent Health Sciences Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for graduate students. It was a hit! Special thanks to Phil Mayeux, Ph.D., whose T32 grant created an opportunity for supplemental funding to conduct the boot camp, and to Drs. Rusch and Gray for their successful application. You can read about it here, along with comments from several students.

In addition, Dr. Gray, director of UAMS BioVentures, offers her perspective on TRI in the TRI & Me feature, and you can read about the recent NIH grant to a large multidisciplinary team of UAMS researchers that stems from a TRI pilot award. We also list your publications that have cited TRI support. 

Read The TRIbune.

Sometimes the stars align and an experiment yields a “Eureka!” moment. That’s on par with what happened recently at UAMS’ Biomedical Research Center.

Led by Nancy Rusch, Ph.D., and Nancy Gray, Ph.D., the “experiment” was UAMS’ first Health Sciences Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for 16 graduate students. Rusch leads the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s workforce development efforts and chairs the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the College of Medicine. Gray is director of UAMS BioVentures and a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Even before the laudatory written evaluations came in, Rusch and Gray were excited by what they witnessed and what participants were telling them. Both were impressed with how quickly the students learned the language of entrepreneurship. That was evident on the final day of boot camp, when teams of students presented their commercialization ideas.

“From Monday to Friday there was an amazing transformation,” Rusch said. “It was like a different group of students.”

Several of the participating students said the boot camp inspired them and either applied directly to their goals or opened their minds more fully to commercializing their ideas, even if they plan to continue in academia as “intrapreneurs.”

“The presenters that were brought in were absolute rock stars,” said Erin Bush, R.N.C., M.N.N., a graduate student in the UAMS College of Nursing. “One of the things that I most want to do with my nursing Ph.D. is be an entrepreneur and translate the nursing science that’s coming out of research into something that can be commercialized. So the boot camp has incredible applications for my career goals.”

Heavy Hitters

The boot camp’s success was aided by the participation of UAMS’ entrepreneurial faculty as well as other heavy hitters in Arkansas’ entrepreneurial community. The roster included the University of Arkansas’ Carol Reeves, Ph.D., whose MBA students have led the world in business plan competitions the last six years, and Paul Mlakar, MBA, a serial entrepreneur.

Other outside presenters included Jeff Stinson, MBA, director of entrepreneurship at Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub; Rebecca Norman, M.S., an innovation consultant at the Arkansas Small Business & Technology Development Center; and Lee Watson, president of The Venture Center.

“We’ve developed a wonderful spirit of collegiality with all of our presenters and there’s great cooperation between UAMS and UA, Fayetteville,” Rusch said. “Their participation really made this possible.”

A Rising Tide

The boot camp was supported by $50,000 in supplemental funding tied to a National Institute of General and Medical Sciences T32 Systems Pharmacology and Toxicology Training Program grant led by Phil Mayeux, Ph.D., who alerted Rusch about the supplemental funding opportunity. Rusch and Gray applied for the funding and developed the boot camp agenda.

There are now 58 faculty at UAMS with entrepreneurial experience. Their success is good for them as well as UAMS, which receives intellectual property revenues for the licensed technologies. UAMS’ intellectual property revenue is about $1.6 million per year. BioVentures has been involved in over 50 spinoff companies. Of those, 23 are still in operation and had an aggregate payroll of $7.2 million at the end of 2014.

Rusch said she hopes UAMS can increase these numbers through entrepreneurship training. She is leading the educational effort for the Translational Research Institute, and she credits institute Director/Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research Laura James, M.D., with the idea of making it a key component of TRI’s mission and Clinical and Translational Science Award application. The goal is to offer a certificate program.

“I see the need for entrepreneurship training with my students all the time,” Rusch said. “They come into my office and say ‘I have this idea and it could really improve clinical care, but I don’t know how to proceed.’”

UAMS faculty entrepreneurs who shared their stories at the boot camp:

• Jay Gandy, Ph.D., professor and chair, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health; Founding Partner, Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health, LLC
• Bill Gurley, Ph.D., professor, College of Pharmacy; chief science officer, Balm Innovations LLC
• Amy Hester, Ph.D., R.N., assistant professor, College of Nursing; chief scientific officer, HD Nursing, LLC
• Laura James, M.D., professor, College of Medicine; director, UAMS Translational Research Institute; associate vice chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research; chief medical officer, Acetaminophen Toxicity Diagnostics, LLC
• Jeffery Moran, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine; CEO and founding partner, Pinpoint Testing, LLC
• Michael Owens, Ph.D., professor, College of Medicine, chief scientific officer, InterveXion Therapeutics

Researchers who need participation from communities across the state can get the resources they need from the Translational Research Institute’s (TRI) Community Engagement component. TRI provides consultations and technical assistance, establishes one-time, study-specific Community Review Boards, and has an equipment library that includes electronics such as iPads, LCD projector and screen, and public address system; and other equipment, such as tents, misting fans, and folding tables with wheels. The community engagement team works closely with the Office of Community-Based Public Health at the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, as well as the UAMS Office of Community Health and Research and Center for Pacific Islander Health, both located at the UAMS Northwest Campus in Fayetteville.

Additional TRI Services

TRI offers a range of services to investigators at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, including advice and consultation, biomedical informatics, biostatistics, regulatory matters, and protocol development. Visit our website to learn more about our services: TRI.uams.edu.

The recent UAMS lecture, “Lessons Learned in Engagement with the Community in Cancer Survivorship Disparities Research,” by Karen Meneses, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., from the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB), is now available in TRI’s Video Library.  

The Dalme-Rickel Distinguished Visiting Lectureship in Oncology/Community Health is sponsored by the College of Nursing. Meneses is professor and associate dean for research and scholarship at the UAB School of Nursing. She is the co-leader of the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and multiple principal investigator of the R25 Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program. 

Registration is now open for the first Mini-Symposium on Pediatric Precision Medicine. The event will be Aug. 30, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Chairman’s Hall, and will feature several distinguished speakers who are experts in this area. The symposium will be the formal kick-off for the new Pediatric Precision Medicine program.

Register here. 

Note: This event is free. On the registration page under “Payment Method,” please select the following from the dropdown: “Fee Waived – No credit card necessary” 

View the Program.

Arkansans interested in helping ensure that research programs at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) represent the needs of their communities are invited to participate in UAMS’ first Community Scientist Academy.

Sponsored by the UAMS Translational Research Institute, the Community Scientist Academy will be every Thursday in September, beginning Sept. 1, from 5 – 7:30 p.m., on the UAMS campus in Little Rock, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health building, room G228. The academy is being offered at no cost to participants. Validated parking is available in Parking 2.

For questions and to RSVP, contact Nicki Spencer at ndspencer@uams.edu, or (501) 526-6629.

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
• Ways they can volunteer to help with research such as serving on community advisory boards, community review boards for individual studies, as a community grant reviewer and as a research participant
• How a volunteer organization can become involved

“The Academy will create a group of community members who can influence research by serving on steering committees, mentoring committees, review committees, and research projects, and in other leadership roles,” said Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., whose research is conducted in partnership with Arkansas communities.

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

“We hope the Community Scientist Academy can help demystify the research we do at UAMS,” said Stewart, who leads the Translational Research Institute’s Community Engagement program. “It’s critically important that people understand what we do because we can’t improve health without their help.”

The Translational Research Institute (TRI) is finding innovative ways to accelerate the pace of clinical trials while taking on more studies than ever. This month’s TRIbune highlights the advances of the Project Support Unit, which helps UAMS researchers conduct clinical trials. The newsletter spotlights a Project Support Unit stalwart, Mtonya Hunter-Lewis, in its TRI & Me feature. You will also read about the recent NIH K awards received by two recent TRI KL2 alumni, and the latest TRI-cited publications by your colleagues.

Download Newsletter | Newsletter Archive

A video recording is now online featuring the recent UAMS/TRI-hosted Our Community, Our Health national conversation about women’s heart health.

The video features UAMS College of Nursing researchers who specialize in women’s heart health and a community representative with a life-threatening heart condition. The event was sponsored by the UAMS Translational Research Institute Community Engagement program, the University of Florida and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission.

See a Video Preview.

Watch the Full Video.

Nearly 200 Arkansas faith leaders, health ministries, educators, researchers and health care providers recently gathered in Little Rock to make connections and share ideas that will help reduce health challenges in Arkansas.

The second annual Community-Campus Partnership Conference to Address Health Challenges was hosted by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) at the Comfort Inn & Suites Presidential in Little Rock. The day included discussion of existing efforts to address health challenges and ongoing needs.

“Overall, we felt it was a huge success,” said Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., FNP, APRN, who oversaw the event. “We were able to engage a portion of the faith community we had not reached before and provide them with some of the basic knowledge in health challenges, community-campus partnerships and research.”

UAMS, through the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health and Translational Research Institute, has a track record of health research partnerships with communities in the Delta, particularly through its African-American churches. Bryant-Moore is also a Translational Research Institute KL2 Scholar alumnus.

“Our goal was to make the initial connection with some and to connect current partners with each other,” said Bryant-Moore, associate professor of health behavior and health education in the College of Public Health. “We plan to follow up with all of the attendees throughout the year leading up to the next conference in April 2017.”

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was cited as an important for improving health care access in Arkansas. Rural Arkansas has 64.5 primary care physicians per 100,000 people compared to 139 physicians per 100,000 people in urban Arkansas.

The event’s keynote speaker was Acacia Bamberg Salatti, acting director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Other speakers included Micheal Knox, M.S., M.P.H., director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission. The afternoon breakout sessions introduced attendees to faith-based community health clinics; strategies for reaching and mobilizing local congregations; understanding the role of faith-based organizations in research; and the role of the faith community in addressing homelessness, incarceration and community re-entry, and violence. 

The Congregational Health Network was presented in the afternoon by Armika Berkley, M.P.H., program manager for the Congregational Health Network in partnership with Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare; and Pastor Bobby G. Baker, D.Min., M.Div., director of Faith and Community Partnerships at Methodist Healthcare. The conference was partially funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award (EAIN 2975). Additional funding was provided by a Health Resources and Services Administration Nursing Workforce Diversity Grant, which funds the Growing Our Own in the Delta (GOOD) program, and the UAMS Translational Research Institute. The conference was a collaboration with the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care (AFMC), the Arkansas Minority Health Commission (AMHC), and Baptist Health Physician Partners.

TRI was excited to welcome its new External Advisory Council – State and Community Stakeholders in June.

The State and Community Stakeholders are an addition to TRI’s External Advisory Council, which has always included NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) leaders from large and small institutions across the United States.

The External Advisory Council helps shape TRI’s course by providing input regarding TRI programs and services and their impact on the state. TRI benefits from the breadth and depth of knowledge represented by leaders from other CTSA sites, local business and higher education leaders, health care providers and advocates, and health care policy organizations.  The council has been directly involved in TRI “moving the needle” on issues of access to research and supporting the next generation of researchers in our state.