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).