With attendees from seven of our 11 Partners, CCTS was well-represented at TS18, which took place in Washington, DC, April 19-21. Faculty, trainees, and staff presented and connected, visiting Congressional offices, discussing best practices with colleagues, and exploring innovations across the translational research spectrum. The meeting drew more than 1100 attendees, including ~600 newbies and a record number of abstracts.
In case you missed it, below we share a few of the highlights.
TS18 Highlights
Presentations
CCTS Director Dr. Robert Kimberly, who started the meeting as the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) President-Elect and ended it as President for the coming year, moderated sessions on artificial intelligence and machine learning in clinical research and precision medicine and helped emcee the closing plenary session on science communication, which featured The Los Angeles Times Science and Medicine Editor Karen Kaplan and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) CEO Emeritus Alan Leshner, PhD.
Dr. Matt Might, Director, UAB Precision Medicine Institute, discussed precision medicine’s challenges and opportunities to advance personalized medicine with a standing-room-only audience.
Dr. Molly Wasko, CCTS Executive Council member and Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Innovation, and Faculty Success, UAB Collat School of Business, led a session on “Enabling Entrepreneurship.”
Dr. Mercedes Morales-Aleman, CCTS Scholar and Assistant Professor at UA Dept. of Community and Rural Medicine, described how she developed “A Conceptual Model of Healthcare Access for Adolescent Latinas in the US South.”
Dr. Jeffrey Engler, National Research Mentoring Network, discussed “Novel Approaches to Successful Grant Writing.”
Dr. Carolyn Jones presented “Development of New Tools for Evaluation of Training.”
Awards
Naveed Farrukh, Pre-Doc Trainee at UAB, received the TL1 Blue Ribbon Awards for Chronic pain in older survivors of hematopoietic cell transplantation (hct) – a report from BMTSS-2.
Huixan Hong, MD, MS, received the American Federation for Medical Research’s Henry Christian Award for her research on IL-23 Regulates Recruitment of CD40L into the B:T Immunological Synapse in Autoimmune BXD2 Mice.
Jamye Locke, MD, Surgical Director of the Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program at UAB Hospital, received one of five Translational Science 2018 Awards for “Translation from Clinical Use into Public Benefit and Policy.”
Ramya Singireddy, Pre-Doc Trainee at UAB, received the TL1 Gold Ribbon Award for "Exploring Müller cell-cone interactions in human fovea using 3-dimensional volume electron microscopy (EM).
Collaboration
As per tradition, CCTS Partners UAB and Tulane once again hosted a CCTS Scholars’ Dinner at Lebanese Taverna to catalyze collaboration among trainees from across the Network and between pre-docs and faculty from other Partner institutions. A special thanks to Tulane Research Navigator Ines Alamo and CCTS Training Academy Program Director Becky Reamy for organizing.
Posters
Carla Ammons
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
Neural correlates of face processing in autism spectrum disorder: a quantitative meta-analysis of current literature & future directions
Mai Do, MD, MPH, DrPH and Jennifer McCleary, MSW, PhD
Tulane
Social, cultural, and cognitive factors that facilitate or impede and individual's use of behavioral healthcare
Amanda Dumas
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
Mind the gaps: the contraceptive experiences of parenting adolescents
Naveed Farrukh
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
Chronic pain in older survivors of hematopoietic cell transplantation (hct) – a report from BMTSS-2
Abby Gamble
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Exploring exercise behavior in pregnant and postpartum adolescents in Mississippi
Elena Gibson
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
Perceived susceptibility to cervical cancer among African American women in the Mississippi delta: does adherence to screening matter?
Anne Gilmore
Pennington Biomedical Research Center- LA CaTS
Attitudes toward physical activity and nutrition intervention during cancer treatment
Juan Gao
LSUHSC School of Medicine- LA CaTS
Radiofrequency renal denervation attenuates kidney fibrosis in spontaneously hypertensive rats
William “Tom” Harris
UAB
miRNA manipulation to improve CFTR correction in pediatric cystic fibrosis
Muhan Hu
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
Novel PGF2a synthesis pathway in epithelial ovarian cancer
Aditi Jani
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
The role of interleukin-23 in human melanoma
Renata Jaskula-Sztul
UAB
Synaptic vesicle 2 receptors as a novel targets for neuroendocrine cancer therapy
Tiffany Kaul
Tulane - LA CaTS, Pre-Doc Trainee
L1 expression analysis in adipocyte derived stem cells
Jenna Lebersfeld
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
The SAM robot: a social skills intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder
Margarite Matossian
Tulane - LA CaTS, Pre-Doc Trainee
Patient-derived xenografts as translational models for targeted therapeutic research in triple negative breast cancer
Christina Muzny
UAB
Genital microbiomes of women with recurrent bv and their regular male sexual partner
Candice Myers
Pennington Biomedical Research Center- LA CaTS, Faculty/Scientist
Psychological mechanisms linking food insecurity and obesity
Matthew Neu
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
Attitudes and preferences for return of results from next-generation sequencing
Milza Opper
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
Identification of herpes simplex virus (hsv) shedding in the female genital tract of pregnant women by the xpert hsv 1/2 assay and routine pcr
Ibolya Rutkai
Tulane - LA CaTS
The role of mitochondria in the cerebral circulation
Rachel Sabol
Tulane - LA CaTS, Pre-Doc Trainee
High-intensity focused ultrasound (hifu) can be used synergistically with tamoxifen to overcome resistance in preclinical and patient derived xenograft models
Ramya Singireddy
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
Exploring Müller cell-cone interactions in human fovea using 3-dimensional volume electron microscopy (EM)
Kathrin Zimmerman
UAB, Pre-Doc Trainee
Post-traumatic stress symptoms and caregivers of pediatric hydrocephalus population
Karam Zakharia
Tulane, Pre-Doc Trainee
Chop-r is an efficient treatment for primary dural diffuse large b-cell lymphoma (pd-dlbcl): a systematic review of 45 cases
TS19
The TS annual meeting, cohosted by ACTS, AAAS, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR), and the Clinical Research Forum (CR Forum), is the preeminent scientific meeting for translational researchers. Mark your calendar for TS19, which will take place in Washington, DC, March 6-9.