The Irving Institute Development of Novel Clinical and Translational Methodologies Resource (DNMR) has had as its role to develop ways to overcome the barriers that impede the movement of new knowledge from the bench to the bedside to the community. During our first grant cycle, we brought together a multidisciplinary team of senior CUMC faculty and a group of young, but accomplished, translational scientists. The latter group, designated as CTSA Fellows, was provided with financial support – which ultimately translates into time – to enable them to take creative risks in expanding their own investigative work while taking a lead role in changing the culture of research at CUMC.
The CTSA Fellows meet regularly with select faculty and mentors to further develop their skills as leaders in team science and continue to expand their familiarity with novel methodologies/technologies and diverse disciplines. Under the leadership of Henry N. Ginsberg MD (PI) and Harold A. Pincus MD (Associate Director), these 'change agents' have been charged with fueling the academic mission of the Irving Institute.
This year, and with the start of a new grant cycle, we changed our program approach: We have now created an application process wherein mid-career faculty (assistant or associate professors who are not yet tenured) will compete for these prestigious awards.
ELIGIBILITY
Eligible applicants are highly accomplished (i.e., have received independent NIH or significant foundation or industry support), clinical and translational, mid-career faculty (assistant or associate professors who are not yet tenured), across all Health Sciences schools, with research interests spanning from discovery to translation to the bedside and then to the community. Each applicant is expected to propose a project focused on one of the following areas:
- creating the impetus for multi-investigator, interdisciplinary research focused on a major health problem in our community;
- changing the way young investigators are trained and mentored—less insular and more interdisciplinary and collaborative;
- establishing new infrastructure to help change the way research is conducted, i.e., a more translational and collaborative approach with the ultimate goal of changing the research culture at CUMC/NYP.
Each applicant must propose a project s/he will be able to carry out during up to two years as a CTSA Fellow. Fellows receive 10% support (salary + fringe) during this period. In addition to a CV, a letter from the department chair, and a letter from another senior faculty member from a different department, the applicant must submit a brief proposal (five or fewer double-spaced pages) that: (a) identifies a specific, significant problem in the infrastructure, culture, training/career development, and/or collaborative opportunities at Columbia for the conduct of translational science, (b) analyzes contributors to the problem and potential barriers toward its solution, and (c) proposes an innovative, practical strategy that can be implemented in the context of CTSA Fellowship.
FUNDING
Award recipients will be announced in May 2011, to begin their fellowship on July 1, 2011.
PAST AWARDS
Among the projects undertaken by past CTSA Fellows:
- Developing a Columbia-wide obesity research consortium using Social Networking Analysis techniques.
- Launching a Biomedical Engineering seminar series and expanding collaborations with Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering.
- Developing a system for direct contact of potential research participants via the Clinical Data Warehouse in collaboration with NYP and Columbia’s IRB.
- Creating the Reach for the R training and mentoring program for assistant professors across CUMC.
- Planning and piloting the establishment of a coordinated CUMC/NYP BioBank.
- Creating interdisciplinary training and mentoring programs within and across CUMC schools, departments and divisions.
CTSA FELLOWS
2006 – Present
| Fellow | Department | Term |
| Cheryl Corcoran, MD, MS | Psychiatry | 2011 - Present |
| Heather Greenlee, ND, PhD | Epidemiology and Medicine | 2011 - Present |
| Yun-Hsin Claire Wang, MD, ScD | Health Policy and Management | 2011 - Present |
| Jennifer P. Wisdom, PhD, MPH | Psychiatry | 2011 - Present |
| Chunhua Weng, PhD | Biomedical Informatics | 2007 – 2010 |
| Emilia Bagiella, PhD | Biostatistics | 2006 – 2010 |
| Jonathan Barasch, MD | Medicine, Anatomy and Cell Biology | 2006 – 2010 |
| Thomas Diacovo, MD | Pediatrics and Pathology | 2006 – 2010 |
| Dympna Gallagher, EdD | Nutritional Medicine | 2006 – 2010 |
| Eliza Konofagou, PhD | Biomedical Engineering and Radiology | 2006 – 2010 |
| Steven O. Marx, MD | Medicine and Pharmacology | 2006 – 2010 |
| Bernadette Capilli, DNSc | Nursing | 2006 – 2009 |
| Petra Kaufmann, MD, MS | Neurology | 2006 – 2009 |
| Rita Kukafka, DrPH, MA | Biomedical Informatics, Sociomedical Sciences | 2006 – 2008 |
| Regina Landesberg, DMD, PhD | Dental Medicine, Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery | 2006 – 2008 |
| Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH, MS | Medicine | 2006 – 2008 |
