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UB program boosts translational science
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“The research that is being exhibited at the colloquium and the grants that will be awarded in the second round of funding really bridge the biomedical research institutions in Buffalo.”
Clinical and translational science is designed to speed the time it takes to propel important new medical tests, treatments and cures out of the laboratory and to the physicians and their patients who need them. But to accomplish this, scientists and physicians need some new tools.
Research aimed at developing these new tools, created at UB and Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), will be highlighted Oct. 21 at the First Annual Clinical and Translational Research Colloquium on Pilot Studies and Novel Technologies.
The free colloquium, open to all Buffalo area scientists, researchers and clinicians, will take place from 2-4 p.m. in the Zebro Conference Room on the first floor of the Center for Genetics & Pharmacology at RPCI, Virginia Street, between Michigan and Ellicott, on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
Scientists who will present their research at the colloquium won grants for pilot studies in the first round of funding under a new program to support studies in clinical and translational research that are most likely to lead to extramural funding initiated by the Buffalo Clinical and Translational Research Center. A second round of pilot-studies funding is now open. Interested applicants should click here.
The idea for the program was first advanced as part of a multi-institution strategic planning effort by the Buffalo Translational Consortium, led by Timothy F. Murphy, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Medicine and senior associate dean for clinical and translational science in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, to grow clinical and translational research in Buffalo.
“This is tremendous institutional support,” Murphy says of the program, which is funded by the dean’s offices of UB’s five health sciences schools, the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of the Vice President for Health Sciences and RPCI.
“To be able to say, especially in these tight financial times, that these units at UB and Roswell Park have committed to allocating a total of $200,000 each year to fund these high-level, interdisciplinary pilot studies in order to attract major external funding demonstrates a powerful commitment on behalf of clinical and translational science here in Buffalo,” he says.
Murphy explains that the grant winners were the ones best able to demonstrate a promising plan to obtain external funding while also exhibiting interdisciplinary collaboration—a critical piece of clinical and translational science.
“The research that is being exhibited at the colloquium and the grants that will be awarded in the second round of funding really bridge the biomedical research institutions in Buffalo,” says Murphy.
The following research studies will be presented at the colloquium:
- Olagnostic and prognostic potential of serum mRNA expression in prostate cancer, which studies the use of microRNA as a biomarker for characterizing prostate cancer; PI is Moray Campbell, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, RPCI.
- System pharmacological analysis of molecularly target agents in pancreatic cancer: pharmacodynamic design of novel therapeutic trials, to develop a new predictive pharmacologic model to better understand drug-cancer-patient interactions in pancreatic cancer; PI is Wen Wee Ma, Department of Medicine, RPCI.
- Use of niacin to overcome aspirin resistance, to study niacin’s use in people with low HDL cholesterol; PI is Nicholas Norgard, UB Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
- Proteomic analysis of laser microdissected biopsy samples: transforming individualized therapy of prostate cancer, to identify potential disease/therapy markers in prostate cancer tissues from biopsy samples; PI is Jun Qu, UB Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
- Development of a small animal single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and computed tomography (CT) dual functional imager with an X-ray detector, to develop better ways to do non-invasive, in vivo animal imaging; PI is Rutao Yao, UB Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
The award program for Novel Clinical and Translational Methodologies is directed by Steven J. Fliesler, Meyer H. Riwchun Professor, vice chair and director of research, UB Department of Ophthalmology and Ira G. Ross Eye Institute Vision Research Center; the award program for Pilot and Collaborative Translational and Clinical Studies is directed by Leonard H. Epstein, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Epstein also holds appointments in the departments of Community Health and Health Behavior, and Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions.
Both Fliesler and Epstein will address the colloquium.
The five participating UB health sciences schools that are providing funding for the pilot grants are the School of Dental Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, School of Nursing, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and School of Public Health and Health Professions. In addition, some of the studies involve researchers from the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
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