CTSA News

March 20, 2025

Next up in our CTSA hub spotlight series is The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at NYU Langone Health. The NYU CTSI provides resources, research services, and training in one of the largest, most complex cities in the nation. In an article published in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, the Institute showcases a unique way to address the second goal in the new NCATS strategic plan: Empower everyone to contribute to and benefit from translational science. Historically, study populations in clinical research have not always represented the full range of individuals that stand to benefit from scientific discoveries. This has led to new treatments that are inadequate for all patients and contributes to a lack of trust in the medical community. Overall, this negatively impacts the quality of the research, study participant retention, and the health of the community. To address this divide between researchers and patients, the NYU CTSI created a Patient Advisory Council for Research (PACR) through its Recruitment and Retention Unit. The aim was to involve patients in providing feedback on clinical trials and health-related research studies. In collaboration with the clinical research informatics team, the NYU CTSI employed an electronic health record (EHR)-based strategy to recruit PACR members. This method involved randomly selecting NYU Langone Health patients based on the International Classification of Diseases codes and inviting them to participate through the patient portal. All interested patients were given a chance to speak with the Recruitment and Retention Unit program coordinator to ensure they understood the purpose and process of serving on the PACR. The initiative led to a PACR membership that represented various sociodemographic factors and health conditions, such as HIV infection, fibromyalgia, heart disease, and more. The researchers hypothesize that contacting patients through patient portals may allow them to reach a wider participant pool than traditional methods like nominations or flyers. Members provide feedback on study design, patient education materials, and proper reimbursement, ensuring that research is patient centered. This study highlights the advantages and limitations of using an EHR-based strategy for PACR recruitment. This approach may mitigate biases associated with traditional recruitment methods like nomination and referrals and enhance participation by various sociodemographic groups and health conditions. Looking forward, the NYU CTSI team seeks to further increase the diversification of their PACR by finding a solution for patients who might be invertedly excluded by an electronic health record-based approach.

March 18, 2025

CCOS is pleased to announce a new series of hub highlights featuring the innovative clinical and translational science coming out of the CTSA Program. We plan to feature groundbreaking work from each hub in the CTSA program over the coming months, selected at random. Our first hub under the metaphorical microscope is Weill Cornell Medicine (WMC) Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) spearheaded by its founding director, Dr. Julianna Imperato-McGinley. Knowing the signs of a metastatic cancer before it colonizes another part of the body could be a life saver for patients with pancreatic cancers. Spurred on by previous research showing that pancreatic cancers prime a location in the body, most often the liver, before colonizing that location, Weill Cornell Medicine researcher and CTSC Pilot Awardee Dr. David Lyden, in collaboration with Dr. Linda Bojmar, set out to find molecular indicators of liver colonization. The multi-institutional team identified an anomaly in liver biopsies from patients with quickly metastasizing pancreatic cancer — an increased presence of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). NETs are normally deployed by the immune system to thwart invading pathogens but are also implicated in tissue damage and metastasis. The presence of NETs can allow clinicians to identify aggressive pancreatic cancers that are preparing to spread, giving clinicians an opportunity to start treatment before metastasis. The NETs themselves could become a therapeutic target, with researchers already working on ways to destroy them once released.  Weill Cornell Medicine researcher Dr. Bishoy M. Faltas, an oncologist who specializes in urothelial cancers at WCM, is also exploring the early stages and development of bladder cancer, paving the way for more potential therapies. With support from a CTSC Pilot Award, Dr. Faltas has shown that a different antimicrobial defense, APOBEC3 enzymes, which protect the host by mutating the DNA of invading retroviruses, can also play a role in initiating bladder cancer by altering the host’s own DNA. Unfortunately, standard bladder cancer chemotherapy can also lead to more cancer-causing mutations, worsening the disease. Adding even more complexity to this cancer is the presence of abnormal DNA structures within tumor cells that contain overactive genes, which can impart resistance to therapy. These three discoveries highlight the need to adapt how clinicians treat bladder cancers, and also shed light on new therapeutic targets and strategies that Weill Cornell researchers are planning to explore.   The cancer therapeutic innovation doesn’t stop there. CTSC KL2 Scholar alumnus Geoffrey Markowitz, Ph.D., with his mentorship team, Dr. Vivek Mittal and Dr. Nasser Altorki at Weill Cornell Medicine and Dr. Andrea Schietinger at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, has focused on reprogramming the body’s immune system. In the case of an overactive immune system, T cells can secrete compounds like PD-1 to bring the immune response back under control and prevent tissue damage. Though only successful in a minority of patients, some anticancer therapies known as checkpoint inhibitor therapies block this immune suppression to kill cancerous cells. The Mittal Lab has found a way to increase the effectivity of this therapy by increasing the number of T cell precursors, providing a potential army of cytotoxic T cells ready to be called upon when a tumor is detected. T cells could even be manipulated in the lab and administered to the patient as a more effective form of cell-transfer anticancer therapy.  These three research endeavors exemplify the mission and vision put forth in the new NCATS Strategic Plan. These insights provide ways to detect and target various types of cancers before they progress, increasing the likelihood of patient survival and decreasing the need for more invasive treatments later in the disease’s progression. Barriers have been broken and the efficiency of cancer treatment can be boosted via these discoveries.  Of note, all of these endeavors involved multi-institutional collaboration, bringing new research backgrounds and ideologies together from within and outside of Weill Cornell Medicine to tackle challenges in cancer treatment. Institutions like the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, the New York Genome Center, and the Linköping University in Sweden all had a hand in these discoveries, which can enhance current cancer therapies and spark new innovations. 

March 10, 2025

Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2025Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m., ETLocation: Zoom Presenters: Naomi Schrag, J.D., Vice President for Research Compliance, Training and Policy, Columbia University in the City of New York  Roger Lefort, Ph.D., Assistant Director for Research Compliance, Training and Policy, Columbia University in the City of New York  Abstract: Research and Data Integrity Program (ReaDI) at the Columbia University in the City of New York is designed to enhance data management and research integrity, by providing resources, outreach and consultation to Columbia University researchers. In this talk, we will cover ReaDI activities and resources, the revamped ReaDI website, our new training on proper handling of digital scientific images, the recently developed template for the Lab Data Management Plan in the DMPTool, and our upcoming symposium on promoting credibility, reproducibility and integrity in research. Reproducibility Rounds, produced in collaboration with representatives from multiple CTSA hubs, is a new monthly webinar, designed to foster an exchange of experiences and ideas between institutions, researchers and other stakeholders about how to improve biomedical research rigor and reproducibility. Rounds will be interactive. Future sessions and archived rounds can be found on the Stanford Program on Research Rigor & Reproducibility website.Learn more about the event here.Register for the event here.

March 10, 2025

Date: Tuesday, March 11, 2025Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., ETLocation: Zoom Innovative resources to improve research participant recruitment, retention, and engagement:  University Hospitals Mobile Research Unit & staffing to bring research resources directly to participants. Innovative technology to issue participant compensation & travel reimbursements, including Lyft rideshare capabilities. Leveraging automated communication platforms including texting, emailing, voice calling, and electronic medical record messages to participants. Centralized registries and searchable databases to connect potential participants to research studies.Speaker: Heather Tribout, B.S., CCRP, University Hospitals Learn more about the event here.Register for the event here.

March 5, 2025

A diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease, or "IBD," can upend a person's life. IBD—an umbrella term covering a range of gastrointestinal diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease—can manifest as a variety of symptoms, including stomach pain, diarrhea, weight loss, and fatigue. Every version of IBD is chronic, and people often receive a diagnosis in childhood or young adulthood, meaning many will have to manage the disease for most of their life. Luckily, there's been plenty of research into therapies to help patients manage IBD and reduce the inflammation that causes symptoms. But there's one group of patients who have been left out of much of this research on new therapies: children. Many of the treatments now approved for adults haven't been formally approved for use in children, and there's little data on how, or how well, these medications might work for treating pediatric IBD. Without this information, many patients may not be getting the optimal treatment, potentially increasing their risk of long-term complications… Read the full article here.

March 5, 2025

About one in five U.S. children who develop pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) dies each year. There are no known medications that benefit most patients with this condition. Clinicians provide primarily supportive care, such as ventilator management, sedation, nutrition, and fluid management. One therapy in use is effective for some patients but not others. Now, a research team seeks to improve the ability of clinicians to identify which children could benefit from this therapy as well as which children are at greater risk of dying from ARDS. “Our eventual goal is to find therapies that improve mortality for kids with this severe condition,” said Anoopindar Bhalla, M.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California… Read the full article here.