Goal #6: Enhance training programs

By Nicki Apaydin — October 06, 2026Clinical and translational researchers seeking education and training on team science now have additional resources that can assist them. Team science helps researchers from various disciplines come together to more effectively collaborate and solve complex problems. The Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) has recently launched two courses in the SC CTSI Learning Network. The first course is called Team Science 101 and provides an overview of five team science competencies: cultivating genuine relationships, team communication, collaborative thinking, problem solving, and creativity; team management, and team leadership. Learners watch videos and take a short quiz to check their understanding.“With the launch of these two courses, we are really excited that team science education and resources are more accessible to anyone on a research team,” said Mayla Boguslav, Ph.D., Director of Team Science at SC CTSI.&nbsp; The second course is focused on team science education and resources. Here, teams can find more advanced team science workshops, seminars, and resources. The interactive Zoom workshops throughout the year include topics such as team management, building a shared language and vision, managing change and resolving conflicts, leadership for all team members, and&nbsp;research collaborations with external partners. Recorded monthly seminars introduce newer team science ideas through expert-led sessions, including topics on “Collective Intelligence on Human-AI Teams,” “Initiate to Integrate: How Research Teams Work Together to Succeed,” and “Strategically Planning Your Collaborations.” The resources provided in the course give learners a practical starting place for teams to explore team science topics, such as collaboration planning, leadership, mentorship, project management tools, literature, and on-campus resources.To access the Team Science 101 course,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://courses.sc-ctsi.org/product?catalog=RD-TS101">click here.</a> To access team science education and resources,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://courses.sc-ctsi.org/product?catalog=RD-TSER">click here.</a> To learn more about SC CTSI team science trainings and stay apprised of new events,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://sc-ctsi.org/training-education/team-science-training">click here.</a>

Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute

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University of Southern California

Two new courses introduce learners to team science and delve deeper into the field.

Just Launched: New Team Science Educational Resources

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Goal #1: Advance clinical and translational science

Have you ever found yourself at a restaurant or party and had trouble hearing what your friend is saying to you among all of the background noise? That is central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), when the brain does not work fast enough to distinguish between many sound sources. CAPD results in the type of hearing loss that takes place in the brain rather than at the level of the ear. Hearing aids cannot solve the problem of CAPD, which affects half of the population at age 65 and one-third of those in their 40s and 50s. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/physiology/faculty/regular-faculty/achim-klug-phd">Achim Klug, Ph.D.</a>, is testing a novel method to solve CAPD. He&nbsp;believes his unique combination of drug and sound therapy will solve the problem of central hearing loss in 30 days. He says animal studies show an effectiveness of 90%. Moreover, Klug has formed a company with Sam Budoff, Ph.D., called <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://parleyneuro.com/">Parley Neurotech, Inc.</a> They are in the early phases of raising funds for their company, currently closing what is called a priced seed round. To be clear, Klug and Budoff do not know yet if their method will be as effective in humans as it has been in animals. That is where their <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07304024">Phase II clinical trial</a> comes in.&nbsp; Their story is a success in terms of translational science that has moved through the pipeline from an idea, through basic bench and preclinical science in animals, to the testing in humans of a treatment that could impact millions. And though 95% of new products introduced each year fail*, it is worth asking: What are the elements that brought Klug and his innovation to this crucial moment in time? Funding In 2011, Klug applied for a pilot grant from the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cctsi.cuanschutz.edu/">Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI).</a> He and Herman Jenkins, M.D., received the Translational Medicine Team Award, which provided $90,000 from the CCTSI and an additional $10,000 from Jenkins’ department of Otolaryngology.&nbsp; Klug said if you look at his CCTSI grant application from 2011, it contains the basic outline of his 2017 application for an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (An R01 supports mature research projects with strong preliminary data.) The CCTSI grant enabled Klug to collect key data he used to apply for and receive additional funding. It also allowed him to pursue the science that underpins his clinical trial today.&nbsp; “I am eternally grateful because the CCTSI grant allowed us to get the R01, and the next R01, and develop the treatment,” said Klug, who is also professor of Physiology and Biophysics in the CU Anschutz School of Medicine. All of this leads to the next element that has been instrumental in Klug’s success: the multiple resources found in a large academic medical center.&nbsp; Supportive Infrastructure at CU Anschutz Of course, funding is essential. But a grant by itself would not be as effective as one that is given within a large, supportive research and entrepreneurial&nbsp;ecosystem.&nbsp; “I think it’s really important to highlight how great the CU Anschutz environment is,” said Budoff. Klug said, “All the university resources coming together—CCTSI, CU Anschutz Innovations—they are so good at helping you find resources.” In 2025, Innovations awarded Klug a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.cuanschutz.edu/innovations/spark/about-spark/spark-award">Spark</a> grant, which aims to accelerate the commercial development of promising technologies that have proven science and a high potential to impact patients. Innovations also filed a patent for Parley’s proprietary sound treatment, which works in tandem with the FDA-approved drug clemastine fumarate. Moreover, Parley and Budoff just competed in the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://news.cuanschutz.edu/news-stories/win-the-pitch-showcase-highlights-innovative-startups">Innovations Fast Pitch</a>. They tied with another team and split the prize of $10,000. Innovations also supported Klug and Budoff through the process of attracting seed funding from investors. These dollars will enable Parley Neurotech to complete its clinical trial and take steps to ensure the company is ready to launch operations on a national scale if the treatment receives approval from the FDA. None of the investment from Innovations would be possible without the research Klug has been conducting for more than 15 years at CU Anschutz. &nbsp; “In addition to the clinical trial expertise we have access to on campus, we are fortunate to work in a remarkably collaborative environment,” Klug said. “The basic science experiments and data would not have been possible without my close collaborators in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, as well as other departments.”&nbsp; Focus Klug has been relentless in his focus on CAPD, when the brain does not work fast enough to distinguish between many sound sources. Yet the problem is not just that people cannot follow a conversation in a loud room. CAPD can lead to dementia: 1 in 12 dementia cases are associated with untreated hearing loss. And the risk is doubled for those struggling to hear in noisy places. Currently, no treatment is available for central hearing loss. The brainstem has a special circuit that helps determine where sounds originate in the space around us. It is one of the fastest circuits in your brain. This circuit is wrapped in myelin, and the thicker the myelin wraps around a nerve, the faster it can communicate. Thinner myelin means slower communication. For the 60 million Americans with central hearing loss, the myelin in their brainstem has deteriorated, causing the circuit to slow down. Klug and Budoff’s solution is called Localized Oligodendrocyte Optimization Therapy (LOOT). It pairs a proprietary sound therapy with a drug that is already FDA approved called clemastine fumarate. The engineered sound therapy drives the neural circuit activity, which enables the drug to re-myelinate these activated neural circuits. LOOT is the first treatment that aims to reverse the neurological root cause of central hearing loss.&nbsp; “The real reason we are going to succeed where no one else could is that Achim has dedicated the last 30 years of his life, to really understanding at a neural level how hearing and noise work,” Budoff said. Collaborating Across Research Areas&nbsp; The ability to collaborate with research colleagues outside one’s own discipline is essential to innovation. Klug explained how he came up with the idea of using clemastine fumarate, a drug that was FDA approved in the 1970s. “When axons demyelinate, they don’t work as well. This is the case in multiple sclerosis (MS) where a patient’s own body attacks the myelin and breaks it down. With MS, individuals have less myelin than they should have. We asked the MS medical community what drugs they have, they suggested clemastine fumarate.”&nbsp; Klug&nbsp;continued that he was not looking for this particular myelination solution. But when he combined what he knew about hearing loss, neuroscience, and MS, the elements of his solution became clear to him.&nbsp;Whether LOOT ultimately succeeds in human trials remains to be seen. Klug's journey, however, demonstrates how funding, collaboration and a supportive research system can help move an idea toward a potential treatment for millions.“We took pieces from everybody’s book and put them together. That is what I really like about this project,”&nbsp;Klug said. “You have to be open to looking at what other people are doing in an unrelated field, seeing what they are finding, and asking if it has implications for you.” *According to Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School.

Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute

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University of Colorado Denver

In 2011, the CCTSI awarded a Pilot Grant to Achim Klug, Ph.D. The grant enabled Klug to collect key data he used to apply for and receive additional funding to develop a solution to central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), a type of hearing loss that affects millions of people. Klug is now leading a clinical trial to test his treatment, and he has launched a company called Parley Neurotech, which has attracted seed funding from investors. Read about all of the elements that have made Klug's innovation possible.

The Elements of Innovation: How a Novel Idea Evolves into a Potential Solution for Hearing Loss that Affects Millions

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Goal #2: Promote partnerships and collaborations

A landmark pediatric eczema prevention study led by Eric L. Simpson, M.D., MCR at Oregon Health &amp; Science University has been recognized as the JAMA Dermatology Editor's Choice: Clinical Trial of 2025 and was selected among the top 13 clinical trials published across the JAMA Network in 2025.The study, "Emollients to Prevent Pediatric Eczema: A Randomized Clinical Trial," found that daily application of moisturizer beginning in early infancy may reduce the development of atopic dermatitis, a common childhood condition associated with substantial health burden and increased risk of allergic disease. The pragmatic, decentralized trial enrolled 1,247 infant-parent dyads through 25 community-based pediatric and family medicine clinics affiliated with four statewide practice-based research networks.The research highlights the value of long-term partnerships between investigators and CTSA-supported infrastructure. For many years, Dr. Simpson has collaborated with the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute (OCTRI), OHSU's CTSA hub, leveraging its biostatistics, informatics, data coordination, and research design expertise to advance clinically relevant studies. OCTRI's Data Coordinating Center and Biostatistics &amp; Design Program played key roles in the trial, while the Oregon Rural Practice-Based Research Network (ORPRN) helped engage community clinical sites and participants.The NIH-funded study demonstrates how CTSA-supported infrastructure and practice-based research networks can successfully conduct large-scale, community-engaged clinical trials that generate evidence with direct implications for patient care. The national recognition from JAMA underscores both the scientific impact of the findings and the importance of sustained investment in translational research partnerships.

Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute

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Oregon Health & Science University

A clinical trial led by Eric L. Simpson, M.D., MCR was selected as JAMA Dermatology's Editor's Choice: Clinical Trial of 2025 and recognized among the top 13 trials published across the JAMA Network. The NIH-funded study, conducted in partnership with OCTRI's Data Coordinating Center, Biostatistics Program, and ORPRN, demonstrated how CTSA-supported infrastructure can enable impactful, community-based research to improve child health.

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