Mike's Blog

During my undergraduate years, we frequently remarked that our intro textbooks were written by Tom, Dick, and Harry. Tom Apostol wrote the intro math text, Dick Feynman wrote the intro physics text, and Harry Gray wrote the intro chemistry text and since those three typically taught those intro courses (using their own texts), it was generally agreed that you could either ‘read the book’ or ‘see the movie’ but that both were not necessary. Along similar lines, the recent NCATS Advisory Council on September 22, 2022 was livestreamed, but allocating a considerable portion of the workday for viewing is not always feasible. You can view the recording (CTSA updates start right about the 1-hour mark) or wait for the slides to be released, but that takes a while due to 508 compliance. Instead, let me offer a synopsis for your perusal (‘read the book’).

NIH Advisory Councils typically have closed and open sessions where the former conducts grant awards business, while the latter is for IC updates and concept clearance. In this last open session Joni Rutter delivered the Center’s Director Update followed by my annual CTSA overview. These presentations were followed by three concept clearances, none of which involved DCI activities. The Director’s update featured comings and goings of NCATS’ staff as well as the intent to appoint Renee Wegrzyn as the inaugural ARPA-H director. Adam Russell, the Acting Deputy Director for ARPA-H has been making the rounds speaking with NIH IC Directors. She also relayed the current FY23 budget status, which a continuing resolution (CR). Interestingly, the current budgets in the House and the Senate have close figures for a generous CTSA budget increase of 3.2% & 3.1% respectively (but don’t count the hubs until they are hatched). Joni provided a whirlwind tour of Center activities including a mention of the upcoming CTSA program annual meeting and N3C (with a request from the White House Office of the COVID Response Coordinator regarding paxlovid outcomes). She also highlighted ACTIV activities, especially the CTSA roles in ACTIV-1 and ACTIV-6 as well as RECOVER.

Next up was the annual CTSA update. For those keeping count, the CTSA Program is now at 63 hubs. To support all these hubs as well as the other activities (HEAL, ACTIV-1, ACTIV-6, N3C, etc.), DCI added nine new staff during the past year. I presented national recognition that CTSA personnel have garnered over the past year and will reprise these for my update at our November meeting. I presented the awards made through our new R03 program as well as for CCIAs (a thin year, due to COVID activity) and sources of funding coming from beyond NCATS, finishing with our first award under C3-R2D2 for consortium-wide activities, ENACT (details forthcoming at an upcoming November Steering Committee meeting). I followed this with examples of current and former KL2 scholars, TL1 trainees and diversity & re-entry scholars. There are no specific criteria for inclusion other than a preference for an eclectic slate (suggestions always welcome). My emphasis on N3C was towards impact, with a slide outlining various policy and clinical guidance documents that reference CTSA research (the government of Finland is reading your manuscripts!). Next up was a smattering of COVID and non-COVID vignettes for individual projects that highlight both the depth and breadth of CTSA activities. Finally, I ended with examples of both CDC and WHO documents referencing CTSA published research and then highlighted an R25-like program targeting underrepresented groups at the high school and college level to support their learning about clinical and translational science.

Overall, the presentation was well received by Council and the discussion that followed focused on capitalizing on the success of N3C and expanding beyond COVID. More to come in the future.

Unexpectedly, this did not kill her; and what did not kill her made her curious.

- Tamsyn Muir, Harrow the Ninth

This Mike's Blog was featured in October 2022's Ansible. Subscribe to receive upcoming Ansible newsletters.