In this newsletter: Research and collaboration, gender equity initiative, Colorado-Zimbabwe exchange program, funding opportunities, etc.
Friends and Colleagues,                                                 
Colleagues,

Last Friday I attended our annual Department of Medicine Research Day, which began with updates from the five initiatives supported by the School of Medicine Transformational Research Funding program: Data-Driven Discovery and Decisions (D4; formerly PIVOT/DaSH), the GI & Liver Innate Immune Program (GALIIP), the Human Immunology & Immunotherapy Initiative (HI³), the RNA Bioscience Initiative (RBI) and the Consortium for Fibrosis Research & Translation (CFReT). These five programs will help position CU and the School of Medicine as a top academic medical center, and are developing tools and services that will be useful to basic, translational and clinical researchers across the campus; I encourage you to connect with these programs to identify opportunities to collaborate.

The Research Day keynote addresses were delivered by Dr. Charles Dinarello (Division of Infectious Diseases), whose story is a terrific example of a focused, decades-long research program that has made a significant clinical impact, and Dr. Kathleen Barnes (Head, Division of Biomedical Informatics and Personalized Medicine), who provided an update on the progress of the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine. Following a poster session, four top research abstracts were presented; I want to congratulate Leon Zheng (CU med student), Becky Trinh, MD (CU surgery resident), Widian Jubair, MD/MS (Rheumatology fellow) and Traci Lyons, PhD (Assistant Professor, Medical Oncology) on their high-quality research; please review the submitted abstracts to learn more about the innovative work being done by our students, residents, fellows and early-career faculty.

I’d like to encourage all faculty to take advantage of the programs available through the DOM to support your career development. Early-career faculty engaged in research or innovative clinical or educational program development are invited to apply for the DOM Outstanding Early-Career Scholars Program (OECSP) by January 1, 2017. Established investigators are eligible to receive support through our Research-Intensive Faculty Program and our Research Bridge Program (applications due December 1, 2016). Finally, the DOM has made a substantial financial commitment to recruit 8-10 outstanding interdisciplinary researchers over the next few years to catalyze new collaborations bridging scientific/clinical disciplines within the DOM and broader CU Anschutz research community.

The research (clinical, translational and basic science) performed by our faculty members is crucial to our success as a department, and I am committed to continuing to invest in our research mission.

David A. Schwartz, MD
Robert W. Schrier Chair of Medicine
Fall 2016   
at a glance...
Spotlight: Patient Care
Stopping rheumatoid arthritis (RA) before it starts should be the goal of clinicians, said Kevin Deane, MD, PhD. To that end, Deane and colleagues have started StopRA. That stands for “Strategy for the Prevention of Onset of Clinically-Apparent RA,” and Deane, a University of Colorado School of Medicine rheumatologist, and his colleagues have been working for a decade to make America’s first-ever RA prevention trial happen. 
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Spotlight: Research
Researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus have conducted the largest ever genome sequencing of populations with African ancestry in the Americas. The scientists, for the first time, have created a massive genetic catalog of the African diaspora in this hemisphere. It offers a unique window into the striking genetic variety of the population while opening the door to new ways of understanding and treating diseases specific to this group.
Spotlight: Community
The Department of Medicine has enjoyed longstanding ties to the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences (UZCHS), and this new program – the Colorado-Zimbabwe International Exchange (CoZIE) – further strengthens the collaboration. CoZIE launched its first exchange during the past academic year, sending five faculty members and three internal medicine residents from CU Anschutz, while receiving one faculty member and two residents from Zimbabwe. 
Funding Opportunities
DOM Research Bridge Program - December 1, 2016 / July 1, 2017
DOM program providing support to PI's during re-application for federal funding.

DOM Outstanding Early Career Scholar Program - January 1, 2017
DOM early investment in creative and talented faculty to help accelerate their careers.

DOM Sabbatical Support Program - March 1, 2017 / September 1, 2017
Provides additional sabbatical support on a competitive basis to DOM faculty approved thru the SOM sabbatical program.

DOM Health Services Research Development Grant - October 1, 2017
Research and training support for fellows or instructor-level junior faculty members in the DOM who are pursuing a career in health services research.

DOM Team Science Program - October 1, 2017
Funding for projects promoting interdisciplinary work within the DOM, with the anticipated outcome a programmatic or multi-PI grant.

Program supporting medical education research, innovative program development in education, salary support and/or career development of DOM clinician-educators.

Other funding resources:
CU Office of Research Development & Education
GrantAdvisor.com Health-Related Grant Deadlines
DOM Resources: Strategic Initiative on Gender Equity
This fall, the Department of Medicine began formulating a Strategic Initiative on Gender Equity, designed to identify and jump-start initiatives to support gender equity at all levels throughout the department. To lead this initiative, department chair David A. Schwartz, MD approached Margaret Wierman, MD, a professor in the department's Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes and a past president of Women in Endocrinology, an organization devoted to promoting the professional development and advancement of women in the field of endocrinology.

" I'm committed to our department being one of the best in the country, and we can't get there without getting this right," says Wierman. "This is an area where we can be a leader."

Faculty Highlights
Cardiology - Colleen McIlvennan received the National Magnet Nurse of the Year-Empirical Outcomes in front of nearly 10,000 conference attendees in Orlando Florida earlier this month. 

Endocrinology - Edward Melanson will receive an R01, “The impact of estrogen status on the biological function of brown adipose tissue in women measured using quantitative PET/CT." Sarah Mayson, MD was accepted into the Clinical Leadership Development Program.

Geriatrics - Rebecca Boxer will receive an R21, “Reducing Sedentary Time in Patients with Heart Failure.” Hillary Lum will receive a K76 award, “Refining an Advance Care Planning Group Visit Intervention – a novel intervention to engage older adults in advance care planning.” Kathleen Gavin will receive a K01 grant, “Sex differences in adipogenic potential of adipose tissue myeloid cells in humans.” Dan Matlock and Carey Candrian (GIM) received a Colorado Health Foundation grant, “The Development, Piloting, and Implementation of an Advance Care Planning Volunteer Certification Program.”

GIM - Jacinda Nicklas will receive an NHLBI K23 award, “Iterative development and pilot testing of a mobile health intervention to increase postpartum weight loss in women at increased risk for cardiometabolic disease.” Christine Jones received a K08 award, “Improving Care Coordination Between Clinicians to Optimize Care Transitions to Home Health Care. Carey Candrian and Dan Matlock (Geriatrics) received a Colorado Health Foundation grant, “The Development, Piloting, and Implementation of an Advance Care Planning Volunteer Certification Program.” Stacy Fischer received a Colorado Health Foundation grant, “A Multifaceted Approach to Improving Advanced Care Planning in a  Healthcare System and Community.” Jean Kutner was included on an R01 award, “Cancer Caregivers interactions with the Hospice team:  Implications for end of life and bereavement outcomes. Ethan Cumbler has been named to a three year term as Program Director for the Research/Innovation/Vignette competition for the national Society for Hospital Medicine. 

HCPR - A team led by Heidi Wald received a CDC award to develop mobile clinical decision support for nursing homes.
 

Medical Oncology - Virginia Borges and Elena Shagisultanova have received a $1.4M Aspire Award, “Phase IB/II Open-Label Single Arm Study to Evaluate Safety and Efficacy of ONT-380 in Combination with Palbociclib and Letrozole in Patients with Hormone Receptor Positive and HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer.” Traci Lyons received the American Cancer Society’s Research Scholar Grant, an R01-tpe grant providing four years of funding (“Investigating the role(s) of Sem7a in breast tumor progression.”) John Tentler has been awarded an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant with co-PI Jennifer Richer (Department of Pathology).

Pulmonary - Marc Moss (with collaborator Meredith Mealer) received an R34 award, “A Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Resiliency Program for Critical Care Nurses.” Ellen Burnham recently received funding from The Thoracic Foundation to study the effects of inhaled cannabis on lung health. David Schwartz has been named an awardee of the Champion of Environmental Health Research Award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

Renal - Moshe Levi received an R01, “Role of FXR and TGR5 in Age Related Renal Diseases.” Jessica Kendrick will receive an R56 award, “Bicarbonate Administration in CKD.” Charles Edelstein will receive DOD funding for his proposal, “Novel mTORC1 and 2 Signaling Pathways in Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD).” Michel Chonchol received funding under an R01 subcontract, “Novel Diagnostics and Therapeutic Targets for Calcification in CKD.”

Rheumatology - Kristine Kuhn was appointed to the American College of Rheumatology Committee on Research.

Featured Publications

Anthony Elias, MD et al. PICASSO III: A Phase III, Placebo-Controlled Study of Doxorubicin With or Without Palifosfamide in Patients With Metastatic Soft Tissue Sarcoma. J Clin Oncol. 2016 Sep 12.

Aryeh Fischer, MD; Jeffrey Swigris, DO; Richard Meehan, MD et al. Mycophenolate mofetil versus oral cyclophosphamide in scleroderma-related interstitial lung disease (SLS II): a randomised controlled, double-blind, parallel group trial. Lancet Respir Med. 2016 Sep;4(9):708-19.

Gregory Everson, MD. Waiting for "The Liver" - No Longer? J Hepatol. 2016 Sep;65(3):467-9.

View all September 2016 publications submitted by DOM faculty.

Featured publications are selected by journal impact factor, from among the recent publications submitted by DOM faculty members. To submit your own recent publication, email Kelly Redard with the link or PMID. Selected publications are also featured outside the DOM administration suite (AO1, 8th floor). 
Featured Event:
Joseph M. Vinetz, MD (DOM Grand Rounds, 11/2)

Dr. Vinetz is a Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine at UC San Diego, and is certified by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Tropical Medicine and Traveler’s Health. He is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.

The overall theme of Dr. Vinetz’ research program in tropical infectious diseases is to bring fundamental laboratory-based research to the field, and (vice-versa) to learn fundamental aspects of infectious disease pathogenesis from patients in the field setting. His laboratory currently focuses on two diseases: malaria and leptospirosis, with both laboratory- and field-based activities. He carries out NIH-funded research activities in Peru.


Did You Know?

A poster session at the DOM Research Day event highlighted research being performed in the department by students, residents, fellows and faculty - review the abstracts below: 
Contact Us

Chair:

David A. Schwartz, MD

Contact:

Kelly Redard, Executive Assistant
kelly.redard@ucdenver.edu
ph: 303-724-8996

Department of Medicine
CU Anschutz Medical Campus

Academic Office 1, 8th Floor
12361 E. 17th Ave.
Campus Box B178
Aurora, CO 80045


ph: (303) 724-1785
fax: (303) 724-1799

medschool.ucdenver.edu/dom

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