Recently in Community Engagement Category

By receiving the Clinical and Translational Science Award, the University of Minnesota is now required by NCATS and NIH to ensure an acknowledgment of the CTSA in any publications that result from UMN CTSI assistance with a project.

How to acknowledge CTSA support
All publications resulting from the use of CTSI resources are required to credit CTSA by using the text below.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health Award Number UL1TR000114. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

When to acknowledge CTSA support
Please note that assistance is not limited to monetary support (e.g., pilot grant funds), but also includes use of CTSI space, consultation with CTSI faculty or staff, and use of any CTSI Internal Service Organization services (Project Management, Clinical Research Coordinators, Nursing and Nutritional Services, Biostatistical support, and Regulatory assistance such as IND/IDE support, clinical trial monitoring, or ClinicalTrials.gov support).

The University of Minnesota and the University of California - Los Angeles Clinical and Translational Science Institutes have teamed up to support three new pilot projects that address health disparities and health systems problems in Minnesota and southern California.

The Cross-Institutional Award for Health Disparities Research and Health Systems Change funds research where community-based organizations participate fully with faculty in the research process, and projects include co-Principal Investigators from both UMN and UCLA.

Please join us in congratulating the recipients of this inaugural round of funding!

• William Riley, UMN, for the HIE Use project with Hector Rodriguez and Jeffrey McCullough, UCLA
• Joshua Chodosh, UCLA, for the Alzheimer's Disease project with Joseph Gaugler, UMN
• Robert Jones, UMN, for the Dental Caries/Obesity project with Francisco Ramos-Gomez, UCLA

Medical School Assistant Professor Aaron Kelly, PhD, and Jennifer Abuzzahab, MD, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, received a Community Collaborative Grant from CTSI in 2010 to study the effects of the drug exenatide on extreme pediatric obesity. On Monday, February 4, the encouraging results of that study were published online in JAMA Pediatrics. 

Exenatide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist currently approved for adults with type 2 diabetes. Dr. Kelly and his team conducted a three-month, placebo-controlled trial followed by a three-month open-label extension where medication was offered to all participants. 22 individuals between 12 and 19 years of age completed the trial. Participants who received exenatide experienced a greater reduction in BMI compared with placebo (-2.7 percent), and a further reduction in BMI during the open-label period (cumulative reduction of 4 percent). The team also observed a reduction, though not statistically significant, in systolic blood pressure. 

The authors conclude that "...data from the current study provide evidence that GLP-1 receptor agonist treatment reduces BMI and elicits a potentially meaningful reduction in SPB in adolescents with severe obesity." Kelly's team collaborated with Kyle Rudser, PhD, of the CTSI Biostatistical Design and Analysis Center to complete the analysis and interpretation of the data; Rudser is also an author of the JAMA Pediatrics article. 

The CTSI Community Collaborative Grants are meant to generate pilot data for further research and funding. The authors discussed future directions for this line of research, concluding that future clinical trials should be conducted over a longer duration and should look at other health outcomes, beyond BMI and systolic blood pressure. The study was covered by Reuters and U.S. News and World Report, among others.

We would like to congratulate the individuals from the 11 organizations that participated in the inaugural cycle of the Community Research Institute! Everyone who participated received a certificate and was recognized for all of their hard work. The following is a list of organizations that participated in this year's institute.

ACER
Becker County Human Services
Canvas Health
Capernaum Pediatric Therapy Inc
Children's Defense Fund
Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES)
Family Tree Clinic
Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota
Minnesota Department of Education
Minnesota AIDS Project
SoLaHmo Partnership for Health and Wellness

The CRI is a 6 week workshop series aimed at enhancing the capacity of community organizations to partner and conduct health related research. Participants develop their skills in relevant research methodologies, develop an understanding of appropriate resources available to assist them with carrying out health research, apply these skills and knowledge to a real-world project, and network with other community-based and university-based researchers.To learn more about upcoming cycles of the CRI, please contact ctsi@umn.edu.

On Tuesday, September 11, 56 University of Minnesota scholars and community partners presented their clinical and translational research projects in a poster session, which opened the first annual Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Research Conference. 

Posters were judged on the presenters' translation plans, including next steps, barriers to translation, and how the the project will contribute to improving human health. 

Top posters in each category were chosen for travel awards of up to $1200 to attend a national conference to present their CTSI-sponsored research.

Please join us in congratulating the 2012 CTSI travel award recipients!

Community Pilot Grant
Erica Gerrity
Submitted by: Rebecca Schlafer, Dept of Pediatrics.
Project Title: Health disparities in the context of a parenting and pregnancy support program for incarcerated mothers

Undergraduate Research Program (URP)
Nguyen-Tran, Hai
Training Program: CHE - Undergraduate Research Program
Area of Research: Women's Health; Health Disparities
Mentor: Rahel Ghebre
Project Title: Comparison of Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening Among Somali and Vietnamese Women

Truong, Uyen
Training Program: CTSI - Undergraduate Summer Research Program
Area of Research: Hematology, Pulmonary
Mentors: Anna Solovey; Robert Hebbel
Project Title: Analysis of muscularized pulmonary arteries due to pulmonary arterial hypertension in Sickle Cell Disease

Radtke, Kendra
Training Program: CTSI - Undergraduate Research Program
Area of Research: Pharmacology
Mentor: James Cloyd
Project Title: Glutathione Redox Status in Blood of cALD Patients Undergoing Hematopoetic Stem Cell Transplantation with NAC Adjuvant Therapy

Konchellah, Mercy
Training Program: Center for Health Equity Undergraduate Scholar
Area of Research: Addiction, Behavioral Sciences
Mentors: Jasjit S. Ahluwalia
Project Title: Are there Differences in Frequency of Smoking, Alcohol Consumption and Intent to Quit among Social Nondaily Smokers and "Other" Nondaily Smokers?

Advanced Research Program (ARP)
Aby, Elizabeth
Training Program: CTSI - Advanced Summer Research Program
Mentors: Jerrold Vitek; Diane Kachel
Area of Research: Neurology
Project Title: Evaluation of Clinician vs Automated ParkinTune™ Motor Score Assessments for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) Programming in Patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD)

Agarwal, Suresh
Training Program: CTSI - Advanced Summer Research Program
Area of Research: Pharmacology, Neurology
Mentors: James Cloyd; Richard Brundage
Project Title: A Meta-Analysis of the Absorption Characteristics of Diazepam Following Alternative Routes of Administration to Optimize Future Bioequivalence Trial Design

Parker, Sarah
Training Program: CTSI Advanced Research Program
Mentor: Bruce Blazar
Project Title: Potential of Deriving iPS from Peripheral Blood T Cells using Retroviral Approach

F&T Pilot Grant Program
Frosch, Anne
Training Program: CTSI-F&T Pilot Grant
Area of Research: Infectious Disease, Immunology
Mentor: Chandy John
Project Title: The effect of HIV on malaria specific B-cell responses

Pre-K Pilot Grant and KL2 Scholars Program combined category
Bhargava, Maneesh
Training Program: CTSI KL2 Scholars Program
Area of Research: Biomarker Discovery in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Mentor: Chris Wendt
Project Title: Proteomic Biomarkers of Survival in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Clark, Cari
Training Program: KL2 Scholar
Area of Research: Epidemiology, Child Health and Development
Mentors: Michael Resnick; Susan Everson-Rose; John Connett; Iris Borowsky; Robert Krueger
Project Title: Dating Violence and its Association with Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Adulthood

Gillick, Bernadette
Training Program: CTSI Pre-K Scholar, CTSI BDAC Pilot Funding, MMF
Area of Research: Neurosciences, Pediatrics
Mentors: Kelvin Lim, Jeremiah Menk
Project Title: Safety of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Pediatric Hemiparesis

K2R and R2R Pilot Grant Program combined category
Cormier, Robert
Training Program: CTSI R01 to R01 Pilot Grant
Areas of Research: Cancer, Oncology
Co-Investigator: Kevin Silverstein
Project Title: Discovery of Fusion Oncogenes in Colorectal Cancer

Ostrander, Julie H
Training Program: CTSI - K to R transition award
Area of Research: Cancer
Mentors: Doug Yee, Chap Le
Project Title: PELP1 localization as a Biomarker for Early Mammary Carcinogenesis and Response to Tamoxifen Chemoprevention

Polgreen, Lynda
Training Program: CTSI K to R
Area of Research: metabolic bone disease
Mentor: Chester Whitley, Ph.D., M.D.
Project Title: Cross-Sectional Study of Associations of Osteocalcin with Obesity, Adipokines and Inflammation in the Mucopolysaccharidoses