The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health presented UB a five-year $21.7 million award renewal for increasing community involvement in clinical research on Feb. 10.
The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) aims to help UB researchers, clinicians and their partners research disease treatments and reduce health disparities, with the primary goal of involving more Western New Yorkers in clinical research trials.
UB initially received the award in 2015 and was granted the renewal because of the success of the first grant. The number of Western New Yorkers involved in clinical research in Buffalo tripled from 2015-18, according to Dr. Michael Cain, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
With the grant, UB hopes to increase community engagement, create community engagement studios and develop and implement electronic health records, according to Dr. Timothy Murphy, director of UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
“These new approaches will involve data-driven methods and valuable community partnerships,” Murphy said. “We will develop innovative ways to recruit people in our community to participate in clinical research, which goes hand-in-hand with better healthcare.”
Margarita Dubocovich, SUNY Distinguished Professor and senior associate dean for inclusion and diversity, will lead an associated mentoring grant which is included in the CTSA grant. Through this, Dubocovich will train clinical and translational science students to become independent researchers and leaders in their fields.
These initiatives help push JSMBS toward its goal to better the Buffalo community’s health and involvement in the school’s research, Murphy said.
“Our overall goal is to perform clinical and translational research to improve the health of our community,” Murphy said.
Reilly Mullen is the asst. news editor and can be reached at reilly.mullen@ubspectrum.com or on Twitter @ReillyMMullen.
Reilly Mullen is the editor-in-chief at The Spectrum. She is a senior majoring in political science with a journalism certificate. She enjoys Dunkin’ iced lattes and Scrabble. A former web, features, news and managing editor, she is a columnist at heart but has covered everything from UB Football to breaking news.
