News and Announcements

Dr. Rowland Chang was honored with the Lifetime Champion of Yes Award at the Arthritis Foundation 2024 Freedom of Movement Gala in Chicago.

Read more about this achievement here

Funding the Future: Strategic Priorities from NIH Directors Seminar Series Schedule

Hosted by: IPHAM Center for Epidemiology & Population Health

Join us for a unique opportunity to hear directly from NIH directors about the funding priorities and strategic goals of NIH institutes. This series will provide researchers with valuable insights to align their expertise and research plans with the evolving objectives of these institutes.

Upcoming Seminars

Wednesday, December 4 noon

Shannon N. Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
Director, National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

Please contact Abbey Dahl (abbey.dahl@northwestern.edu) for registration information. 

Please join us on Wednesday, October 23rd at 10:30am EST for the next event in the Collaborative CCCR Speaker Series with presenter Dr. Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine). 

Please contact Abbey Dahl (abbey.dahl@northwestern.edu) for registration information. 

This interactive workshop will feature a 45-minute didactic lecture from Dr. Tandon, followed by a Q&A session, and conclude with a community-engagement small group activity for in-person attendees.

Join Northwestern Medicine to learn more about lupus nephritis, its signs and symptoms, treatments and prognosis. All information will be presented by experts in this area. This event will be Saturday, September 21 from 8:30 am – 1:00 pm

Patients, their family members and caregivers are welcome to attend.

The event will be in Spanish. You will hear from:
Irene Blanco, MD (rheumatologist): Overview of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Luisa Safar Bourei, MD (nephrologist): Overview of Lupus Nephritis
Juan Carlos Caicedo, MD, FACS (transplant surgeon): Benefits of Renal Transplant for Lupus Nephritis Patients
Patient Panel: The Patient Experience With Lupus Nephritis

There is no cost to attend, but you must register. To register, please contact abbey.dahl@northwestern.edu for the information. 

The 2024-25 NUCATS Series on Developing and Enhancing Mentoring Relationships, is a set of monthly 90-minute workshops exclusively for faculty. Registration for each session is made available a month prior. This year, all workshops will be held in-person on the second Thursday of the month from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Dates are listed below:

• October 10, 2024
• November 14, 2024
• December 12, 2024
• January 9, 2025
• February 13, 2025
• March 13, 2025
• April 10, 2025
• May 8, 2025
• June 12, 2025

In addition to the annual offerings of "Establishing and Aligning Expectations," "Cultural Awareness to Enhance Mentoring Across Differences," and "Articulating your Mentoring Philosophy and Plan," sessions will explore "Challenging Mentoring Interactions" and "Mentoring Across Generations."

Further details on the upcoming series will be sent in the coming weeks. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email Morgan Barrowman. Interested in enrolling in the Mentor Training Certificate Program? Visit our website to find out more.

Wearable technologies, created to continuously collect personal health data, automatically gather high-frequency information outside clinical settings. Their popularity in research has generated large-scale time-series datasets. In this lecture Margaret Banker, PhD, assistant professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Biostatistics, will explore the various methods, ranging from conventional to more novel approaches, for analyzing these datasets. As part of the Statistically Speaking lecture series presented by the NUCATS Institute's Biostatistics Collaboration Center, this talk is intended to be educational, introductory, and appeal to a broad audience.

When: Tuesday, February 13, noon

Please contact Abbey Dahl (abbey.dahl@northwestern.edu) for information regarding the location of this event

Join Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center for a two-part interactive workshop. Participants will gain knowledge and actively participate in the multi-step process of crafting a thorough search strategy for systematic and scoping reviews. The workshop will demonstrate effective methods for searching diverse information sources and preparing the necessary documentation for the final manuscript. Faculty, staff, students, and researchers are invited to attend.

Prerequisite Classes and Trainings:

• PubMed
• Conducting a Systematic Review: Part 1 — Planning the Process or Conducting a Scoping Review
• Conducting a Systematic Review: Part 2 — Tools & Resources (also applicable to scoping reviews)
• Topic Searching in PubMed: Using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Register for the Two-Part Interactive Workshop:

• Conducting Systematic and Scoping Reviews: Search Development and Documentation — Part 1, Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 12-1 p.m. via Zoom. Registration required
• Conducting Systematic and Scoping Reviews: Search Development and Documentation — Part 2, Wednesday, April 12, 2024, 12-1 p.m. via Zoom. Registration required

Kristi Holmes, PhD, professor of Preventive Medicine, director of Northwestern’s Galter Health Sciences Library and chief of knowledge management for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (I.AIM), has been named the new associate dean for knowledge management and strategy at Feinberg.

In her new role, Holmes will direct the development of new infrastructure and guidelines to support the sharing of knowledge within Feinberg to accelerate research and discovery.

Read More Here

Effective May 8, 2023, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) will withdraw from the NIH Parent R21 Exploratory/Developmental Grant funding opportunities, including:

• PA-20-195: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-194: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)

Instead, NIAMS has issued the following Notice of Special Interest (NOSI), to support innovative projects that introduce novel scientific ideas, model systems, tools, agents, targets, and technologies that have the potential for significant impact, and to substantially advance research within the NIAMS core mission. 

• NOT-AR-23-006: NOSI: Supporting Exploratory/Developmental Research Focused on NIAMS Core Mission Areas

NIAMS will not accept any applications (new or resubmission) in response to the parent R21 funding opportunities after May 7, 2023, without referencing an appropriate NIAMS NOSI. Applications for non-clinical trial, or mechanistic clinical trial Exploratory/Developmental Research within the NIAMS core mission areas should reference the R21 NOSI NOT-AR-23-006.

Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to consult NIAMS program staff for their specific research area of interest to assess the relevance of their application topic.

View the full list at NIAMS Funding Opportunities.  

The NUCATS Translational Science Pilot Awards program is seeking proposals for highly innovative, multi-disciplinary pilot projects that will advance Translational Science and are aligned with one of two priority areas: Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) or Dissemination and Implementation (D&I). This funding mechanism combines, replaces, and builds on the two prior NUCATS pilot funding mechanisms: Clinical and Translational Pilot Awards and Dissemination and Implementation Pilot Awards. Proposals may request funding for CTR, D&I, or hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies that encompass both CTR and D&I.

• Maximum award amount: $30,000
• Pre-application Letter of Intent deadline: May 12, 2023, by 5 p.m. CST
• View the RFA

If you would like additional information on this or other NUCATS funding mechanisms, please email NUCATS-funding@northwestern.edu.

The NUCATS Voucher Award program is designed to assist investigators in developing resources and/or preliminary data to facilitate hypothesis-driven research initiatives. The fund is intended for projects involving critical steps in the device and drug development pathway and projects that address a critical need in translational science that are too small to be suitable for conventional internal or external funding mechanisms. Proposals that address a specific translational barrier and have a high probability of external federal funding if the barrier is addressed are most likely to receive funding.

• Voucher Award Amount: Up to $2,500
• Submission Deadline: Voucher applications are accepted on a rolling basis

Details about the Voucher Award program — including funding priorities, eligibility criteria, program expectations, and allowable expenses — are available on the NUCATS website. Funding decisions are typically communicated to applicants within five business days.

The Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC)/Northwestern University Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), in partnership with Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) announces the recipients of our 1st cycle of 2023 seed grants that support the development and capacity of community-driven partnerships to improve health equity.  

Requests for Applications for all 3 types of ARCC Seed Grants are now open!

Community Research Capacity-Building Grants ($2500, 6 months) and Partnership Development Seed Grants ($5,000, 12 months) Cycle 2

Research Pilot Seed Grants (Up to $27,500, 24 months)

• Eric Ruderman was selected to serve as a member of the working group for the new joint ACR/RRF precision medicine initiative.
• Nan Rothrock’s publication was selected as a 2020 Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes Outstanding Article of the Year Finalist.
  
  • Rothrock, NE, Amtmann, D, & Cook, KF. (2020) Development and validation of an interpretive guide for PROMIS scores. Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes, 4, 16.
• Arthur Mandelin served as the Twitter Ambassador for the Ultrasound Community Hub at the 2021 ACR Convergence meeting.
• Linda Van Horn was selected to serve on the Advisory Committee for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Bonnie Spring was honored with the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Distinguished Scientist Award.
• Hassan Ghomrawi was selected as a panel member for the 2023 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) Guideline: Indications for Total Hip and Knee Replacement.