UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) is part of a national Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) consortium, led by the
National Institutes of Health
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Established in 2010, ACTRI provides infrastructure and support for basic, translational and clinical research throughout the San Diego region to bring discoveries from the laboratory to the bedside, and facilitates training and education of the next generation of researchers. ACTRI carries out its activities in collaboration with institutional and corporate partners and currently has more than 1,400 members. The ACTRI News and Funding Opportunities is a monthly newsletter.
ACTRI Special Announcements
SEATS LIMITED! Register Now!
ACTRI Translational Science Symposium: Emerging Issues and Solutions in Infectious Disease
Thursday, April 5, 2018 UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) invites researchers and research staff to the ACTRI Translational Science Symposium: Emerging Issues and Solutions in Infectious Disease on Thursday, April 5, 2018, from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Auditorium at the ACTRI Building. Former FDA commissioner Robert Califf, MD, will present the keynote talk, “The Role of ‘Real World Evidence’ and Big Data in Development and Assessment of Therapies,” from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Prior to Dr. Califf’s talk, research highlights will be presented from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. by the following ACTRI-supported researchers: Aaron Carlin, MD, PhD, Department of Medicine, “Deconvolution of Anti-host and Anti-viral Genomic Responses in Zika Virus-infected and Bystander Human Macrophages”; Jeanne Huang, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, “Improving Pediatric Hepatitis B Screening in High-Risk San Diego Communities”; Frank Talke, PhD, Jacobs School of Engineering, and Thomas Savides, MD, Chief Experience Officer, UC San Diego Health, Division of Gastroenterology, “Disposable, 3-D Printable Endoscope”; and Gabriel Wagner, MD, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, “HIV-1 Dual Infection and Neurocognitive Impairment.” In addition, the Daniel T. O’Connor Memorial Award will be presented to 2018 ACTRI pilot project recipient Kevin King, MD, PhD, Division of Cardiology and Department of Bioengineering.
Registration and more details.
 ACTRI Announces Kevin King as Recipient of the 2018 Daniel T. O’Connor Memorial Award UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) announces Kevin King, MD, PhD, as the recipient of the 2018 Daniel T. O’Connor Memorial Award. The O’Connor award provides an additional $5,000 to the top-ranked ACTRI 2018 pilot project recipient. King received a 2018 pilot project award from the ACTRI to support his study, “Clinical Pilot of Single Cell Analysis during Human Cardiac Ischemia and Infarction.” The O’Connor award will be presented to Dr. King on April 5 during the ACTRI Translational Science Symposium at the ACTRI Building. “We are delighted to recognize Dr. King with this special award created in memory of Dr. Daniel T. O’Connor, an outstanding UCSD researcher who always provided support to young investigators,” said Murray Stein, MD, MPH, who oversaw the selection of the O’Connor Award recipient. “Dr. King, a cardiologist, is studying heart disease using a single cell resolution technique that could have broad implications for a wide number of diseases. His pilot project embodies the research spirit of Dr. O’Connor.”
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Funding Opportunities
NEW
ACTRI and IEM Invite Engineering Applications for 2018 Galvanizing Engineering in Medicine (GEM) Awards
Deadline: April 16, 2018, 5pm PST
ACTRI Seeks Proposals for Administrative Supplements
ACTRI Vouchers for ACTRI Research Services (In-kind)
NCATS Open Funding Opportunities
ACTRI News and Features
Accentuate the Positive:
With ACTRI Support Charles Taylor Explores Positive Emotion Strategies to Treat Anxiety and Depression Performing an act of kindness may be good for your health. So could the sweet anticipation of a reward and keeping a journal of things for which you are grateful. Results from a pilot study conducted by Charles Taylor, PhD, and supported by ACTRI, indicate that doing good deeds and finding the positive in daily life can actually make one happier. Taylor, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, examined the effects of interventions to increase positive emotions in people with anxiety and depression. The study, which integrates neuroscience with clinical psychiatry, also evaluated their neural responses to rewards. “We asked people to keep a gratitude journal. People who are anxious and depressed tend to focus on negative things. The journal helped them shift to positive things they had in their lives,” Taylor said. Another intervention encouraged participants to do up to five acts of kindness in one day such as holding the door for someone or bringing a co-worker his or her favorite cup of coffee or tea. Taylor’s findings were published last year in the journal
Depression and Anxiety and led to a two-year $1M National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant with the potential to receive additional funding.
Read more
ACTRI Announces 2018 Pilot Project Awardees UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) announces the selection of 14 Pilot Project grant awardees for 2018. Pilot Project grants are one-year competitive cash awards for researchers to obtain preliminary data. Thirteen 2018 awardees are from UC San Diego and represent seven departments, and one is from San Diego State University in the department of psychology. Recipients were awarded in the categories of clinical and translational research and, for the first time, two were selected in the category of life course research. “We were struck by the depth and diversity of the proposals we received and are very pleased to announce this year’s awardees,” said Murray Stein, MD, MPH, director of the ACTRI Pilot Project Program. “The projects funded are delving into intriguing areas of research that will investigate, for example, how to mitigate weight gain side effects of antipsychotic drugs, as well as treatment to improve white matter development in fetal alcohol syndrome disorders.” Stein oversaw the selection committee for the projects. The recipients of the 2018 ACTRI pilot project awards are: Andrew Barleben, MD, MPH; Rafael Bejar, MD, PhD; Leslie Crews, PhD; Soumita Das, PhD; Adam DeConde, MD; Paul Kim, MD, FACC; Kevin King, MD, PhD (winner of the 2018 Daniel T. O’Connor Memorial Award); Eileen Moore, PhD; Tanya Nguyen, PhD; Olivia Osborn, PhD; Matthew Panizzon, PhD; Bryan Sun, MD, PhD; Niels Vande Casteele, PhD; and Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD. Dr. Moore is from San Diego State University, all other recipients are from UC San Diego.
Read more and view the 2018 project titles and categories, as well as recipient departments. |
   
In This Issue
Upcoming Seminars
 ACTRI Seminar Series
Twins in Space: Omics Studies from NASA's One-Year Mission
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
2 p.m.
Leichtag Building, Room 107 Presented by:
Brinda K. Rana, PhD
Associate (Adj) Professor
Department of Psychiatry and UC San Diego Center for Healthy Aging
Read more
ACTRI Co-Hosts 2018 SoCal Dissemination, Implementation & Improvement Science Symposium
Creating Learning Health and Population Health Systems
Thursday, June 28, 2018
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The California Endowment, downtown Los Angeles
Read more, register and learn about submitting poster abstracts
ACTRI-Supported Ethics Forum
Developing Better Batteries: It’s Not Just About the Science
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Fleet Science Center
Balboa Park, San Diego Presented by:
Ying Shirley Meng, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Nano Engineering
UC San Diego
Read more
ACTRI Co-Sponsors Dissemination and Implementation Research Summit
April 25-26, 2018
UC San Diego
Registration
? ? ? ? Are You Interested in Participating in a Seminar & Roundtable Discussion with Dr. Neal Halfon Hosted by the ACTRI Center for Life Course Research? The ACTRI Center for Life Course Research is planning a special seminar and roundtable discussion with Dr. Neal Halfon, director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities. Seminar attendees will have the opportunity, in a roundtable forum, to discuss with Dr. Halfon their individual research projects, opportunities for collaboration, as well as life course research methodology and applications. We are planning to hold this event in April or May, 2018. If you or anyone from your group is interested in attending or learning more about the event, please email
Gretchen Bandoli to receive further about information event details as they are finalized.
Cite the Grant
 Don’t forget to cite the grant! To help ensure resources are available for future research,
please cite the UCSD ACTRI CTSA grant. Projects and Publications using UCSD ACTRI resources must cite the UCSD ACTRI grant and follow the NIH Public Access Policy.
ACTRI News and Funding Opportunities
Gary S. Firestein, MD
Director of ACTRI
Eric Mah
Chief Administrative Officer
Patricia Wieser
Communications Director
Tracy Dezenzo
Graphic Designer |