BU CTSI Funds Four Mini Sabbaticals
Anna Belkina, MD, PhD
Dr. Belkina will use the mini-sabbatical funds to support her advanced training in high-parameter imaging data analysis at the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Facility (FCCIF) at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Reza Jafarzadeh, DVM, MPVM, PhD
Dr. Jafarzadeh will use his award to go to UC Berkeley for Targeted Learning which is a novel causal inference methodology that can use observational data to simulate a randomized trial to address complex hypotheses involving time-varying interventions or optimize interventions to develop Individualized Treatment Regimens.
Deborah Lang, PhD
Dr. Lang's sabbatical opportunity will be invested at the University of Iowa learning the cistrome analysis technique, Cleavage Under Targets and Release Using Nuclease (CUT&RUN), an innovative advancement on the non-biased screen for a genomic enhancer method known as ChIP-seq (next generation sequencing chromatin immunoprecipitation).
Phillip Desrochers, PhD
Dr. Desrochers will use the mini-sabbatical funds to support two one-week visits to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Where, he will develop a task utilizing wearable sensor technology that will evaluate how people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) make online corrections during lower limb movements when faced with obstacles in their environment.  
COVID-19 Related Research Funding Opportunities

Select Research Areas for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) & (COVID-19)

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ( NIAID )


Availability of Administrative Supplements & Urgent Competitive Revisions to NCCIH Grants for Natural Product Research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) & (COVID-19)

Office of Research on Women’s Health ( ORWH )


Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH ECHO Cooperative Agreements (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) for (COVID-19) – related Research

Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health ( OD )

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) call for proposals will support the rapid development of vaccines, with the goal of securing licensure /emergency authorization in twelve to eighteen months or less and ensure the availability of sufficient doses for widespread global deployment as quickly as possible.

Amazon Web S ervices developed the program to provide support for innovations in rapid and accurate patient testing for 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), as well as diagnostic solutions with the potential to mitigate future outbreaks.  

Through  COVID-19 Detect and Protect Challenge program, hardware and software developers, product designers, scientists, hackers, makers, and innovators are encouraged to come together to develop an easy-to-replicate, low-cost, open-source solutions to the detection of and/or protection against COVID-19 in developing countries.
News Highlights
Gathering Big Data to
Accelerate the COVID-19 Fight
A nationwide collaboration of clinicians, informaticians,and biomedical
researchers aims to turn data from hundreds of thousands of medical records from coronavirus patients into effective treatments and predictive analytical tools.

NIH-Funded Study to Investigate Pregnancy Outcomes Resulting from COVID-19 Pandemic
The National Institutes of Health has launched a multipronged study to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic during and after pregnancy

Peer-Reviewed Data Shows
Remdesivir for COVID-19 Improves Time to Recovery
Investigators found that remdesivir was most beneficial for hospitalized patients with severe disease who required supplemental oxygen.

Upcoming Events
NCATS Online Course in Translational Science - June 15, 2020 - July 31, 2020

NCATS' Education Branch, in partnership with the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, is offering a seven-week online course on the principles of preclinical translational science.

Boston University Clinical & Translational Science Institute
Accelerating Discoveries Towards Better Health 
b u.edu/ctsi | ncats.nih.gov