Two University of Michigan nurses are helping develop a comprehensive certification for Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) clinicians. A VAD is a life-sustaining technology for severe heart failure patients. The first-of-its-kind VAD certification will be a comprehensive exam that goes beyond how to work the device, delving into the specific skills and expertise nurses need to best care for a VAD patient.

Caty Johnson, RN, and Stacy Haverstick, RN, began working together as part of the world-renowned VAD team at the University of Michigan, one of the first VAD programs in the United States. As highly experienced nurses, they recognized the need for more thorough VAD training to provide impeccable patient care and help patient quality of life.

Have a hot concept in the realm of biomedical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, or digital health/IT that would be a great candidate for commercialization?

MTRAC Awards are part of the MTRAC for Life Sciences Innovation Hub. Made possible by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and co-managed by Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI) and the U-M Office of Technology Transfer, the awards provide mid-stage, translational research funding and resources for proof-of-concept and late-stage translational studies with a high potential for commercial success.

Innovators from all schools at the University of Michigan, other institutions of higher education, non-profit research centers, and hospital systems across Michigan are eligible to submit projects for funding consideration. MTRAC Awards provide one year of funding up to $150K per project, with cost-sharing required.

Questions? Contact Bradley Martin, Ph.D., Director, Fast Forward Medical Innovation, at bradmart@umich.edu.

The U-M Therapeutic Innovation Fund, offered by the Michigan Center for Therapeutic Innovation (MCTI) and Fast Forward Medical Innovation, is a five-year, $2.5 million fund created to accelerate the discovery and translation of therapeutic candidates at the University of Michigan.

The fund supports the discovery and optimization of small molecule lead compounds for projects with a specific, novel, and testable drug discovery hypothesis. Selected projects receive funding and resources to support medicinal chemistry efforts through MCTI and funding for drug design, assay development, cell biology, structural biology, and pharmacology (up to $150,000 in value for each award for a period of 18 months, with the funds being disbursed in two stages). The fund is jointly administered by MCTI and FFMI.

FFMI fastPACE is a four-week biomedical and commercialization course designed to help participants prepare a successful business case for funding and development partnerships.

Registration is now available for the Fall 2021 cohort, to be held virtually, beginning Friday, October 1. Sign up today!

Questions? Email Jon Servoss, FFMI Director of Commercialization Education.

Looking for feedback and input on your biomedical innovation? Join the FFMI team for Innovation Studio, virtual office hours that give life science innovators of all levels the chance to address project needs, challenges, or questions. Participants can get individual feedback on:

The Innovation Studio is available for 30-minute consultations via Zoom every third Tuesday of the month. The next available consultations will take place Tuesday, September 21, between 2:00pm-3:30pm. Space is limited.

Sonali Kurup, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Ferris State University, won first place for her novel cancer therapeutic project during the spring FFMI fastPACE cohort.

In a recent Ferris State University article, Kurup describes her experience with FFMI fastPACE and how it has affected her learning process as she moves her project toward commercialization.

Sofia Merajver, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk and Evaluation Program at the U-M Rogel Cancer Center, is part of a team of researchers from the University of Michigan and the Henry Ford Health System that is shedding new light on important differences in triple-negative breast cancer tumors from African, African American, and white patients.

The findings, which recently appeared in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, point toward several genes with significantly higher activity in tumors from Ghanaian and African American women — which could potentially serve as targets for developing new drugs.

Don’t miss this Special Issue (Vol. 5, Issue 3) of the Learning Health Systems (LHS) Journal focusing on the science and practice of collaborative learning health systems. Co-editors for the issue are Michael Seid, Ph.D., and David Hartley, Ph.D., M.P.H., James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

The collected articles in this Special Issue highlight the balance between science and practice and illustrate how collaborative learning healthcare systems science is a transdisciplinary endeavor involving medicine, epidemiology, social and political science, organization behavior, and informatics, among other fields.

The LHS Journal is a collaboration between the U-M Department of Learning Health Sciences and John Wiley Publishing.

Join the Data Office team for a live online tutorial that will cover the basics of EMERSE (the Electronic Medical Record Search Engine), an easy-to-use, self-service search engine for the free text documents coming from Michigan Medicine's electronic health record systems.

Are you interested in positioning your interdisciplinary research team to be competitive for an external large-scale grant (e.g., NIH U- and P-series mechanisms)? Do you need funds to pursue final data collection/analysis, to publish with your collaborators, or to support resources for grant development? If so, you’re encouraged to apply for $100,000 in funding and tailored research support available through the Accelerating Synergy Award.

Questions? Please contact the MICHR Pilot Grant Program at MICHR-PilotGrants@umich.edu.

Are you looking to develop novel statistical methodology? Does this work have high potential for advancing clinical and translational research? If so, you are encouraged to apply for the Promoting Progress in Statistics (ProPS) Award.

The goals of this award are to enhance the validity, accuracy, or efficiency of clinical and translational research; to foster faculty and trainees in developing new statistical methods; and to provide a resource for generating preliminary data as a foundation for external grant applications and publication success.

Applications are open to faculty from all schools and colleges at the University of Michigan. The funding is offered by the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR).

Questions? Please contact the MICHR Pilot Grant Program at MICHR-Pilotgrants@umich.edu.

This year's LHS Collaboratory theme is "Data and the Learning Health System." The first session is "Using the Electronic Health Record (EHR)/Structured Data."

Presentation 1: The Learning Health (Record) System

Speaker: Philip R.O. Payne, Ph.D., FACMI, FAMIA, FAIMBE, FIAHSI, Janet and Bernard Becker Professor and Director, Institute for Informatics (I2), Associate Dean for Health information and Data Science, Chief Data Scientist, Washington University in St. Louis

Presentation 2: Techniques and Challenges for EHR Phenotyping

Speaker: Lisa Bastarache, M.S., Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University

Hosted by the UMMS Office of Research, John Robertson, Ph.D., presents a two-day virtual workshop addressing both the practical and conceptual aspects that are key factors in writing successful proposals. Widely known for his Grant Writers' Seminars & Workshops, Dr. Robertson takes attendees on a deep-dive into idea development, identification of the most appropriate granting agency, how to write for reviewers, and tips and strategies that are of proven value in presenting an applicant's case to reviewers.

  

  

This workshop is an annual event for R01 Boot Camp participants, and will be open again this year to U-M faculty members, postdoctoral researchers and administrative staff interested in brushing up on NIH grant writing skills. It will be presented in an online/virtual format during two half-day webinars. The $309 workshop fee includes a hard copy of The Grant Application Writer's Workbook, as well as session materials.

To better navigate the complexities of the U-M biomedical research enterprise, visit the Research Project Lifecycle. This interactive tool provides an overview of the resources available to you, not only within the Medical School Office of Research but also across the University of Michigan.