SHARE:  

Vol. 24 | July 2023 – 6 minute read

academic-connections-banner- short.jpg

Enhancing Faculty Development Opportunities

Since its founding in 2011, the Office of Faculty Development has fostered the creation of several successful faculty mentoring and development initiatives.


The careers of numerous UT Southwestern faculty have been propelled by the Leadership Emerging in Academic Departments (LEAD) and the Starting University Clinical Careers Effectively, Scholarly, and Successfully (SUCCESS) programs. The rollout of more focused Promotion and Tenure Workshops has increased faculty satisfaction with their understanding of promotion and tenure requirements, as the results of the 2022 StandPoint Faculty Engagement Survey showed. The Office of Faculty Development also offers access to executive coaching for individuals and curriculum vitae review.  

Jessica Moreland, M.D., the new Associate Dean for Faculty Development, is planning ways to sustain and enhance the success of current programs and to create new opportunities to support the development of an even broader group of faculty. Her experience leading a funded research laboratory and as Chief of Pediatric Critical Care is informing new offerings relevant to the needs of investigators and clinicians. 


Current programs being designed include an offering to boost the pedagogical skills of clinician-educators who spend much of their time in clinic but have major roles instructing our housestaff and students. Additional programs in the early planning stages will help new or aspiring Division Chiefs and program leaders to gain the necessary leadership skills to take on these roles.


Finally, a cross-departmental networking and mentorship program involving both clinical and research faculty will be focused on breaking down silos and fostering the development of academic success and a culture of community engagement.  

Save the Date for SUCCESS!


The Starting University Clinical Careers Effectively, Scholarly, and Successfully (SUCCESS) program’s fall workshops for clinician-educators will take place in September.


Expanded Eligibility for Special Grant Incentive 

Awards from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will be eligible for participation in the Special Grant Incentive (SGI) program starting in FY24. To qualify, projects must meet the standard incentive program criteria of a minimum duration of two years, annual direct costs of at least $100,000 per year, and full indirect costs or a 40% indirect rate as conveyed in PCORI and AHRQ awards.


Established in FY20, the SGI program recognizes faculty members who are awarded a second or third federally funded research grant with an incentive of $10,000 either as personal compensation or as discretionary academic or laboratory development funds.


In three and a half years, 291 federal grants by our faculty were awarded the special incentive. The average of 85 awards per year that qualify for SGIs significantly exceeds our original expectations, which were based on historical data. Over 80% of the awards that received SGIs were new grants, while the remainder were competitive renewals. The Departments of Internal Medicine, Molecular Biology, Neuroscience, Microbiology, and Biochemistry have received the most SGIs.


Expanding the eligibility criteria will allow us to further recognize faculty pursuing clinical outcome research awards supported by federal funding to advance scientific discoveries that will ultimately benefit our patients. 

Incentive Program to Stimulate Collaboration


The Collaborative Research Grant Incentive (CRGI) program was launched in FY23 to encourage team science and collaborative projects.


It provides incentive payments to faculty members who are the overall PIs, co-PIs/MPIs, or project leaders of National Institutes of Health program projects (P), cooperative research agreements (U), or collaborative program grants for multidisciplinary teams (RM). Contact PI may receive between $15,000 and $40,000 of incentive depending upon the size of eligible awards.



Full details on eligibility criteria, award tiers, and payment options are available online.

Faculty Announcements

Newly Appointed Frenkel Clinical Scholars

Sanjay Chandrasekaran, M.D., and Yazan Madanat, M.D., have been appointed Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D. Scholars in Clinical Medicine. Both are Assistant Professors in the Department of Internal Medicine and members of the Division of Hematology and Oncology.


Dr. Chandrasekaran’s research focuses on melanoma, advanced skin cancer, and soft tissue and bone sarcomas. Dr. Madanat seeks to unravel the molecular and genomic drivers of disease and to better understand ways to improve therapies for patients.


The Frenkel Clinical Scholars Program provides funding over four years to recruit and support new faculty members and promote enduring excellence in patient care in oncology. Made possible by the anonymous support of a generous donor, the program honors the legacy of the late Dr. Eugene Frenkel, a pioneering oncologist who led UT Southwestern’s Division of Hematology and Oncology for 30 years.

Pew Charitable Trust Research Awards Announced

Gerta Hoxhaj, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) and of Pediatrics and Biochemistry, and Yuuki Obata, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Immunology and Neuroscience, have been selected for prestigious Pew Charitable Trusts biomedical research programs.

Cancer Research 


The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust chose Dr. Hoxhaj as a Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research, in recognition of her tremendous potential to solve some of cancer’s greatest challenges.

 

Dr. Hoxhaj’s lab investigates the molecular mechanisms that control cellular metabolism, particularly in cancer. A better understanding of how altered signaling pathways influence NADPH and other key metabolic processes that drive tumor development can help scientists find new drug targets to treat a broad spectrum of cancers. She will receive a four-year grant of $300,000. 

Brain Research 


The Pew Charitable Trusts also announced Dr. Obata as a 2023 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, and one of five new Pew Scholars who will make up the eighth class of the Kathryn W. Davis Aging Brain Scholars.


Dr. Obata will receive $300,000 in funding over four years to invest in exploratory research to determine whether the inactivation of the circadian clock in the enteric nervous system affects the rhythmic activity of immunity and cyclic daily behaviors.

Beth Levine, M.D. Prize in Autophagy Research

UT Southwestern Medical Center awarded the inaugural Beth Levine, M.D. Prize in Autophagy Research to Japanese biochemist and molecular biologist Noboru Mizushima, M.D., Ph.D., for his significant contributions to the field.


As Director of UT Southwestern’s Center for Autophagy Research, Dr. Levine was an internationally revered investigator whose groundbreaking work demonstrated that autophagy – the mechanism cells use to get rid of damaged components and maintain cellular health – plays a critical role in the determination of human health and as a driving mechanism in a broad range of human diseases. Dr. Levine, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and member of the National Academy of Sciences, passed away in June 2020.

Call for Nominations: Synergy Grants

Nominations are open for the 2023 Synergy Grants for Collaborative Research. Made possible by the continued generosity of our community supporters, the Synergy Grants Program seeks to stimulate scientific partnerships between clinicians and basic scientists at UT Southwestern.


New projects involving a collaboration between a practicing physician and a basic scientist in any area of research will be considered. Proposals must pursue research that is otherwise difficult to fund through conventional sources because of the high risk inherent in its early or conceptual-stage nature, or advance research that will provide preliminary data for grant applications to external agencies.


Up to seven Synergy Grant awards will be made with funding of $100,000 for one to two years of research support beginning in the spring of 2024. Applications are due Aug. 1.  

Coming Soon: Phase 3 of ProofPoint’s Email Security

On July 27, an additional feature in the ProofPoint email security solution called URL Defense will be enabled.


URL Defense rewrites the links in an incoming email to point to the Proofpoint platform. ProofPoint checks if the website is a known bad site and will prevent you from navigating to it. If you hover over a link with URL Defense, you will see the link starts with the website URLDefense.com, which is owned by ProofPoint. Please note ProofPoint won’t change links used only internally at UT Southwestern.


Learn more about this IR project by visiting ProofPoint (VPN required) and email the project team with any questions.

Important Dates and Upcoming Events

UTSW-sponsored M.B.A. Program

In partnership with the UT Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management, the program (VPN required) offers selected UT Southwestern faculty and staff a 53-credit-hour Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) with an emphasis on health care organization leadership, and a 37-credit-hour Master of Science (M.S.) in management.

  • Apply by July 15. Classes begin in January 2024. 


Call for Nominations: Shine Academy

Nominations are open for the University of Texas System Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education.

  • Submissions are due July 17. For more information, contact Lisa Martinez.


Call for Nominations: Leaders in Clinical Excellence

Nominations are open for the 2023 Leaders in Clinical Excellence Awards, designed to honor clinical faculty who embody the very best in patient care and institutional excellence.


Didactic Session: Negotiating for Success*

Monthly sessions on successful project development and the grant application process are part of the Clinical Researcher Catalyst, a career development program for clinical researchers.


Clinical Informatics Fellowship

This two-year fellowship is designed for physicians who want to become leaders in the development and implementation of clinical information systems that support patient care, research, and quality improvement.


Grant Writing Library*

UT Southwestern faculty members have free access to a grant writing library designed to help researchers in the process of securing National Institutes of Health funding.



*Sponsored by the UT Southwestern CTSA Program

Staying Connected, Informed, and Involved

Share Your Feedback
   Visit Our Archive   
Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn