CTSI Update: The 2020 Impact Report

"The BU CTSI has effected most aspects of translational research since first funded by the National Institutes of Health in 2008, and, in this truly unprecedented year of the pandemic, we have led efforts across the University to support and catalyze COVID-19 related translational science including clinical trials to improve outcomes for patients affected by COVID-19."

David Center, MD., Megan Bair-Merritt, MD, MSCE.,
& Richard Saitz, MD, MPH, FACP, DFSAM
Advancing Research in Times of Change & Virtual Office Hours
October 8, 2020 | 10 am – 12pm
Join a panel to hear from BU faculty investigators reflecting on how these changes have affected their research, including practical advice on finding funding, managing teams through the reopening, and conducting research during times of uncertainty and opportunity. Read Full Details

The CTSI will also host a discussion about its services. 
The BU CTSI Pilot Grant Program helps investigators explore and solve challenges in translational science, particularly the special health problems of urban communities, by developing and deploying new tools, methods and processes to expedite research and discovery. Review the Full RFA Here.
Application due date:
November 1, 2020, at 5 PM EST
The BU CTSI Voucher Program supports the short-term needs of investigators whose time to conduct research has been negatively impacted by pandemic-related family care or other home responsibilities. Read Full Details.
Applications to be accepted
on a rolling basis until
December 31, 2020
New Funding Opportunities

Cohort Studies
To Improve Our Understanding of Influenza Immunity, Vaccine Response and Effectiveness in Older Adults

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Multidisciplinary Approaches to
HIV-Associated Comorbidities
and Prioritizing Intervention Targets

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Using Archived
Data and Specimen Collections to Advance Maternal and Pediatric HIV/AIDS Research (R21 Clinical Trial
Not Allowed)



Notice of Special Interest: Small
Grants for Secondary Analyses of Existing Data Sets and Stored Biospecimens

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience
NSF Innovative Approaches to Science and Engineering Research on
Brain Function

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Long-Term Effects of Disasters on Health Care Systems Serving Health Disparity Populations

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Apply Now for the NIH Medical Research Scholars Program
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities is proud to participate with other NIH Institutes and Centers in the MRSP. Our goal is to introduce the MRSP to students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, and encourage them to consider biomedical research as a career. Read More
News Highlights
Impaired Type I Interferon Activity and Inflammatory Responses in Severe
COVID-19 Patients

To test the hypothesis of a virally driven hyperinflammation leading to severe disease, we used an integrative approach based
on clinical and biological data, in-depth phenotypical analysis of immune cells, standardized whole-blood transcriptomic analysis, and cytokine measurements on a group of 50 COVID-19 patients with variable severity from mild to critical. Read More

Rogue Antibodies and Gene Mutations Explain Some Cases of Severe COVID-19

According to the new findings in hundreds of racially diverse people with life-threatening COVID-19, a small percentage of people who suffer the most severe symptoms carry rare mutations in genes that disrupt their antiviral defenses . Read More

Investigational COVID-19 Vaccine
in Older Adults

A Phase 1 trial of an investigational mRNA vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection has shown that the vaccine is well-tolerated and generates a strong immune response in older adults. Read More

NIH to Assess and Expand COVID-19 Testing for Underserved Communities

 A part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, the RADx Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program will support 32 institutions across the United States and will focus on populations disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Read More

PhenX Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Assessments Collection

An open access resource for standard social determinants of health measures for researchers and data scientists Read More
Upcoming Events
After this live activity, the participant should be better able to understand the informatics and regulatory challenges of establishing a large-scale collection of centralized EHR data, articulate the common data models used as source data for N3C integration, and how they are harmonized in the project, and describe the N3C data enclave, both from a security/confidential projection perspective and as a rich analytic environment. Read More
The NIH is pleased to announce a virtual biological data science codeathon on Nov. 7-8, 2020, directly after the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Biological Data Science Conference, which will be held Nov. 4-6. Applications are due Oct. 19 at 3 p.m. EST. Researchers and data scientists at any stage of their data science journey are encouraged to apply. Read More

2020 NIH Virtual Seminar on Program Funding and Grants
Administration - Tuesday, October 27 to Friday, October 30
A unique opportunity to learn more about working with the NIH grants process, programs, policies, and staff at the 2020 NIH Virtual Seminar on Grants Administration and Program Funding. Read More

Accelerating Discoveries Towards Better Health 
bu.edu/ctsi | ncats.nih.gov