 | | | Why have there not been more successes in translating exciting scientific discoveries into improved patient care and community health? Possible explanations include: - A shortage and high turnover rate of clinician-investigators due to insufficient institutional and environmental support; reluctance to let go of the traditional department-centric research and training models;
- A lack of effectiveness in educating PhD scientists about the physiology and pathophysiology of human health and disease; and
- A gap in providing clinical and bench scientists with the tools needed to be successful in the current research environment, including working in interdisciplinary teams.
The Center for Clinical Research Education is designed to break down these potential barriers. The CCRE aims to create the next generation of clinical researchers representing multiple disciplines who will be boundary spanners, able to pollinate new ideas and link laboratories and investigators in different disciplines.
The CCRE will build on an already successful program of interdisciplinary research education, training and career development. Northwestern University has fostered interdisciplinary research for several decades. It has provided incentives including faculty positions and research funding to break the lines and barriers separating disciplines, and merged discipline-based graduate training programs in the life sciences and engineering into 4 integrated programs that span campus locations.
Specific goals of the CCRE include: Create new courses, seminars and programs and integrate them with existing activities; Enhance the current Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) and other degree and certificate programs; Develop a new Multidisciplinary Clinical and Translational Science Scholars (K12) Program focusing on the needs of postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty members; Develop a new predoctoral (T32) training program leading to a PhD in Clinical and Translational Science or MD/PhD with the PhD in Clinical and Translational Science; Expand the candidate pool for our programs by including pre-doctoral trainees and basic scientists Educate/train the candidates differently than in the past using an expanded set of course offerings and seminars and established interdisciplinary teams; Create new clinical and translational research education and training programs for community-based clinical investigators, nurses, research staff and medical residents; Nurture trainees using carefully chosen mentors and new oversight procedures, including standardized tracking tools; and Expand and enhance opportunities for the development of mentors;
The NUCATS Institute Center for Clinical Research Education has outstanding, dynamic leaders and an experienced administrator. The Center is led by Richard I. Morimoto, PhD and supported by the directors of the institutional K12 program, Richard Pope, MD, the T32 program, David Engman, MD, PhD, and the MSCI and Certificate programs, Lewis J. Smith, MD. Other key personnel for the K12 program are H. William Schnaper, MD, and Jean Egmon, EdD, and for the Certificate programs Paula Carney, PhD, RD and Marcia Phillips, DNSc, RN.
Richard I. Morimoto, PhD, Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Biology in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, immediate past dean of the Graduate School and associate provost of Graduate Education at Northwestern, will serve as director of the Center for Clinical Research Education. He is an internationally recognized investigator with a well-funded research program focusing on chaperone networks, stress responses, and mechanisms of protein conformational disease. He helped found the Interdepartmental Biological Sciences (IBiS) Graduate Program and is a past co-director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). He has served the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the Molecular Biology Study Section, as chair of the BRT-A study section that reviews all National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Training Grants, currently is a member of NIGMS Advisory Council, and serves in advisory roles for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) and NIH Director’s Office. He chaired the NIGMS Minority Division Training Grant Directors Meeting and co-chaired the Minority Division Review of programs in 2006. At NU he is the former chair of the Science and Engineering Committee on Multicultural Affairs (SECMA) and while dean of the Graduate School he established the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate to nurture minority students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Dr. Morimoto also serves on the Executive Committee of the NUCATS Institute.
Richard Pope, MD, the Mabel Greene Meyers professor of Medicine, chief of the Division of Rheumatology, and director of the Northwestern University P60 Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center (MCRC) in Rheumatology, serves as the director of the institutional K12 program. He also leads a T32 Training Grant in Rheumatology Research and is currently the PI of 2 R01s. In these capacities he has developed a broad-based, multidisciplinary program incorporating the strengths of both the biomedical and clinical sciences. Dr. Pope's understanding of the importance of clinical and translational research in the MCRC has allowed him to facilitate and nurture a wide range of projects and a diverse faculty. He has promoted collaborative ventures with investigators in relevant basic and clinical sciences from other academic units throughout the university. These collaborations have resulted in a unique, broad-based, multidisciplinary program for training and clinical and translational investigation. Dr. Pope’s research has focused on rheumatoid arthritis. Currently his laboratory is examining the regulation of macrophage differentiation, the role of activation of macrophages through Toll-like receptors in, and the regulation of macrophage and synovial fibroblast apoptosis, with specific reference to potential therapeutic interventions (7,8). He designed and executed the first trials of IL-1 receptor in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and participated in one of the initial clinical trials employing an anti-TNFa monoclonal antibody. He helped develop the autologous stem cell transplantation program for rheumatoid arthritis at Northwestern.
David M. Engman, MD, PhD, associate professor of Pathology and Microbiology-Immunology, attending pathologist in the Diagnostic Molecular Biology Laboratory at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and director of Northwestern’s MSTP serves as director of the T32 program. Dr. Engman’s research, currently funded by three NIH grants, involves the cell biology and molecular genetics of protozoan parasites and the pathogenesis of African sleeping sickness and Chagas disease. During his tenure the Northwestern MSTP has received 25% increases in training positions during each of the two competing renewals of the NIH training grant and it currently has the fourth largest number of applications among MD-PhD programs nationwide. Northwestern graduates have outstanding publication records, land the most prestigious residency positions, and most pursue careers combining academic research, teaching and clinical practice. Dr. Engman is highly committed to the development of physician-scientists at all levels. He is a founding member of the Association of MD/PhD Directors, a consultant to several MD/PhD Programs, a member of the BRT-A study section of the NIGMS that reviews MSTP training grant applications, a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute review panel for its Med-Into-Grad Initiative. He is also a member of the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, dedicated to the nurturing of minority students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The director of the MSCI and Certificate programs, Lewis J. Smith, MD, is professor of Medicine and associate vice president for Research. He has been on the faculty at NU since 1979, serving as division chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and associate director for Education and Training in the Office of Clinical Research and Training. He established and continues to direct the MSCI degree program. His current research interest is airway diseases and the role of nutrition in asthma. He is principal investigator of the American Lung Association’s Asthma Clinical Research Center (ACRC) in Illinois, now in its eighth year, and he is co-investigator on several NIH-supported multi-center studies including Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) and Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). He chairs the Pulmonary Committee of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-funded CARDIA study. He also chairs the Research Grant Review committee (study section) of the American Lung Association and their Scientific Advisory Committee. He has mentored several students in the MSCI program and teaches one MSCI course, Drug Development, and co-teaches another, Ethical Issues in Clinical Research. H. William Schnaper, MD is vice chair and professor of Pediatrics, deputy director for Academic Development at Children’s Memorial Research Center, program director for a pediatric K12 program funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and program director of the combined Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP) at the Feinberg School of Medicine. His research focuses on signal transduction mechanisms activated by TGF-b in the kidney. He has been a leader in developing the Medical School’s faculty mentoring program, served as a mentor to multiple faculty members within and outside of the Department of Pediatrics, and is class advisor for the present second-year class of MD-PhD students. He has served on and chaired multiple study sections for both the Center for Scientific Review and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). In 2005, he completed terms as a charter member of the Pathobiology of Kidney Disease Study Section, NIH and chair of the American Board of Pediatrics Sub-board in Nephrology. He will co-direct the institutional K12 program and direct the PSTP. Jean Egmon, EdD, assistant professor in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, is director of the Complexity in Action Network, the translation bridge between the Northwestern Institute for Complex Systems (NICO), industry, government and non-profit organizations. The Network helps apply concepts, methods and approaches from complexity science to research and management. NICO is a university-wide institute comprised of a distinguished and diverse group of faculty including engineering, business, natural sciences, education, medicine, law, and the social sciences. Its mission is to serve as a hub and facilitator of intellectual life at NU and to produce path-breaking research in the area of complex systems transcending the boundaries of established disciplines. Dr. Egmon previously was director of the Center for Learning and Organizational Change in the School of Education and Social Policy. The Center was formed to determine and demonstrate how theories of learning and cognition can be translated and applied to the world of organizations and performance. Dr. Egmon will serve as integrator, knowledge broker, and architectural advisor to effect the changes we propose. She is associate director for program development of the K12 program and provides input to NUCATS Institute leadership. Paula Carney, PhD, RD is eLearning product development manager at NetLearning, a division of Thomson Learning. Her background includes a master of science in food science from the University of Wisconsin and a PhD in instructional technology from Wayne State. She has worked as a clinical research manager in endocrinology and hypertension at the University of Michigan, been associate professor of instructional technology, health and educational studies at the University of Tennessee. She joined NU in January 2007 to become director of Education, Training and Career Development within the Northwestern Center for Clinical Research (NCCR). With the consolidation of NCCR into the NUCATS Institute, Dr. Carney will become associate director of the NUCATS Certificate programs, focusing on course development and distance learning to meet the needs of community investigators and research staff. Marcia Phillips, DNSc, RN is clinical manager of the Northwestern General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and an assistant professor in the College of Nursing at Rush University, where she was previously Clinical Coordinator of the Section of Genetics. Dr. Phillips has expertise in clinical research nursing, research program development and management, and education and teaching at several major medical centers. This includes experience in the GCRC at Scripps Research Institute, where she was a staff nurse from 1992-96. She will direct the mentoring of non-investigator research personnel enrolled in the Certificate programs and assist with mentoring nurse investigators enrolled in the MSCI and K12 programs. This group of dynamic leaders spans three different schools at NU, all three campuses, and several disciplines. The leaders have the experience, stature, credibility and authority to make the Center for Clinical Research Education the center for education, training and career development activities in clinical and translational science. | |
