The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) is a registered trademark of DHHSTranslating Discoveries to Medical Practice

In This Issue Navigate easily by CLICKING any topic

Translational Research News• Bhavnani Presents State-of-the-Practice in Visual

Analytics at National Conference• “Skeletal muscle’s mid-life crisis: metabolic mayhem or

controlled chaos in cancer and again?”• Topics in Translational Research ,“REDCap Workshop”:

Presented by : Bruce A. Luxon, PhD• ITS researchers published in the journal “Evaluation & the

Health Professions”• ITS Pilot Applications Invited

Education & Training• Are You a Trainee or Do You Know Someone Who Is?

Calendar of Events

Teams & Resources• Multidisciplinary Translational Teams• Key Resources

Bhavnani Presents

at National ConferenceThe American Medical Informatics Association

(AMIA) annually accepts proposals for State-of-the-Practice presentations in fields that are of interest to the biomedical informatics community. In the last annual fall AMIA meeting held in Washington DC, Dr. Bhavnani was invited to present the state-of-the-practice in visual analytics. We discussed with Dr. Bhavnani the motivation, content, and response to his presentation.

Why do you think there is a growing interest in visual analytics?

Defying years of academic and industry research, a large number of promising drugs to treat complex diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and asthma have repeatedly failed in clinical trials. These failures

State-of-the-Practice in Visual Analytics

Dr. Melinda Sheffield-Moore, PhD, Professor, Division of Endocrinology and Director, Translational Technolo-gies Key Resource at the ITS, presented her research on cancer cachexia and the sarcopenia of aging in an ITS seminar on March 19, 2014. The title of her talk was “Skeletal muscle’s mid-life crisis: metabolic mayhem or controlled chaos in cancer and aging?”

Aging is associated with a progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and function – a condition termed sar-copenia. Sarcopenia is facilitated by alterations in the hormonal profile, a sedentary lifestyle, less than optimal

RedCap (Reseach Electronic Data Capture) is a secure, web-based application that supports electronic data capture for research studies. The workshop will highlight the key features of this valuable tool for researchers, the experience of the ITS with the tool, and how researchers can use it to increase efficiency in the conduct of their research.

Bruce A Luxon, PhD, is a professor in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UTMB and directs the Biomedical Informatics Program at the ITS. His major areas of interest are Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Systems Biology. His group has been active in the determination of biomolecular solution structures using multidi-mensional NMR, including DNA, DNA-drug complexes, proteins and protein-DNA complexes. Research has also focused on anti-sense biotherapeutics with emphasis on the targeted delivery of dithioate-modified oligonucleotides into specific cell types.

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The Institute forTranslational Sciences presents:

Topics in TranslationalResearch

“REDCap Workshop”Presented by: Bruce A. Luxon, PhD

April 16, 2014, Wednesday, 4:00 p.m., 2.220 Levin Hall North

Bruce A Luxon, PhD

April

“Skeletal muscle’s mid-life crisis: metabolic mayhem or controlled

chaos in cancer and aging?”

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suggest that current methods for analyzing biomedical data might be missing critical aspects of biological complexity. For example, several analytic methods assume that diseased subjects belong to a homogenous distribution, and the methods are then used to discover some weighted combination of variables (e.g., genes) which together are highly significant between the diseased and healthy subjects. However, such approaches cannot directly reveal heterogeneity (complex differences and responses among individuals) in the disease, and therefore cannot provide a comprehensible way to infer the biological mechanisms involved in those heterogeneities. Understanding such heterogeneities is a critical step towards future personalized medicine approaches, which aim to customize therapies by understanding how patients are similar or different to each other based on molecular and clinical profiles.

Because visual analytical methods (e.g., network visualization and analysis) make no assumptions about the homogeneity among subjects, these methods are particularly good at revealing molecular heterogeneities, resulting in insights about the biological mechanisms involved. Therefore I believe there is a growing interest in using visual analytics to help discover heterogeneities, which can then be incorporated into standard biostatistical approaches such as using regression to predict those heterogeneities.

What are the challenges in the widespread adoption of visual analytics?

There are critical theoretical, practical, and pedagogical hurdles that need to be addressed. Theoretically, we need better frameworks that tightly integrate existing theories from cognition, mathematics, and graphic design. Such theories can help predict for example which combination of visual representations can together help researchers to

best comprehend patterns in different types of data such as genes versus cytokines. Practically, visual analytical tools tend to be designed for analysts, often requiring substantial programming to make a dataset ready for visualization, and therefore limiting the use of the methods to only a few biologists and physicians. This hurdle motivates the need for tools that enable biologists and physicians to explore data on their own so that they can better leverage their domain knowledge in interpreting the patterns in the data. Of course, such patterns need to be statistically validated by subsequent analyses, but currently the exploration and validation is done mostly by analysts, who could miss important associations due to the lack of domain knowledge. Pedagogically, there needs to be a concerted effort to train the next generation of biomedical informaticians for developing and using novel visual analytical approaches, and to train biologists and physicians on how to make important biomedical discoveries in visual analytical representations of their data.

What was the response to your talk at the AMIA conference?

The talk was attended by researchers from academia and industry, in addition to researchers and officers from NIH. I was pleased that there was no seating left in the room. As the audience represented such a wide range of backgrounds, I made the presentation interactive so the audience felt comfortable to ask for clarifications when needed. I received many requests for the presentation, and contacts for future collaboration, which we are now pursing.

Dr. Bhavnani is Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at ITS, and PI of the Discovery and Innovation through Visual Analytics (DIVA) Lab:

http://www. skbhavnani. com/DIVA/home.html

State-of-the-Practice in Visual Analytics

ITS researchers led by Kevin C. Wooten recently published an article in the journal Evaluation & the Health Professions. Other authors on this article are Robert M. Rose, Glenn V. Ostir, William J. Calhoun, Bill T. Ameredes, and Allan R. Brasi-er. The article entitled, “ Assessing and Evaluating Multidis-ciplinary Translational Teams: Mixed Methods Approach”

illustrates how multidisciplinary translational teams can be assessed using outcome, process, and developmental types of evaluation and mixed-methods approach. Developing a robust and uniform strategy for assessing and evaluating translational teams will be key for process improvement for the CTSA program.

ITS Researchers Published inEvaluation & the Health Professions

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Suresh Bhavani, PhD

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diet, and anabolic resistance to growth-promoting nutrients such as amino acids. If left untreated, older individuals are at a greater risk of falls and fractures, loss of independent living status, and a diminished quality of life. An active life-style, hormone therapy if warranted, and a balanced diet with ample protein intake can prevent and/or reverse the sarcopenia of aging.

Cancer cachexia is a condition associated with a rapid loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, and typically involves the loss of significant fat mass. In contrast to sarcopenia, cachexia cannot be fully reversed with standard nutritional support, leads to sig-nificant functional impairment and is typically associated with physical fatigue. While certain cancers induce more profound muscle wasting than others, approximately 80% of all cancer patients are estimated to suffer from some degree of cancer cachexia.

To improve the quality of life of cachectic cancer patients and sarcopenic older men and women, it is therefore important to treat muscle wasting. Dr. Sheffield-Moore’s research program has focused on understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms that underlie muscle wasting in cancer and aging and on testing interventions to ameliorate the loss of muscle mass and function using exercise, nutrition and pharmacologic agents. Her laboratory uses state-of-the-art techniques, such as Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound (CEU), Microdialysis, Indocyanine green (ICG), and Doppler Ul-trasound, in conjunction with stable isotope methodology to measure protein synthesis and breakdown and answer basic questions on the role of age, nutrients, and exercise in protein metabolism— Is muscle protein synthesis or breakdown the bigger metabolic problem in older/cancer skeletal muscle? Is older/cancer skeletal muscle anaboli-cally resistant to growth promoting nutrients, exercise, or vasodilators? We spoke to Dr. Sheffield-Moore about her research.

Q. Do aging and cancer show similar patterns of muscle loss?

A. Aging and cancer exhibit a similar phenotype with both circumstances capable of inducing metabolic disrup-tion in skeletal muscle due to many factors including inflam-mation, physical inactivity, oxidative stress etc. However, the progression of muscle loss and loss of physical func-tion in aging tends to be much slower than with cancer, which by contrast, often causes rapid and extreme losses in muscle mass and function, as well as significant losses in fat mass. The impact of the tumor and tumor factors, as well as the chemotherapy and radiation therapy likely play a role in the metabolic disruption associated with cancer

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cachexia.Q. Can interventions such as protein/amino acids supple-

ments help in reversing the loss of muscle in aging and cancer?

A. The skeletal muscle of healthy older individuals is responsive to anabolic stimuli such as protein and amino acids, but the anabolic impact of these nutrients appears to be blunted, possibly due to greater oxidative stress and di-minished skeletal muscle microvascular blood flow. Exercise

and pharmacologic agents that vasodilate skeletal muscle and enhance microvas-cular blood flow are excellent ways to restore the efficacy of protein and amino acid supplements in older individuals. In cancer, the efficacy of protein and amino acid supplements is less clear, and appears to be insufficient to reverse or prevent cachexia. It is therefore necessary to focus on pharmacological interventions such as androgens (e.g. testosterone) or agents that block muscle catabolism to improve

muscle mass and function in these patients. Q. What process (muscle synthesis or muscle break-

down) is more important to target in ameliorating loss of muscle mass?

A. The cause of age- and cancer-related muscle loss in humans is multifactorial, likely as a result of alterations in muscle protein synthesis and breakdown as well as physical inactivity, and/or menopause, inadequate nutrition, altered muscle perfusion and increased inflammatory burden. New data we have in collaboration with Dr. Craig Porter suggest that skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration is greatly diminished in aging and cancer, with the impairment in muscle mitochondrial respiration in cancer patients similar to that of burn patients, a group, which his data suggest, has profound mitochondrial impairment.

Q. What pharmacological interventions is your lab cur-rently testing?

A. Preliminary data from my NCI-funded clinical trial sug-gests that testosterone enanthate is efficacious at restor-ing skeletal muscle mass and function in cancer patients, and appears to improve physical activity levels and quality of life. Moreover, our studies in aging demonstrate that phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors, such as Viagra, represent viable pharmacologic interventions to improve muscle mass and function in aging, and our published data have shown them capable of reducing skeletal muscle fatigue, which is a major problem in both cancer and aging. We continue to study cancer and aging and have more recently translated these findings into conditions such as traumatic brain injury, where skeletal muscle function may also be impaired.

Melinda Sheffield-Moore, PhD

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PRIL 2013“Skeletal muscle’s mid-life crisis: metabolic mayhem or controlled

chaos in cancer and aging?”

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Translational ResearchManagement

Program Popular

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C a l e n d a r o f E v e n t s

Please use the new grant number as follows:“This study was conducted with the support of the Institute

for Translational Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch, supported in part by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (UL1TR000071) from the National Center for Research Resources, now at the National Center for Advancing Transla-tional Sciences, National Institutes of Health.”

KL 2 scholars should also cite grant number KL2TR000072.For more information about NCATS, visit: http://ncats.nih.gov/ .

UTMB’s ITS/CTSA funded by NCATS

CitE

April 07, 2014, Monday, 5:15 p.m., 2.312 Research Building 6. “Translational Research: Tools and Techniques/ Epidemiological and Statistical Methods in Translational Investiga-tion.” Topic: Case Control Studies. Presented by Christine M Arcari, PhD, MPH.

April 10, 2014, Thursday, 4:00-5:00 p.m., 6.110 Research Building 6. Translational Research Scholar’s Program. Seminar Type: Scholar’s Re-search. Topic: TBA. Presented by Deepthi Kolli, PhD.

April 14, 2014, Monday, 5:15 p.m., 2.312 Research Building 6. “Translational Research: Tools and Techniques/ Epidemiological and Sta-tistical Methods in Translational Investigation.” Topic: Cohort Studies. Presented by Christine M Arcari, PhD, MPH.

April 16, 2014, Wednesday, 4:00pm-5:00pm. 2.220 Levin Hall North. Topics in Translational Research. “REDCap Workshop” Presented by, Bruce Luxon, PhD, Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UTMB, Galveston; Director, Bioinformatics Key Resource, ITS. The seminar will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

April 21, 2014, Monday, 5:15 p.m., 2.312 Research Building 6. “Translational Research: Tools and Tech-niques/ Epidemiological and Statistical Methods in Translational Investigation.” Topic: Clinical Trials. Pre-sented by Christine M Arcari, PhD, MPH.

April 24, 2013, Thursday, 4:00-5:00 p.m., 6.110 Re-search Building 6. Translational Research Scholar’s Program. Seminar Type: Academic Advancement. Topic: TBA.

April 28, 2014, Monday, 5:15 p.m., 2.312 Research Building 6. “Translational Research: Tools and Tech-niques/ Epidemiological and Statistical Methods in Translational Investigation.” Topic: Descriptive Statistics and Data Visualization. Presented by Heidi Spratt, PhD, MPH.

To register for the Translational Research: Tools and Techniques series, complete and submit the registration form located on the course website at: http://www.its.utmb.edu/learning/courses_seminars/courses_and_sem-inars.html#ToolsTechniques . For more information contact the Institute for Translational Sciences - Educa-tion Office at 772-1484. The course fee of $55 covers registration, letter of completion, Risk Education and GME credit, and refreshments.

Postdoctoral participation in the Translational Research Management Team certificate track has been steadily growing! The program enjoys popularity among post-docs, second only to the default Advanced Biomedical Research Strategies track. A total of 40 certificates were conferred between Fall 2011 and Fall 2013. Currently, there are 27 postdocs enrolled in the program.

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Funding Opportunities

Application materials are now available at

http://www.its.utmb.edu/resources/collaborative_studies.html

The ITS is soliciting applications for high quality research projects that will advance translational science by:

• Developing Multidisciplinary Translational Teams (MTTs) • Conducting Pilot Studies • Using Novel Methods • Building Capacity in Clinical Research

MTT Grants (2 years - $75,000 per year) - Available to well-described teams with experienced leadership

• Include investigators (senior and junior) from diverse disciplines and departments • Develop and strengthen partnerships with individual researchers, other departments, and UTMB Centers • Collaborate with the CTSA on a translational project/goal • Provide practical experience in team science competency

Pilot Grants (1 year - $30,000) - Available to UTMB Faculty

• Collect preliminary data for extramural funding of translational research • Priority given to pilots affiliated with active MTTs

Novel Methods Grants (1 year - $30,000) - Available to UTMB Faculty

• Translate novel methods into new classes of biomedical products and practices • May include imaging, biomarkers, phenotyping, mass spectroscopy, assay development, study design,

informatics, or others

Capacity Building in Clinical Research Grants (1 year - $30,000) - Available to UTMB faculty • Support new activities in innovative clinical and translational research • Acquire needed equipment or resources to enhance clinical research • Grants must be developed in collaboration with an ITS Key Resource Director

All applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the Coordination Core at CTSA@utmb.edu or

(409) 747-2872 for help planning their project and identifying relevant ITS resources.

http://www.its.utmb.edu/cores/coordinationCore/coordination_core.html

Important Dates: RFA Posted: March 10, 2014

Application Due: 5:00 pm CST, June 2, 2014 Peer Review: July 1-July 31, 2014 Council Review: August 14, 2014

Earliest Anticipated Start: September 1, 2014

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Are You anITS TRAINEE

or Know SomeoneWho is?

Anyone who might be considered a trainee or learner within any of the ITS resources must com-plete a brief online form. Documenting research training experience is important, as it helps the ITS maintain support for its many training activities. These include MTTs, the CRC, novel methods and pilot project awards, and help from key resources. Trainees can include students in any of the health professions, research and clinical fellows, and facul-ty in career development and mentoring programs. Short term learners who are not in formal training programs are also considered trainees.

Please go to the ITS website and follow the ITS Trainee Registration Form link:

http://biosql.utmb.edu/xampp/redcap/surveys/?s=HGRnCf

Fill out a short form, which can be completed in a few minutes. (If the link above does not work, try copying it into your web browser.)

Note: To respond you must have UTMB login credentials. If responding to the survey from off-campus you will be required to login to the UTMB network via VPN. For those without a UTMB login, please contact the ITS Education Office at ctsa@utmb.edu.

Cartoon by: Gary Larson

On Oct. 23, 1927, three days after its invention,the first rubber band is tested.

the

presents the Spring 2014

The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) is a registered trademark of DHHS

Please join us for the Wine & Cheese Receptionfollowing the seminar in the Levin Hall Foyer.

REDCap WorkshopBruce Luxon, PhD

University of Texas Medical BranchApril 16, 2014

“Models of human decision-making and some potential applications in medicine”

Mike Byrne, PhD

Rice UniversityMay 21, 2014

Topics in Translational ResearchSeminar Series

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COORDINATIONYour point of contact for the CTSA

BIOMEDICAL INFORMATICSProvides infrastructure, expertise, and training in

Biomedical Informatics

BIOSTATISTICS EPIDEMIOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN

Provides integrated statistical support

EDUCATION, TRAINING, AND CAREERDEVELOPMENT

Provides seminars, courses, degree programs, men-toring and other resources that enhance

career-development

ETHICS SUPPORTProvides support and education in research ethics

and research integrity

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & RESEARCHEstablishes and maintains infrastructure to represent community interests among prospective researcher

partners.

NOVEL METHODOLOGIES Develops novel research methods, enabling tools,

and technologies REGULATORY KNOWLEDGE AND SUPPORT

Enables effective navigation of regulatory pathways

TRACKING AND EVALUATIONHelps to refine program activities, improve outcomes

and promote innovation

CLINICAL RESEARCH CENTERProvides inpatient and outpatient support, and facili-

ties including metabolic kitchen, exercise equipment, metabolic cart, underwater weighing and DEXA imag-

ing.

TRANSLATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES Assists with collecting, handling, processing and stor-

ing clinical samples

PILOTS AND COLLABORATIVE STUDIESEvaluates projects and teams for CTSA support and

resource allocation

RESOURCES & SERVICES

MTT TeaMs

• Burns Injury & Hypermetabolic Response

• Reproductive Women’s Health

• Hepatitis C – Hepatocellular Carcinoma

• Pediatric Respiratory Infections – Bronchiolitis

• Obesity & its Metabolic Complications

• Novel Biomarkers & Therapeutics in Addictions & Impulse Control Disorders

• Development of Novel Therapeutics for Clostridium difficile Infection

• Maternal Fetal Medicine

• Phenotypes of Severe Asthma

• Aging Muscle and Sarcopenia

• Pediatric Respiratory Infections-Ear, Nose, & Virus

• Clinical Epidemiology of Estrogens in Asthma

• Development of Novel Therapies for Ad-vanced Colorectal Cancer

• Novel Point-of-Care Diagnostic Tests for Neglected Parasitic Diseases

• Patient-Centered Decision Support in Cancer

In Development:

• Space Life Sciences

• Pathogenesis & Vaccine Development for Arenavirus Infections

• Stem Cell Research

Multidisciplinary translational teams (MTTs) are teams of researchers with diverse skills working effectively toward positive health outcomes. The right people, working together at the right time, and with the right

support, can accomplish far more than can be achieved by working alone. To date, we have formed 11 MTTs on themes related to important health issues.

UTMB Multidisciplinary Translational Teams

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UTMB’s Home for TranslationalSciences

The ITS is enhancing research and training so that more good science can be translated into good medicine and ultimately, healthier communities. How can we HELP

YOU overcome barriers in YOUR research!Contact Us:

CTSA@UTMB.EDU(409) 747-2872

(On campus, dial 7CTSA)

The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) is a registered trademark of DHHS

Translating Discoveries to Medical Practice

Institute forTranslational Sciences