February 2025 Research Bulletin

Upcoming round table to focus on clinical research peer mentorship program

The Clinical Research Workforce Development Team hosts a Round Table series for clinical research professionals to connect and build community. Each Round Table is focused on a topic and an exchange ideas.

Please join us for our next Round Table, focusing on the Clinical Research Peer Mentorship Program. Lunch will be provided.

Tue, March 4 | Noon – 1 PM
Academic Office Building (AO1), Room 7000, E. Chester Ridgway Board Room

We are exploring adding a virtual option. If you are interested in a virtual option, please complete this form so we may gauge interest. For questions or more information, please contact researchworkforce@cuanschutz.edu.

Educational, round-table and fellowship opportunities at the CCTSI

The CCTSI helps train and build the research teams of the future, and one of our leaders in training and education is Anne Libby, PhD. Over the years, she has launched and led many high-impact educational courses for thousands of members of our research community. A few years ago, she launched Researcher Management and Leadership Training on Coursera. In that time, more than 20,000 individuals have signed up for the course. I recommend you read about the course along with her new grant writing training and podcast on Spotify called From the Mentors Desk! 

Speaking of educational opportunities, our I-Corps@CCTSI short course is now accepting new teams of innovators who want to learn about customer discovery as they plan to bring their innovation or idea to market. 

Research Studio is now taking applications for structured and collaborative round-table discussions that bring together relevant research experts to help investigators with specific questions at a specific stage in the research process. 

And if you are a pre- or post-doctoral trainee, you may want to apply to the CCTSI T32 fellowships for funding and training. Read more about the T32 pre-doctoral and post-doctoral opportunities; the deadline for both is March 10.

Schwartz gives Chancellor's Distinguished Research Lecture

On Feb. 4, Dr. David Schwartz, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Immunology and Associate Dean for Translational Sciences at the School of Medicine, presented the Chancellor's Distinguished Research Lecture titled "From Discovery to Insight: Uncovering the Role of MUC5B in Lung Fibrosis” to the campus community. He is a recipient of the 2024 Chancellor's Distinguished Research Lectureship Award.

Dr. Schwartz has made numerous contributions toward understanding the role of the environment and human genome in the development of complex human diseases. These efforts have provided new insights into the genetics, epigenetics and genomics of pulmonary fibrosis, asthma and innate immunity. His lab was the first to clone the human TLR4 gene and demonstrate that variation in this gene decreased immune responsiveness to endotoxin, enhanced the risk of Gram-negative sepsis and protected individuals from the development of coronary artery disease.

In addition, the Schwartz lab demonstrated the importance of locus-specific DNA methylation in the development of allergic airway disease by directing the maturation of T lymphocytes toward a Th2 phenotype. Most recently, his work has led to the recognition that genetic susceptibility—and specifically MUC5B—plays a role in the etiology and pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis, which was the subject of his lecture.

Congratulations to Dr. Schwartz! 

PIs and Key Personnel: Prepare for changes to NIH Forms and Common Forms

Thank you for sharing your recent communications and official documents from funders through our campus federal transition team intake form. We have received a number of questions through the form about the NIH Diversity Supplements, No Cost Extensions and the statuses of study sections. The overall situation remains fluid and below are three new “Frequently Asked Questions” and guidance for our research community. These FAQs have also been added to the Federal Transition Updates for Researchers web page on the OVCR website.

Q: What is the status of new National Institutes of Health (NIH) Diversity Supplements?  
A: The Office of Grants and Contracts has received responses from a few NIH agencies that they are holding the issuance of new Diversity Supplements currently, and it is unclear if this mechanism will be available in the future. We will continue to follow up on the status. We have not received guidance on the status of Diversity Supplements that are active and awarded.   

Q: What is the status of No Cost Extensions (NCE) at NIH?   
A: The Office of Grants and Contracts (OGC) learned from our research community about a temporary change that occurred in the NIH’s eRA Commons software that tracks applications and manages and reports on federally funded awards. Researchers reported that the option to request a no-cost extension had disappeared from the software. OGC inquired about this change and the NIH informed them that there had been a process change.  

On February 15, the option to request a no-cost extension reappeared. OGC has submitted the NCEs, as requested, and has started to receive Notices of Awards for the NCEs.  

Q: What is the status of NIH study sections?  
A: Funding applications to the NIH are reviewed in study sections (i.e., Scientific Review Groups or SRGs). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline. The status of the scheduling of study sections is unclear, as typically scheduled meetings are either occurring inconsistently or not at all. We will continue to monitor the status of study sections.

Construction notice: RC1 vivarium  

Throughout 2025, the RC1 vivarium will have construction to replace all of the air valves. The upgrade requires shutdown of the heating and ventilation system, so the work will be phased in room blocks to ensure that the facility remains operational. Work on the room blocks will require animals to be moved to alternate locations while their spaces are upgraded. Noise may also be an issue during the day while work is conducted in the mechanical areas. Communication specific to the timing of each space will be sent to each affected group in advance.

Recent promotions for Heldens, Williamson and Lowry

I am excited to share news about recent promotions and reorganizations within COMIRB and our Human Research Protection Program. I would also like to share bittersweet news about an upcoming retirement. 

Please join me in congratulating the following staff on their well-deserved promotions: 

John Heldens was promoted to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Research Protections. John has been an integral part of our team since becoming the Director of COMIRB on November 1, 2016. Under his leadership, COMIRB has made significant improvements in supporting the mission of the university while maintaining protection of human participants. 

To enhance our operations and position ourselves for future growth, we have moved our Quality Improvement and External IRB teams under COMIRB and John. Over the course of 2025, we will consolidate the activities for External IRBs and for COMIRB serving as a single IRB activities under a single unit, the IRB Reliance team. 

Christy Williamson was promoted to COMIRB Assistant Director, Quality Assurance and IRB Reliances. Christy has been an integral part of our Quality Assurance and Clinical Research Support teams since 2012. In her new role she will implement this re-organization. We are in the final process of hiring additional team members under Christy, and are working with VCR Quality Improvement leadership to optimize the new organization. 

Ryan Lowry was promoted to COMIRB Assistant Director. Ryan Lowry started with COMIRB in 2016 and has been the IRB manager for Panels A and B since 2018. Ryan has been an outstanding contributor to COMIRB's growth. In his new role Ryan will consult more with our faculty as they work through protocol design and IRB considerations, as well as oversee day-to-day operation of our local IRBs.

Douse to retire in April

Please join me in thanking Mark Douse, Director of IACUC, IBC, DURC and the Radiation Safety Committees, for all his your hard work in support of a broad range of research over an impressive career!

Mark will be retiring on April 1, 2025, after 32 years of service to the university. He joined CU as an Assistant Professor, Pulmonary, in 1993 and became the IACUC Director of the 9th/Colorado facility in 1996. With enthusiasm and humor, he has developed a team of research administration professionals that work closely with OLAR, Environmental Health & Safety and COMIRB to support research on the Anschutz campus.

Mark has been the key “go-to” person for many faculty on campus and he has helped them navigate the regulatory environment and applied the regulations in a thoughtful, compliant and ethical manner.

We wish him well in the next phase of his life after CU which I understand includes exploring the USA in his new campervan and lots of fun time with the grandchildren.

New web-based database of research funding opportunities

The Office of Research Development and Strategy is pleased to announce Pivot-RP, a comprehensive web-based database of research funding opportunities from a variety of federal and non-federal sponsors across all disciplines of research. With Pivot, users can customize funding search results to their research interests, save and track search results, and more. Consult our user guide as you set up your Pivot account and start building your own library of research funding opportunities.

Did you know Health Data Compass offers Self-Service Data Delivery tools? 

These tools are the perfect option for those who want to quickly and easily explore our data assets and self-serve cohort data. Perfect for discovery and hypothesis generation. Our self-service databases provide a variety of deidentified patient information. Please note that Self-Service Data Delivery will remain free to our customers after March 3, 2025, when Compass’ Custom Data Delivery service pricing will increase. We want to assure our customers who have active projects that they will not be affected by this price increase. Learn more and get started. 

Call for applicants: SCORE Fellowship for research training