CTSI Annual Forum scheduled for March 20

The UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) 2024 Annual Forum will be held on Wednesday, March 20.

The forum will run from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Murphy Family Seminar Room (5019 A&B) at the Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The full agenda and registration information are available now on the CTSI website.

Reflecting on last year’s return to an in-person format, CTSI Director Timothy F. Murphy, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor, said that “being together in the CTRC in 2023 was a reminder of the extraordinary personal interactions and collaborative discussions that the Annual Forum is meant to foster. The 2024 forum is shaping up to be another fascinating event — an opportunity to appreciate the translational science efforts of our Buffalo Translational Consortium (BTC) investigators and to look at what’s to come.”

The Annual Forum opens at 12:30 p.m. with welcoming remarks from Murphy and from UB Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Allison Brashear, MD, MBA.

Next are updates from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) presented by Jennie Conroy, PhD, Program Director, Division of Clinical Innovation, CTSA Program Branch, NCATS, National Institutes of Health. Murphy will follow Conroy with a “State of the CTSI” address, in which the CTSI Director will outline some recent achievements and discuss the vision for the institute’s future.

The event will feature a keynote address from Marc Halterman, MD, PhD, Senior Associate Dean and Executive Director, Office of Research, Jacobs School, “Lung-brain Coupling in Acute Ischemic Stroke: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities.” The highly respected physician-scientist began his Jacobs School positions in October. He most recently served as the chair of the Department of Neurology and co-director of the Neurosciences Institute at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

The forum will conclude with 2023 BTC Clinical Research Achievement Awards presentations, introduced by Clinical Research Achievement Awards Oversight Committee Chair Anne B. Curtis, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Medicine, Jacobs School.

Top Award recipient Leonard H. Epstein, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Division Chief, Behavioral Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Jacobs School, will discuss his study titled “Family-based Behavioral Treatment for Childhood Obesity Implemented in Pediatric Primary Care.”

Finalist Ram Samudrala, PhD, Professor and Chief, Division of Bioinformatics, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Jacobs School, will discuss his study titled “Multiscale Analysis and Validation of Effective Drug Combinations Targeting Driver KRAS Mutations in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer,” while  Robert Fenstermaker, MD, Professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology, Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, Director, Neuro-Oncology Program, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, will discuss his study titled “Phase IIa Study of SurVaxM Plus Adjuvant Temozolomide for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma.”

Read more about the Clinical Research Achievement Awards and the 2023 winners in a recent CTSI feature.