Joshua Jacobs, MD, Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) Director and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at RUSH University Medical Center, was awarded the 2024 William W. Tipton Jr., MD, Leadership Award by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). The award is AAOS’ highest leadership honor.

Jacobs, the William A. Hark, MD, Susanne G. Swift Professor at RUSH, is a nationally recognized leader in orthopaedics. With the award, the AAOS recognized his many years of service to the field and the community he serves.

“It is a distinctive honor to receive this award. I had the great fortune of working with Dr. Tipton early in my career, when I was ‘learning the ropes’ of AAOS volunteer service,” Jacobs said. “He was an inspirational leader, who had the ability to evoke the best qualities in people, motivating service for a higher cause.”

Pilot Awards February 2024

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) has selected three winners for its latest round of Pilot Awards that provide $60,000 in funding and ITM resources to kick-start innovative research projects. 

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) has selected three winners for its latest round of Pilot Awards that provide $60,000 in funding and ITM resources to kick-start innovative research projects. 

The winter award-winners from the University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and RUSH will be working on projects to fight cataracts, combat aggressive cancer cells, and address a common hip condition that most people don’t realize they have.  

The ITM has supported more than 35 creative research projects and provided more than $1.9 million to research teams through its Pilot Awards program since 2017. Previous pilot award-winners and finalists have gone on to launch companies, secure millions of dollars in federal funding, build national programs, and more. 

Each round applicants submit a one-page letter of intent, and up to 10 finalists are selected to move forward through a range of free ITM resources in creating a full proposal – including one-on-one coaching, a professional video of the project, study design, biostatistics, community feedback forums, and more. All finalists leave with thousands of dollars in science communication training and content to advance their work. 

Boards of patients, community members, industry experts, and scientists review the Top 10 projects and watch the public-friendly videos as part of the review and selection process. 

Learn more here about the ITM Pilot Awards and submit your one-page letter of intent by Feb. 25, 2024.

Meet the 2023 Chicago ITM Fall Pilot Award Winners

Recycling the Trash from Cataract Surgery to Help People See

Eric
“One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. We can design a new non-surgical treatment like an eye drop that stops calcium in its tracks and might delay cataracts or even prevent them altogether.” – Eric Beyer

Could A New Treatment Stop Aggressive Cancer Cells?

“Our science has shown that tumors rely on a certain protein to thrive, and now we have found a better way to hold this protein back. We are just one step away from a clinical trial.” – Irida Kastrati

Unlocking Hips: Spreading The Word About a Common But Not Commonly Known Condition

“This silent condition is so often overlooked that it didn’t even have a name until 2003. It’s called Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome or FAIS. The problem is many people who have it don’t have early symptoms.” – Alejandro Espinoza Orías

About the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM)

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) helps you live your best life by making research breakthroughs happen and getting those discoveries into the real world to improve your health as soon as possible.
We’re part of a network of more than 50 CTSA Program-supported hubs across the country working to slash the time it takes to develop and share new treatments and health approaches. We work with you and for you to make participating in health research easy, so that together we improve health care for all.
Join the movement and learn more about how we help researchers, physicians, community members, industry, government organizations, and others. Visit us at chicagoitm.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn @ChicagoITM.

ITM Contact: Sara Serritella, Director of ITM Communications, at sara@chicagoitm.org.

This project is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through Grant Numbers UL1TR002389, KL2TR002387, and TL1TR00238 that fund the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

The Sociome Data Commons  – a platform designed by the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) and other partners to explore how non-medical factors like the environment impacts people’s health – was recently featured in a study published in The Journal of Clinical and Translational Science.

The ITM defines the “sociome” as encompassing all the social, environmental, psychological, and behavioral factors that influence health. Often, these are related to where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age. These aspects of humans’ lives impact their health and have nothing to do with a medical chart – and includes traditionally understood social determinants of health along with many other features of lived lives, like exposure to sunshine, noise, trees, and more.

The publication outlines the key features and illustrates the potential impact of this scalable tool through a pilot study of asthma in children living on the South Side of Chicago.

The researchers found that that things like housing conditions and violence worsened children’s asthma.

The article, authored by sociome experts, computer scientists, informaticists, data scientists, and clinicians from multiple ITM institutions, emphasizes the importance of considering social determinants of health when doing research that helps advance health equity.

“This new tool helps investigators use big data technology to make discoveries that could reveal how which aspects of daily living most importantly impact health,” said Sam Volchenboum, MD, PhD, MS, Associate Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine for Informatics. “This asthma pilot study is just the start, and we’re excited to share this platform with others to fuel many more findings to come.”

ITM-UChicago researchers’ findings regarding urgent medical care decisions offered to critically ill patients during the COVID-19 pandemic were published in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine®. Alexandra Tate, PhD, Research Director in the Section of Hospital Medicine, along with Ethan Molitch-Hou, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and their team found that during the pandemic doctors were more likely to document code status preferences for their patients. This increase in documentation was observed for both COVID patients and those without COVID. Their research suggests the increase for COVID patients was likely due to consistent and clear protocols in the COVID unit and uncertainty about the disease, while spillover effects of the behavior help explain the increase for non-COVID patients. Tate credits an ITM Core Subsidy Award that she and Molitch-Hou received in 2021 for helping make the work possible.

 

Sara and Sergio on Save Da Hoomans Float

More than a dozen dogs climbed on a special parade float Oct. 9 as part of their award-winning Save Da Hoomans® campaign, using their puppy eyes and kisses to lobby ABC7Chicago reporters and about 10,000 spectators along Chicago’s State Street to improve human health.

The dog-led Save Da Hoomans® and human-led The New Normal® campaigns are part of an initiative led by Chicago’s top academic medical centers to speed the search for medical breakthroughs and make health research opportunities easily accessible to the public through a matchmaking site. Thousands of humans have already signed up to connect with researchers studying the health topics and conditions they care about the most. Health research can help find answers to everything from how to improve mental health, reduce violence, diagnose or prevent disease, or disover new treatments.

The parade kicked off Illinois’s first state-designated Italian Heritage Month and brought together people of all backgrounds to celebrate human connection and cultural bonds. Entertainers, marching bands, and cheering crowds echoed across downtown Chicago. The dogs were able to mobilize on a special float thanks to a donation from parade chairman Sergio Serritella.

“No clue how they got my number, but the dogs made it clear that they want to help humans be healthy both out of love and because the dogs lack the thumbs necessary to open peanut butter jars,” said Serritella, founder of the investigations firm Vantius. “This is the first time adoptable dogs have been an official part of this parade, and I’m thrilled to support a great cause from innovative universities that benefits both humans and their four-legged friends experiencing homelessness.”

About a dozen adoptable dogs from local animal rescues Wright-Way Rescue and It’s A Pittie Rescue were ambassadors for the Save da Hoomans pack. Each adoptable dog had a reason for saving their (temporary) hooman handler – Dash wanted to save humans from prostate cancer, and Darcy wanted to save humans from breast cancer.

“This is a brilliant campaign, and we’re so excited to team up to help dogs find great homes and help people find new ways to improve their health and that of their family and friends,” said Christy Anderson, executive director and founder of Wright-Way Rescue. “The dogs are very motivated for humans to be in great physical and mental health so they can live their best lives together as best friends!”

The Save Da Hoomans® Campaign is spearheaded by dogs mobilizing to save people from diseases and help find ways for their owners to live healthier, longer lives by sharing what they love and need the most from humans. The dogs of ABC7Chicago’s Cheryl Scott, Samantha Chatman, and Roz Varon have all joined the pack – and you and your dog can, too, at SaveDaHoomans.org. Not into doggolingo? You can also learn more at BeTheNewNormal.org, the human-led side of the campaign.

Check out highlights from the parade in this Instagram reel, including the pups stealing the heart of ABC7Chicago meteorologist Greg Dutra.

Save Da Hoomans

About The New Normal® and Save Da Hoomans® Movement

The New Normal® and Save Da Hoomans® Campaigns are championed by the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM), a partnership between the University of Chicago and Rush in collaboration with Advocate Health Care, the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), Loyola University Chicago, and NorthShore University HealthSystem, as well as the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute and the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). The ITM, NUCATS, and CCTS are fueled by nearly $80 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program. The Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research shared its technology to help connect the public with research opportunities for this initiative. This initiative is also supported by the Chicago Department of Public Health and other regional and national partners who believe in empowering everyone to get involved in making discoveries to improve human health. Learn more and join at www.bethenewnormal.org or savedahoomans.org.

This project is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through Grant Number UL1TR002389 that supports the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM); Grant Number UL1TR001422 that supports NUCATS; Grant Number UL1TR002003 that supports the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS); and Grant Number UL1TR002240 that supports the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

Projects Addressing Violence, Sickle Cell, and Air Pollution Receive ITM Pilot Awards

Chicago ITM Summer 2023 Pilot Award Winners

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) has selected three winners for its latest round of Pilot Awards that provide $60,000 in funding and ITM resources to kick-start innovative research projects, and applications are now open for its next round of funding.

The summer 2023 Pilot Award winners from the University of Chicago and RUSH are working to prevent violence in Chicago with a phone app, predict which sickle cell patients are likely to suffer from a potentially deadly complication, and empower residents in Chicago’s industrial neighborhoods to monitor pollution levels and advocate for cleaner air.

“The ITM is thrilled to help fuel discoveries to help the public live healthier, longer lives,” said Julian Solway, MD, founding Director of the ITM and Dean for Translational Medicine at the University of Chicago. “These projects have the potential to impact people across the country and take another step towards creating a world with health equity.”

The ITM has supported more than 30 creative research projects and provided more than $1.8 million to research teams through its Pilot Awards program since 2017. Previous pilot award-winners and finalists have gone on to launch companies, secure millions of dollars in federal funding, build national programs, and more.

“The ITM Pilot Award Program sets the stage for collaboration across universities and propels creativity with seed funding and guidance on how to shape the most innovative research idea possible,” said Joshua Jacobs, MD, ITM Director and Vice Dean for Research at RUSH Medical College.

Each round applicants submit a one-page letter of intent, and up to 10 finalists are selected to move forward through a range of free ITM resources in creating a full proposal – including one-on-one science communications coaching, a professional video of the project, study design, biostatistics, community feedback forums, and more. All finalists leave with thousands of dollars in science communication training and content to advance their work even if they aren’t selected in the top three for funding.

Boards of patients, community members, industry experts, and scientists review the top 10 projects and watch the public-friendly videos as part of the selection process.

“Involving the community both early in the research process so that their feedback can shape its design and having them sit at the table as reviewers has been a powerful experience for everyone,” said Doriane Miller, MD, ITM Director of Health Equity Integration and Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. “They learn about the projects through the approachable videos as opposed to getting lost in pages of jargon, and that understanding allows them to provide helpful ideas to guide our research teams.”

Meet the 2023 Summer Chicago ITM Pilot Award Winners

Chicago ITM 2023 Pilot Award Winner Chuka Emezue

Could Tech Help Stop Bullets

How a New App Might Help Combat Chicago’s Violence

Chuka Emezue, PhD,
Assistant Professor in the Department of Women, Children and Family Nursing
RUSH 
University
“It was a comprehensive grant preparation strategy. Along the way, I picked up some vital skills I hadn’t used before, such as presenting and communicating my science to different audiences and packaging my science in an elevator speech-style to share via video. As someone involved in CBPR, I found it beneficial to hear from community members directly on the benefits and promise of (our app) BrotherlyACT as a violence prevention digital tool.”
Chicago ITM 2023 Pilot Award Winner Gabby Lapping-Carr

Solving the Mystery of a Rare Disease that Primarily Affects Black People

Gabrielle Lapping-Carr, MD,
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
UChicago Medicine
“The addition of the video component of the grant was stressful for me as an introvert, but a wonderful idea, because it helps you think differently about the work you do and provides you with an additional tool.”
Chicago ITM 2023 Pilot Award Winner Sola Olopade

Could Air Pollution Sensors Help Chicagoans with Asthma?

Christopher Sola Olopade, MD,

Professor of Medicine, Departments of Family Medicine & Medicine

UChicago Medicine
“With the recent experience of the severe polluting effects of the air across the United States from wildfires in Canada, I am hopeful that more people are tuned into the adverse consequences of exposing everyone, especially the most vulnerable in our backyards across the country, to the environmental and health consequences of climate-related air pollution.”

About the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM)

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) helps you live your best life by making research breakthroughs happen and getting those discoveries into the real world to improve your health as soon as possible.

The ITM is a partnership between the University of Chicago and RUSH in collaboration with Advocate Aurora Health, Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), Loyola University Chicago, and NorthShore University HealthSystem that’s fueled by about $51 million in grants from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program.

The ITM is part of a network of more than 50 CTSA Program-supported hubs across the country working to slash the time it takes to develop and share new treatments and health approaches. We work with you and for you to make participating in health research easy, so that together we improve health care for all.

Join the movement and learn more about how we help researchers, physicians, community members, industry, government organizations, and others. Visit us at chicagoitm.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn @ChicagoITM.

ITM Contact: Sara Serritella, Director of ITM Communications

This project is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that supports the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) through Grant Number UL1TR002389.

A new program from the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) provides special training to the public and researchers on teaming up to do powerful studies – and gives $25,000 to teams of community members and researchers who pair up to tackle health issues in ways that resonate with the public.

Many health research projects study specific communities, but they often don’t have a team member from that community involved in the study design from day one. This can lead to everything from study meeting times that don’t work for that group of people to bigger issues that could’ve easily been avoided, had they been involved. This new program spearheaded by ITM-Illinois Tech helps solve that problem, by providing an opportunity for researchers and community members to team up and do powerful studies to improve people’s health together. It’s led by both researchers AND community members.

“Diversity does not mean studying more people,” said Patrick Corrigan, PsyD, the ITM-Illinois Tech site leader and Distinguished Professor of Psychology. “Diversity means partnering with more communities. This is an opportunity for ITM researchers to partner with community members and health concerns of interest to specific communities. ITM 3.0 is meant to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is the absolute grassroots way of doing it.”

The Inspiring Change Research Training Program is made of up three parts – training for community members, training for researchers, and funding for teams sparked from both trainings.

The Community-Engaged Research Seminar: Pipeline to Funding is a four-session training for researchers on conducting community-engaged research. Corrigan and Lindsay Sheehan, PhD, Assistant Professor, will be leading the training. Afterward researchers will have the opportunity to partner with a community member and apply for the Inspiring Change Pilot Grant Awards Program, which offers $25,000 and a more in-depth training on community-engaged research. This training and funding is open to people from all six ITM institutions.

The community members will be pulled from the Community Leaders Institute, which kicks off on May 17. Members of the public will get a four-week training on health research, how it impacts their communities, and how they can get involved in the study design process. Attendees will get up to $500 for participating, depending on how much of the training they attend. Illinois Tech’s Karyn Bolden Stovall and Elliott Morris will be leading this training.

“This training and this type of research process is designed to give the community an equal in say in research that happens in their community, to be leaders of designing interventions that will ultimately impact their communities,” said Stovall, who has been an active community member herself. “It’s designed specifically to provide them with equal power in the research structure.”

Both groups will come together on June 8th for a matchmaking event!

The deadline for both opportunities is 5:00 p.m. on May 10th.

Questions? Contact Karyn Bolden Stovall at kstovall@iit.edu.

A CNN article featured new findings from an ITM-supported RUSH University study that showed the brain health benefits from following the Mediterranean-Dash Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, or the MIND diet.

The study examined the brains of 581 people, who donated their body to the Memory and Aging Project at RUSH. The findings reveal that those who followed the MIND diet, or a similar Mediterranean diet, had healthier brains with few signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

The MIND diet includes foods like fish, poultry, olive oil, nuts, berries, and more.

The MIND diet work at RUSH was spearheaded by Martha Clare Morris, ScD, who was the Community and Collaboration Cluster leader for ITM-RUSH until she passed away in 2020. She leveraged the ITM TRIO Studio to help enrollment in her research on healthy aging.

ITM-UChicago researcher Esra Tasali, MD, received a Clinical Research Award at the Translational Science 2023 conference for her work on sleep health and obesity. Tasali is a Professor in Medicine at UChicago Medicine and the Director of the UChicago Sleep Center. Her research found that sleeping 8.5 hours regularly helps with weight loss and keeping obesity away. Each one-hour increase in the duration of sleep was associated with a decrease in eating about 160 kcal each day, her study found.

The ITM kicked off 2023 with provoking talks at the recently launched ITM Grand Round series! Missed either of the talks? No worries! They’re now available to stream on our YouTube channel!

In February, ITM-Loyola hosted the Grand Rounds and featured a talk from site lead Elaine Morrato, MPH, DrPH, about ITM’s new Implementation Science Core and how it can help researchers.

ITM Grand Rounds in March took place at ITM-UChicago and featured a special guest from University of California-Davis, Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, MD, PhD. Aguilar-Gaxiola presented on an award-winning community-engaged model focused on advancing mental health equity.

The series is an opportunity for members from all six ITM institutions to get together in-person on a monthly basis, a rarity after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When we meet together, we’re able to have deeper and more meaningful conversations,” said Barbara Swanson, PhD, Professor, Department of Adult Health and Gerontological Nursing, College of Nursing at RUSH.

Talks are followed by a reception featuring ample snacks and beverages and plenty of chances to socialize and network.

Watch the February Grand Rounds Here

Watch the March Grand Rounds Here

Register for the upcoming Grand Rounds on April 21st Here

Subscribe to the ITM YouTube channel here so you don’t miss the latest content!

 An ITM-UChicago researcher is exploring what caused a rare condition in a woman from Cleveland, who is the only living person in the world with no sense of touch, pain, or temperature. CBS 2 Chicago covered the story of this ITM-supported project and documentary, which has been picked up by outlets like Yahoo News.Researcher Peggy Mason, PhD, professor of neurobiology at UChicago, first met Kim Stenger in 2014. They embarked on their journey of trying to understand and learn more about Stenger’s rare condition, and over the years became close friends.Stenger, who lives in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, visits Mason in Chicago to continue experiments exploring her lack of sensation. This recent visit also marked Stenger’s first ever TV appearance.The ITM has been following Mason and Stenger’s journey over the past several years and is in the process of making a documentary. Several ITM researchers and physicians, along with the ITM’s Clinical Research Center (CRC) and staff, have contributed to this project.

Nearly 100 university, hospital, community, & patient partners kick-off new era of collaboration

Chicagoland universities and health systems are teaming up to improve health equity in partnership with the Chicago Department of Public Health, community members, nonprofits, and others thanks to a $51 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“Health equity is the opportunity for everyone to have the best wellness they can have,” said Julian Solway, MD, Dean for Translational Medicine at The University of Chicago. “We’re excited to launch special collaborations with people from Chicagoland neighborhoods, nonprofits, and other organizations to co-create research and explore how life experiences interact with human biology to determine health, so that everyone can ultimately enjoy longer, healthier lives.”

Nearly 100 leaders and community partners celebrated the partnership at a red-carpet launch event Nov. 16 at MATTER at The Merchandise Mart, with performances by The Ransom Notes UChicago student a capella group and Yanna Cello. The NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) awarded the grant to the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM), a partnership between The University of Chicago and Rush in collaboration with Advocate Aurora Health, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University Chicago, and NorthShore University HealthSystem. More than 9.4 million people across Chicagoland live in the ITM coverage area, spanning Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kendall, Will, Peoria, Woodford, McLean, Livingston, Kankakee, Winnebago, DeKalb, and McHenry Counties in Illinois, as well as Lake County, Indiana.

“The environment, access to green space, violence, lifestyle activities, the food we eat, stress, and more affect everyone’s physical health. We hope to uncover solutions that could only be found by engaging the public at every level of research on the topics they care about the most,” said Solway, Founding Director of the ITM.
People who live in different geographic areas can take advantage of new jobs at the ITM to bridge the gap between Chicagoland neighborhoods and universities and health systems. “It’s critical to understand the range of people’s lived experiences so that they can advocate for the health causes they care about and advise researchers on how best to design studies that will benefit them,” said Josh Jacobs, MD, ITM Director and Vice Dean for Research at Rush Medical College. “This grant gives the public a platform to do that unlike ever before.”
This initiative was motivated in part by The Chicago Department of Public Health’s Health Chicago 2025 community health improvement plan to address health inequity.
“There are health equity issues that exist in many communities, whether the communities are defined by geography, race, ethnicity, or other characteristics and groups, such as the LGBTQI or migrants,” said Doriane Miller, MD, Professor of Medicine at The University of Chicago and ITM Director of Health Equity Integration.
This funding will also launch a Community-Based Research Network of nonprofits and other organizations who want to address the health issues plaguing their members by working with physicians and researchers.
“So much of our health goes beyond what is examined in the doctor’s office where you undergo a physical exam and have your blood pressure checked,” said Lainie Ross, MD, PhD, ITM Director. “A lot of our health is based on social factors like what you eat for breakfast and at what time, how often you exercise, whether you live near a highway or park, how much sunlight you get every day, and other things that are often not addressed.  We need to better integrate clinical variables with social and emotional variables.”

Explore

About the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM)

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) helps you live your best life by making research breakthroughs happen and getting those discoveries into the real world to improve your health as soon as possible.
We’re part of a network of more than 50 CTSA Program-supported hubs across the country working to slash the time it takes to develop and share new treatments and health approaches. We work with you and for you to make participating in health research easy, so that together we improve health care for all.
Join the movement and learn more about how we help researchers, physicians, community members, industry, government organizations, and others. Visit us at chicagoitm.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn @ChicagoITM.
This project is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through Grant Numbers UL1TR002389, KL2TR002387, and TL1TR00238 that fund the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
Media Contact: Sara Serritella, Director of ITM Communications, serritella@uchicago.edu

Course on Battling Misinformation Makes Media Headlines

Students from around the world have the opportunity to both dive into biomedicine and build science communication skills through a new one-year Master’s program at The University of Chicago.
The Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences (MBS) is now accepting applications for its first class that will kick off in Fall 2023. The new degree offering is a collaborative effort between the Office of Master’s Education and several UChicago members of the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program hub, and features opportunities to choose concentrations in biomedical data science, health systems science, and science communication.
“The ITM is thrilled to champion this with our UChicago partners,” said Julian Solway, MD, Founding Director of the ITM and Dean for Translational Medicine at UChicago. “We’ve seen the power of combining training in science and communication and how it helps our faculty and trainees connect with the community, and we’re excited to help extend this education along a bigger stretch of the translational science spectrum.”
The ITM is a partnership between the University of Chicago and Rush in collaboration with Advocate Aurora Health, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University Chicago, and NorthShore University HealthSystem. ITM-UChicago members who created the new BMS program include Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP, Dean for Medical Education at the Pritzker School of Medicine; Valerie Press, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics; Sara Serritella, ITM Director of Communications and UChicago Lecturer, and Samuel Volchenboum, MD, PhD, Dean for Master’s Education, ITM Associate Director, and Associate Chief Research Informatics Officer.
“This program gives students the unique opportunity to experience many facets of biomedical science as well as the communications tools necessary for their knowledge to impact individual people, health systems, and the world at large,” said Arora, Founding Director of BMS.
UChicago Launches New Master’s in Biomedical Sciences with CTSA-led Science Communication Track
An accelerated science communication course on battling misinformation taught by Arora and Serritella recently made newspaper, television, and radio headlines. The course gave professionals across medicine, pharmacy, and nursing skills to identify and address the wave of misinformation they said they’re seeing across health care.
“This course really provided medical professionals like myself with the ability to become trusted messengers, to understand what misinformation is, how it spreads and turning social media on its head so that we as clinicians can advocate for getting the correct information out to the public and set some rumors straight,” said course alumna Michal Germain, RN, during an interview with Chicago’s NPR station.
The course on harnessing the power of storytelling, infographics, and social media to fight misinformation is just one of the science communications courses available to students in the new Master’s program. It comes at a time when the U.S. Surgeon General has deemed misinformation a threat to public health. And with almost 90 percent of adults lacking the health literacy they need to navigate the healthcare system, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Serritella said science communications skills are critical to improving people’s health and creating public policies that work.
“You can’t have health equity without health literacy, and students here can learn and experience biomedical science as well as how to engage the public and communicate clearly to a variety of communities at different reading levels,” said Serritella, Faculty Leader of the BMS Science Communication Concentration.
The BMS program is designed to give students from a variety of backgrounds powerful experiences across basic lab, clinical, biomedical data, health systems, and communication science.
“This program allows everyone to explore biomedicine and the ways it can open doors into several booming career paths,” said Volchenboum, Dean for Master’s Education. “While you do need to be a strong applicant, you do not have to have majored in science to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Register here to meet the faculty and join a dynamic online Q&A session from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. on Nov. 7. Early applicants who submit by Jan. 15 will benefit from waived application fees. For admission inquiries, contact the Office of Master’s Education at bsd-masters@uchicago.edu.

The first Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) Grand Rounds event kicked off Oct. 7 at Rush University Medical Center with a grand tour to the more than 80 attendees across six Chicagoland institutions on the new ways the ITM can support their research and goals for working towards health equity.

ITM Directors Julian Solway, MD, Lainie Ross, MD, PhD, and Joshua Jacobs, MD, helped launch the monthly series by sharing the latest ITM resources and opportunities, fueled by millions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program. ITM Grand Rounds will highlight new resources and discoveries throughout the year and provide an in-person venue for people to connect and collaborate over food and refreshments.

Inaugural ITM Grand Rounds Kicks Off to More than 80 Attendees
ITM Grand Round

“It was wonderful to gather with our colleagues in this way for the first time in more than two years,” Solway said. “This is where spontaneous connections and ideas are sparked, creating a special place for people to harness ITM resources and do things that might not otherwise be possible.”

Solway shared a new way of looking at healthcare through the “sociome,” where little details about people’s daily lives impact their health beyond just the medication that they receive. For example, how do you know if a medication for asthma works if someone is living in a home with mold and cockroaches?
Ross shared new opportunities to help address those issues.
“These problems provide a unique opportunity to come together and create new solutions in a space like ITM Grand Rounds,” Ross said. “We’re looking forward to gathering everyone each month about a new topic and working together to improve human health.”
New ITM programs, such as the ITM Navigator Network of community members, will work with researchers on things like developing study teams, navigating institutional resources across Chicagoland, and engaging the public.

Jacobs closed out the evening by showcasing ways the ITM helps researchers improve public health and deliver health information to the public, through opportunities like the ITM Pilot Awards, the KL2 Program, and The New Normal™ Campaign.

ITM Inaugural
Inaugural ITM Grand Rounds
“The whole point of the ITM and its national network is to disseminate knowledge and to translate advancements in science to improvements in health,” Jacobs said. “These programs are a way to provide science communications, education, and research resources so there can be breakthroughs.” 

Each ITM Grands Rounds event ends with a reception and opportunity to sync with colleagues and forge new connections with people from across the region. This new monthly series is spearheaded by UChicago’s Nathan Schoettler, MD, and Raghu Mirmira, MD, PhD. ITM Grand Rounds is part of the ITM’s Translational Endeavors Core that’s led by UChicago’s Eric Beyer, MD, PhD, and coordinated by Les Cooke. 

“It was awesome,” said Santosh Basapur, PhD, Assistant Professor at Rush and one of the leaders of the TRIO studios. “I’m really excited for the new journey of the next five years and the new sociome agenda.”


Missed the event? Check out presentations here! And save the date for the next ITM Grand Rounds from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18, at MATTER in the Merchandise Mart. Secure your spot for dynamic TED-like talks and more here.

ITM Conference
Interprofessionals in health care learned how to fight misinformation in a special accelerated science communication course for advanced students in medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. 
The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) and The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine collaborated with colleagues across fields to teach health care professionals how to harness the power of storytelling and infographics to combat misinformation and communicate with the general public. 
“When we think about the future and with the reemergence of things like polio, we need to make sure we’re teaching tomorrow’s health professionals how to tackle things in way that reaches the public where they’re at,” said Vinny Arora, MD, ITM investigator, course co-instructor, and Dean for Medical Education at the Pritzker School of Medicine, in The Chicago Tribune story
Almost 90 percent of Americans lack the literacy needed to navigate the health care system, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Vinny and Sara

Vinny Arora & Sara Serritella

“We’re trying to essentially make it a fair fight,” said Sara Serritella, Director of Communications for the Institute for Translational Medicine and co-instructor of the course, in The Chicago Tribune story . “As we saw during the pandemic,this whole crisis of having to communicate science in a way that builds trust can literally be life or death.”

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded the team an Innovation Grant to launch the course. This work was also fueled by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program that supports the ITM.

This project was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through Grant Number 5UL1TR002389-05 that funds the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

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