MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH: News You Can Use! Vol I

The SC CTSI's inaugural Translational Science Day on Wednesday, November 7th was a great success with over 200 in attendance. The purpose of the event was to get the research community excited about translational science by showing them how translational research works and by inspiring them to translate their own work. The morning session focused on bench-to-bedside translation and the afternoon session focused on bedside-to-community translation. Attendees enjoyed keynote addresses by world-renowned researchers, panel discussions, a poster session, and a networking reception.

AM SESSION: Bench-to-Bedside Translation

Keynote Speaker

V. Craig Jordan, OBE, PhD, DSc, FMedSc

Scientific Director

Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

Georgetown University

During his keynote address, Dr. Jordan, also known as "the Father of Tamoxifen" (the current gold standard in breast cancer therapy), inspired us by sharing his experiences during four decades of discovery, connecting the laboratory to the clinic. His translational research advancing Tamoxifen from the laboratory to the clinic has saved the lives of an estimated one million women worldwide.

Panel: "Creating New Diagnostics and Therapeutics: (How) Can Academia Do Better?"

Following his keynote address, Dr. Jordan chaired a panel discussion with university leaders, researchers, and representatives from the business community and industry on how event attendees could translate their own work and on how to better enable translational research at USC and with our partners. Panelists included Yaniv Bar-Cohen, MD, Director, Cardiac Rhythm Devices, CHLA; Stephen Freedman, PhD, VP Corporate Liaison & Ventures, Gladstone Institute; Stephen Gruber, MD, PhD, MPH, Director, Cancer Center, USC; Sarah Hamm-Alvarez, PhD, Vice Dean of Research, Pharmacy, USC; Jae Jung, PhD, Chair, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, USC; Gregory Naeve, PhD, Head, Strategic Research Partnerships, Pfizer San Francisco; and Don Oparah, PhD, Founder and CEO, VAI Global.

LUNCH, POSTER SESSION, INTERACTIVE BOOTHS

The lunch featured interactive demo stations for the launch of USC Health Sciences Researcher Profiles (USC Profiles) - an exciting,
new web-based, researcher networking tool. It enables the discovery of health research expertise at USC and allows for new ways to network and collaborate between researchers, between mentors and mentees, between researchers and community or industry partners, and much more. Learn more at profiles.sc-ctsi.org.

The lunch also featured a poster session with 49 posters from clinical and translational researchers across USC. An iPad was awarded to poster presenter Douglas Vanderbilt, MD for his research poster titled, Risk Factors for Impaired Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Infants with Twin-Twin Syndrome.

PM SESSION: Bedside-to-Community Translation

Keynote Speaker

Lloyd Michener, MD

Chair, Department of Community and Family Medicine

Duke University

Dr. Michener's research focuses on health care redesign to improve community health outcomes. During his keynote address, he shared his perspective on how healthcare reform provides a unique opportunity to design and evaluate new models of care to achieve better outcomes. Specifically, he discussed the prevention of chronic diseases and highlighted his innovative community-based research efforts to redesign healthcare to improve health outcomes in Durham, North Carolina.

Panel: "Shaping Policies & Informing Innovative Models of Care Through Academic-Community Partnerships"

After his keynote address, Dr. Michener led a discussion with panelists and attendees on the role academic-community partnered research could/should play in shaping policies and informing the development and evaluation of new models of care. Panelists included Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, PhD, Director, Tobacco Education & Material Lab (TEAM Lab), USC; Anish Mahajan, MD, MS, MPH , Director, System Planning, Improvement and Data Analytics, LA County Dept of Health Services; Matthew Meyer, PhD, Vice President of Best Practices, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services; Zul Surani, Community Outreach / Partnerships Specialist, Patient Education and Community Outreach Center, Keck School of Medicine of USC; and Steven Teutsch, MD, MPH, Chief Science Officer LA County Deptartment of Public Health.

A networking reception wrapped up the day.

Dr. Michener with Michele Kipke, PhD, Director, Community Engagement, SC CTSI

Submitted by Holly Kiger, RN, MN, CNS, Research Navigator, SC CTSI, Community Engagement