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CSRD Newsletter

Vol. 5, No. 7, 2023.7.27

Miriam's Message

For the first time in the history of ORD, the recipients of the Barnwell and Middleton Awards were VA researchers from the same station: the San Francisco VA Health Care System. The Barnwell Award was presented to Kristine Yaffe, MD and Judith Ford, PhD, was the recipient of the Middleton Award.

The on-site presentation of the 2022 Awards was scheduled for June 29, 2023. Unfortunately for me, my trip there was impacted by airline issues, and I got no further than Houston. Fortunately, Dr. Holly Krull (Acting Director/BLRD) made it to San Francisco and represented both Services on-site. I joined remotely from a hotel room at IAH. The wonderful award event, organized by an excellent local team, included a Research Symposium, BL/CS Town Hall, and Award Ceremony. Each awardee is pictured below with Dr. Krull.

Barnwell Awardee: Dr. Kristine Yaffe

The John B. Barnwell Award (Barnwell Award) is the Department of Veterans Affairs highest honor for clinical research and recognizes senior VHA investigators who have achieved national and international acclaim for clinical research accomplishments in areas of prime importance to VA’s research mission. The 2022 Award recognizes Dr. Yaffe’s exemplary record of involvement in, and service to, the VA (27 years) and to clinical science and her significant impact as one of the most highly regarded researchers in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Dr. Yaffe is an internationally recognized leader in the field of cognitive impairment leading to dementia. She was one of the first investigators to recognize the vulnerable dementia risk profile of Veterans due to the unique stressors involved with military service. Dr. Yaffe has almost single-handedly defined the field of dementia epidemiology. Ten years ago, few policymakers or clinicians considered modifiable risk factors for dementia. Now, however, all our leading scientific organizations and governmental institutions have incorporated risk factor reduction as a core tenet of dementia prevention. Dr. Yaffe’s work fully informed this evolution. She has also contributed significantly to the LIMBIC-CENC program, addressing the scientific, diagnostic, and therapeutic ramifications of TBI and its long-term effects. I want to touch on Dr. Yaffe’s mentoring successes. She has mentored 28 VA career development awardees and the majority of her mentees have advanced to independent research programs, thriving in academic research, and garnering national and international recognition for their influential research (over 150 peer reviewed articles with mentees as first author).

Middleton Awardee: Dr. Judith Ford

The William S. Middleton Award (Middleton Award) is the highest honor awarded annually by the Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service (BLR&D) to senior VA biomedical research scientists in recognition of their outstanding scientific contributions and achievements in the areas of biomedical and bio-behavioral research relevant to the healthcare of Veterans. Middleton Award recipients have achieved international acclaim for research accomplishments in areas of prime importance to VA's research mission. Dr. Judith Ford was awarded the 2022 Middleton Award in recognition of her seminal contributions to the field of Psychiatry. Her basic science to translational research in biological psychiatry has transformed our understanding of psychotic illnesses in Veterans. Dr. Ford is credited with elucidating the basic neural mechanism that enables animals to distinguish between self- and other-generated sensations. This finding provided the basis for Dr. Ford's groundbreaking translational research where she reported that people with schizophrenia “have less attenuation of cortical responses” to “self” generated sounds, which led to a series of demonstrations of similar deficits in schizoaffective and psychotic bipolar disorders. Dr. Ford, using state-of-the-art techniques, reported that this “poor” suppression may be due to the altered integrity of white matter tracks connecting speech production and reception areas. This provided fundamental insights into understanding the neurobiological basis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Her research career is a shining example of a visionary scientist who has created an innovative framework to elucidate the pathophysiology underlying mental disorders affecting Veterans and to reassure Veterans that their psychotic symptoms have a neurobiological basis. Additionally, Dr. Ford is a Senior Research Career Scientist in CSRD and is a beloved member of the CSRD community. She has stepped up in various ways over the years to support CSRD efforts. We sincerely thank her for that. --from the desk of Dr. Miriam Smyth, Acting Director, CSRD

Intent-to-Fund Notices Have Been Sent

The CSRD margin meeting for the recent funding cycle was held on July 13 and “Intent-to-Fund” notices have been sent to stations.

Have a Question about CDA Awards?

On July 26, CSRD Health Science Specialist Eric Schwinder spoke virtually with a group of psychology postdoctoral fellows at the VA Boston Healthcare System about VA Career Development Awards.  The Q&A session covered a variety of topics, including the funding mechanisms available, specific requirements for the mentoring team, project duration and budget, and the Letter of Intent process.  If your VA Medical Center has a group of early-career investigators who might be interested in learning more about our Career Development funding opportunities, please reach out about hosting a similar Q&A session:  VHACADEREview@va.gov.

Annual CDA Symposium Held

BLRD and CSRD hosted our annual Symposium for Career Development Award (CDA) recipients on July 17 and 18.  A total of 50 investigators participated representing two cohorts:  those with CDAs beginning in 2020 and those with CDAs beginning in 2022.  The agenda included remarks from leadership; a panel discussion on the ORD realignment; presentations by CDA program alumni, who have moved on to VA Merit Review Funding, and experts in Artificial Intelligence; and sessions on proposal writing, lab management, the Million Veteran Program, VA Tech Transfer Program, and the VA Central IRB.  There were also opportunities for our CDA recipients to present their own research and to network with one another and their ORD Scientific Portfolio Managers.  Thank you to CSRD’s Dr. Mark Roltsch and Eric Schwinder for planning, organizing, conducting, and moderating another successful CDA Symposium that provided the opportunity to hear from early career investigators, answer their questions, introduce them to various ORD stakeholders, and build community.

Dr. Rettig's Study Featured on Fox News

Congratulations to CSRD investigator Dr. Matthew Rettig and his team for their study being featured on Fox News for enterprising work looking at artificial intelligence to predict prostate cancer. Dr. Rettig is chief of oncology at the Greater Los Angeles VA Medical Center and a multiple principal investigator for the study. Other MPIs on the team are Dr. Nicholas NIckols and Dr. Isla Garraway from GLA, Dr. Anant Madabhushi from the Atlanta VA and Dr. Beatrice Knudsen from the Salt Lake City VA. The study will analyze data from more than 5,000 Veterans. “A digital repository for data will allow for development, testing, and validation of prognostic classifiers that could impact clinical management of Veterans with high-risk prostate cancer,” Dr Rettig said. "The infrastructure developed by this research will serve as a valuable hub for future discovery and … serve as a roadmap to develop similar AI algorithms for other cancers, such as lung cancer and even non-cancerous diseases that commonly affect our Veterans." 

Please Note for eRA Just-In-Time

The deadline for Fall 2022 applications in eRA Just-In-Time (JIT) is August 15, 2023. Principal Investigators (PI) and stations with open applications in eRA JIT should endeavor to upload and submit documents to respective JIT areas that remain outstanding. It is recommended that JIT areas are completed incrementally, as soon as documents are available, rather than waiting until all documents are ready before submitting to eRA JIT. Incremental upload of documents to the appropriate eRA JIT area gives ORD staff sufficient time to make decisions on each JIT area.

If a JIT extension waiver is needed, please submit a request using the ORD JIT Extension Request form. Requests for a 30-day extension (at most 60-day extension for first time requests) should be submitted to eRA JIT or the vhacoblcsrdjit@va.gov mailbox. The justification memo should be detailed and include specifics of current progress on the outstanding JIT items, steps being taken to complete the items, revisions being made in response to IRB or R&D, and an approximate timeline for completion. The PI should prepare the document and the ACOS/R should sign the JIT extension request memo prior to submission.

CSRD DMC is Seeking Members

The CSRD Data Monitoring Committee (DMC), that provides data and safety monitoring for CSRD-funded projects, is seeking biostatisticians, neurologists, and other new members. For more information, please contact DMC Manager Dr. Tamara Paine at Tamara.Paine@va.gov.

CSRD Contact Information

Career Development: VHACADEReview@va.gov

Clinical Trials: clin-review@va.gov

General Mailbox: VHABLRD-CSRD@va.gov  (Please note this is a shared mailbox that should be used for general questions that will triaged by staff to the appropriate individual.)

Just-in-Time Mailbox: VHACOBLCSRDJIT@va.gov

Newsletter:  Lucindia.Shouse@va.gov

Scientific Portfolio/Program Managers: BLR&D and CSR&D Contact Information (va.gov)