This year’s ACTS summit, themed “Integrating Data Power into Translation,” fostered a vibrant sense of community, enabling researchers from across the country to connect, learn and explore how data integration is shaping the future of translational science.
The CTSI was well-represented at the summit, with numerous team members in attendance and T32 trainees presenting at the poster session:
- T32, Jenna Rajczyk- “Geographic Landscape of U.S. Broadband Availability from 2017 to 2020
- CTSI Predoctoral Training Grant , Jon Fritz- “Biophysical Determinants of Lung Surfactant Dysfunction in Mouse Models of Bacterial Infection and Injurious Ventilation
- T32, Jacob Doon-Ralls- “Adipocyte Extracellular Vesicles (AdEVs) Uptake and Effects on Neutrophil Functionality: Obese vs. Lean
- T32, Leah Stein- “Evaluating Fibroblast Growth Factor receptor (FGFR) Pathway mRNA and Protein Expression in Cholangiocarcinoma Tumors”
- Path to K, Tom Mendel- “Insulin-Assisted Surgical Approach to Pre-Retinal AAV Gene Therapy”
- T32, Erin Zuiker- “MEK1/2 Inhibitor ATR-002 has Dual Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Bacterial Effects During Staphylococcus Aureus Infection
Erin Zuiker received T32 Blue Ribbon award for her poster at ACTS. Each year, the national T32 Directors choose the top 25% of posters at the ACTS for the Blue Ribbon Award.
Congratulations to all our trainees for presenting at ACTS this year. We are proud to see that the future of clinical and translational science is secure with the work of our amazing trainees.
Julie Johnson, PharmD, is the Director and Principal Investigator at The Ohio State University Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
Ms. Bright serves as the Director of Clinical Research Operations for The Ohio State University College of Medicine Center for Clinical Research Management (CCRM), bringing nearly 25 years of extensive expertise in managing clinical research trial operations across the entire spectrum of human subject research. As a clinical exercise physiologist, Michelle has channeled her deep passion for cardiovascular health into overseeing phases I-IV clinical trials focused on cardiac and pulmonary diseases.
Angel Cinco, MPH, MD, joined the Office of Research Regulatory Affairs in 2022 as a regulatory specialist. He manages the neuro-oncology INDs as well as many of our expanded access filings.
Subinoy Das, MD, FACS, is the Chief Executive Officer for the U.S. Institute for Advanced Sinus Care and Research, a Co-Founder of Zotarix, LLC and Chief Medical Officer for Soundtrace, LLC. He is the former Director of The Ohio State University Sinus and Allergy Center. In addition, he was a research associate of the Center of Microbial Pathogenesis at the Research Institute, Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He was an inaugural recipient of a KL2 award from the Ohio State Center for Clinical and Translational Science and his NIH-funded research was awarded the 2013 Edmund Prince Fowler Award (top basic science research award in otolaryngology) for his work on detecting the cause of sinus infections. His patents from this research were licensed to ENTVantage Dx, Inc. 
Jessica Fritter is an Associate Clinical Professor at The Ohio State University, College of Nursing and Director for the Master of Clinical Research, Clinical Research Management Graduate Certificate and Clinical Trials Sciences Undergraduate Certificate programs where she teaches and creates courses that are fundamental to clinical research education. She is involved in the workforce development efforts for The Ohio State’s Clinical Translational Science Institute. 
April Green is the Regulatory Program Manager for Ohio State’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). She has over 14 years of clinical research experience and holds a master’s in clinical and preclinical research (MACPR). She started her clinical research journey as a Clinical Research Coordinator in Ohio State's Cerebrovascular and Neurocritical Care Division working in both in-patient (ED, NCCU, step down) and out-patient settings. She has a special focus on research regulations and has extensive experience with managing and leading large regulatory portfolios. 
Lindsay Hanes is a Clinical Research Manager at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in the Department of Anesthesiology. Her team was established through a collaborative effort between medicine and engineering, primarily working with the Spine Research Institute on device, multi-site and military investigator-initiated trials focused on spine disorders. Previously, Lindsay worked at The James Cancer Center managing industry-sponsored trials. 
Timothy R. Huerta is the Chief Research Information Officer (CRIO) and Associate Dean of Research for the Wexner Medical Center and the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University, the Director of Biomedical Informatics for the NCATS-sponsored Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), and a professor in the Departments of Biomedical Informatics as well as the Department of Family and Community Medicine. 
Carolynn Jones is Clinical Professor and former Director of the Master of Clinical Research Program at the College of Nursing, The Ohio State University. She is also co-director of workforce development for The Ohio State University Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI). She has over 35 years of experience in clinical research, with a focus on clinical translational science, research management and workforce development. She is an originating member of the Joint Task Force for Clinical Research Core Competency and the CRP SIG with the Association of Clinical Translational Science. She additionally serves as the consultant Executive Director of the Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium, working with global key opinion leaders on study development, epidemiology and continuing education.
Dr. Lang Li, PhD, is Professor and Chair in the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University. He has developed and specialized translational research in drug interaction and personalized medicine. Using system pharmacology models, statistical methods and informatics approaches, Dr. Li’s lab translates molecular mechanisms of drug interactions and pharmacogenetics into pharmaco-epidemiology studies and vice versa. Dr. Li successfully identified loratadine/simvastatin interaction induced myopathy in mining both PubMed literature and electronic medical records. Further in vitro studies demonstrated that loratadine/simvastatin interaction induced myopathy is likely due to the direct muscle myocyte toxicity. 
Kristy is the Team Lead for Clinical Research Business Operations for Nationwide Children’s Hospital within the Clinical Research Services Department. Her Feasibility team is responsible for budgetary reviews of both new and ongoing studies, including all phases of research. The types of studies include interventional drug and device, investigator initiated, observational and retrospective studies. Her Operations team manages the Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS)-OnCore, which is utilized for research subject tracking and EPIC/financial billing reconciliation. Additionally, this team has developed and maintains Smartsheet for tracking the status of the hospital’s portfolio of clinical research studies from inception to finalization. Overall, she has over 15 years of experience at Nationwide Children’s including project management, regulatory compliance, quality assurance, Phase I FDA submissions, oncology studies and various CTMS. Prior to her time at NCH, she worked at the Ohio Department of Agriculture testing for Avian Influenza. She is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in Molecular Genetics. 
Grace Wentzel is Deputy Director of SOAR (State of Ohio Adversity and Resilience) which is a comprehensive research effort to understand factors that contribute to risk and resilience at the biological, psychological and social levels to inform and guide new strategies for prevention, treatment, recovery and resilience. Prior to her current role, Grace spent 32 years at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a large pediatric academic medical center, overseeing their centralized clinical research infrastructure. Grace is dually certified with SOCRA and HCCA and continues to be heavily focused on leadership, patient access and engagement and training and education for clinical research professionals. Grace loves to spend as much time as she can with her grandson, family and their charcoal lab at their lake house, boating, watching the sunset and reading a good book.
Jennifer received their Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition from The Ohio State University, where they recently completed my Master's in Clinical Research with a specialization in clinical research management. Jennifer began their career at Ohio State in the Medical Information Management department, where they worked as a Medical Information Management Specialist and Medical Records Coding Specialist. 