January 2020

Issue 1

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Letter From the President

Dear colleagues,

ACTS is committed to being a forward-looking organization, preparing ourselves for the team science of the 2020s, and accelerating advances in research that translate to improved health. Last year the ACTS Board and the Translational Science 2019 (TS19) organizing committee committed to highlighting precision medicine as a lens to focus that future vision. The range of definitions for “precision medicine” is much broader than the impactful genomic medicine. For many of us, the raison d’être for PM is to reduce or eliminate health disparities.

The diverse strategies and tactics that different academic centers are experimenting with in order to implement a precision approach presents a sharing opportunity for CTSA hubs and partners. There are two opportunities to share your PM experiences at TS20 so that we can learn from one another. First there are many abstracts and sessions at TS20 that use this precision lens to advance research. Several of our plenary speakers are visionaries in precision medicine and precision population health.

Second is our Precision Medicine Community. Recognizing the importance of this opportunity, ACTS developed the concept of the “Precision Medicine Community” at TS19 — a physical space with posters that was present throughout the full meeting to be a venue where we could share those ideas and experiences. These posters were not intended to be “data” posters but rather descriptions of approaches which prompted discussion. These posters did not require abstracts to be submitted through the abstract portal, and the coffee hour for gathering provided a mechanism to highlight the community of investigators and posters.

For TS20 we intend to build on the momentum established at TS19 and present an even more exciting Precision Medicine Community 2020. We encourage posters about precision medicine that highlight the tools and teams that you have developed. We want posters about precision medicine initiatives and of course to engage in discussion with all of our trainees about how and where innovation in medical science is taking discovery to delivery in their careers. These issues are directly in the ‘wheel house’ of the CTSA program, and TS20 provides an ideal opportunity for our Hubs to leverage the value of CTSA consortium in accelerating effective translation. This year the Community will also include NIGMS-sponsored CTRs from IDeA states and companies involved in this content space.

Please encourage members of your precision medicine programs to submit an abstract for the Precision Medicine Community and attend TS20. This is truly an opportunity to demonstrate a key value of our expanding, strengthened consortium. Abstracts, in reality a brief programmatic description, can be submitted directly to Kim Wiatr, Interim Executive Director of ACTS at kwiatr@actscience.org.

Frederick J. Meyers, MD, MACP
President ACTS

Robert P. Kimberly, MD
Immediate Past President ACTS

Translational Science 2020

There is still time to submit nominations for Translational Science 2020 awards! Honor your fellow investigators and educators for their contributions to translational science. Self nominations are welcome.

Explore the awards and submit nominations by Friday, January 10.

Submit Nominations

Journal of Clinical and Translational Science

Volume 3 / Issue 6 of the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science is available online!

JCTS's mission is to provide a forum for the rapid communication of topics of interest and relevance to the large and diverse community of clinical and translational scientists with the goal of improving the efficiency with which health needs inform research and new diagnostics, therapies, and preventive measures reach the public. The Association for Clinical and Translational Science has partnered with the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) and the Clinical Research Forum (CRF) to support the growth and development of JCTS.

Submit your article today to be featured in future issues of JCTS! Please also visit the JCTS website for information on our themed issue related to Data Science in Clinical and Translational Research.

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