The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) and IU School of Medicine hosted the first Indiana CTSI Regional Campuses Retreat virtually on Friday, July 16. The theme was, “Building Collaborations in Health,” and featured research from across the state of Indiana. View all of the presentations and corresponding authors here.
“We were very excited to host the first Regional Campuses Retreat, which provided an opportunity to highlight researchers and resources across the state of Indiana,” said Kara Garcia, PhD, Evansville navigator for the Indiana CTSI. “Our goal was to increase awareness of great work happening across the entire state, as well as foster new collaborations between distant locations like Evansville and Gary, South Bend and Terre Haute. While the remote format was chosen primarily due to COVID-19, a silver lining was its ability to break down barriers, facilitating participation by researchers from different geographic locations as well as clinicians and community partners who may not have been able to attend otherwise.”
The keynote talk, “Building Rural Collaborations,” was given by Randall Longenecker, MD, Ohio University, associate director of Rural Primary care, Research, Education, and Practice (Rural PREP), Davis Patterson, PhD, director of Rural Primary care, Research, Education, and Practice (PREP). They talked about the challenges and opportunities that exist in rural settings, as well as the importance of “doing something together.”
- Doing: talking isn’t enough
- Something: the importance of having a clear goal with a measurable product
- Together: value of being synergistic for a common good
The lunchtime session included a Research Blitz, featuring short presentations about work being done by researchers in South Bend, Bloomington, Muncie, Indianapolis and Evansville. During the afternoon, participants heard scientific presentations on preclinical and clinical research, as well as clinical implementation and public health research, and were able to ask the lead researchers questions about their work.
- Indiana CTSI navigators Kara Garcia (top left) and Ellen Ireland (bottom left) with keynote speakers Randall Longenecker (top right) and Davis Patterson (bottom right)
- Curteisha Jacobs giving presentation about HSF1 regulation of Anti-Tumor Immune Response in Breast Cancer during Research Blitz
- Shaylin Kiehl giving presentation about Addiction Coalition of Delaware County during Research Blitz
- Some of the Research Blitz and scientific poster presenters
- Scott Canfield giving presentation about The Effects of Anesthetics on a Human Stem Cell-Derived Blood-Brain Barrier Model during the scientific poster presentations
- Ivorine Yu giving presentation about Single-cell transcriptome analysis reveals CNS innate immune landscape plasticity in diet-induced obesity and type 2 diabetes
Also during the event, Indiana CTSI leaders shared information about key programs within the Indiana CTSI, such as Community Health Partnerships, Connections IN Health, and the new Think Tank Program.
“There are so many programs and services available through the Indiana CTSI, so this was a great way to spread the word,” said Ellen Ireland, PhD, Terre Haute navigator for the Indiana CTSI. “We are looking forward to more events like this one in the future, and hope to be able to connect with researchers face-to-face as our efforts expand on the regional campuses of IU School of Medicine.