Research Newsletter

Message from Vice Chair for Research

December 19, 2023 • 2:51 p.m.

Tri-Ennial Newsletter: #3 - November/December 2023
Welcome to the third edition of the three-times yearly Research Newsletter from Department of Internal Medicine.
We aim to provide information, reminders of important research dates, and celebrate our funding and publications successes.
Continue to be cognizant of the expectations for research grant submission and publications. Review them as you plan your research program for this year.
This is an exciting time for the research mission of the Department, especially within the Division of Nephrology. Since our last newsletter, Dr Reiser has taken the reins as President of UTMB, and CEO of the Health System. He brings an impressive portfolio of research projects and federal grants to our institution. Moreover, several of his collaborators are expected to join the Department. One of them, Dr Zhu, has very recently arrived here, so please welcome him as you see him on campus and make his acquaintance. Equally promising is the ongoing search for a new Division Director for Nephrology. Many of you have already met with one or more of the candidates, and Dr Cram has done outstanding work in assembling this truly impressive line-up card of candidates. The future is indeed bright for our research portfolio.
Suggestions, critique, and comments are welcome. Email me directly @ wjcalhou@utmb.edu. We hope that you find the communications useful and interesting.

Staff Spotlight

Featured in each issue of the of the Research Newsletter is a quick biography of the staff who guide us and our applications through to submission.

Roberto Hernandez, Grants Administrator for ASGII

December 19, 2023 • 1:20 p.m.

Reminders and Calendars

December 19, 2023 • 2:46 p.m.
Mark your calendars now for upcoming events and deadlines.
Next NIH New R01 / R21 deadline: February 2024.
Next NIH Resubmission R01 / R21 deadline: March 2024.
If you plan on submitting for another funding mechanism, check the NIH or other sponsors’ website for specific receipt dates.
Those dates are about two-three months away, so it is not too early to begin thinking about your next application. It is respectful of our pre-award administrative staff to provide them notice of your intent to apply for a grant 30 days ahead of the submission date.
Early work on the key personnel, the effort allocation for each, a rough estimate of your supplies, equipment, travel, and animal budgets, and any necessary subcontracts or consortium agreements will smooth your application process, and level out the workload in our pre-award office.
Even if your data are only estimates, it will help the pre-award office personnel support you in your application. They will provide a checklist of all required items to be sure that your application is complete, and is not administratively rejected by the funding agency.
Please alert the pre-award office, and me directly, should there be issues with completeness of submission, errors, or other matters that we should correct.
Researchers’ Lunch is held in person at noon, in JSA 4.108 with a light lunch served. Send me items that should be booked to the agendas. Next meetings: December 11, 2023, and January 8, Febrauary 12, and March 11, 2024.
Research Mindset / Clinical Curiosity Conference held in person at noon in the Internal Medicine Classroom. The Internal Medicine residents would be pleased to have insights from our research faculty. Plan to attend as you can. The next conference is December 4 2023.

Publications

August 15, 2023 • 11:37 a.m.

Since September 1, 2023, through the end of November 2023, the first quarter of the year, the Departmental faculty have been associated with 102 peer-reviewed papers indexed in PubMed, and reported in Scopus.
Last year, from September 2022 through August 2023, Departmental faculty published 412 papers, so our publication productivity is on par with last year.
As a point of reference, we use the UTMB PURE database for our counts because it takes into account the multiplicity of collaborative publications with which the Department is associated.
Accordingly, these publication reports will capture ALL publications in which a Departmental faculty member had authorship. The Pure dataset is drawn from the Scopus database, and includes peer-reviewed publications, editorials, and reviews, but does not always capture book chapters.
See also the departmental publications that have been highlighted as Publications of the Week below.

Publications of the Week

December 19, 2023 • 2:46 p.m.
Publication of the Week: August-November 2023
Gut Microbial Metabolite Butyrate and Its Therapeutic Role in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Literature Review
Dr. Shi and colleagues, GI
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37242159/

Dementias Among Older Males and Females in the U.S. Medicare System With and Without HIV
Dr. Raji and colleagues, Geriatrics
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36881792/#:%7E:text=After%20adjustment%20for%20demographics%20and,especially%20women%20and%20older%20subjects

Coronavirus Disease 2019, Diabetes, and Inflammation: A Systemic Review
Drs. McKinney, Serag, Sallam, and colleagues, Endocrinology
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37130311/

Bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4): a key player in inflammatory bowel disease and potential to inspire epigenetic therapeutics
Dr Tian and colleagues, Endocrinology
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36710583/

Achieving Equity in Hospital Performance Assessments Using Composite Race-Specific Measures of Risk-Standardized Readmission and Mortality Rates for Heart Failure
Dr. Cram and colleagues, Gen Med
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37036906/

Illustrating the impact of commercial determinants of health on the global COVID-19 pandemic: Thematic analysis of 16 country case studies
Dr Serag and colleagues, Endocrinology
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10287178/

Cardiovascular manifestations of inflammatory bowel diseases and the underlying pathogenic Mechanisms
Drs. Powell and Li, GI
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37335014/

Association Between Aspirin Exacerbated Respiratory Disease and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease: A Retrospective Review of U.S. Claims Data
Drs. Adame, Raji, Tripple and colleagues, Allergy/Immunology and Geriatrics
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37468040/

Comparing Use Patterns and Acceptability of Mobile Digital Devices Between Care Recipients and Caregivers
Drs Serag and Raji, Endocrinology and Geriatrics
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37575767/

Cardiovascular Disease Burden and Major Adverse Cardiac Events in Young Black Patients: A National Analysis of 2 Cohorts 10 Years Apart (2017 Versus 2007)
Drs Shalaby, Kalife, and colleagues, Cardiology
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37489730/#:~:text=Conclusions%20In%20conclusion%2C%20young%20Black,although%20with%20improved%20survival%20odds

Kidney Allograft Monitoring by Combining Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA and Molecular Gene Expression: A Clinical Management Perspective
Dr. Mujtaba and colleagues, Nephrology
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37623456/

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults associated with COVID‐19: A rare life‐threatening Complication
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10000501/#:~:text=Multisystem%20inflammatory%20syndrome%20in%20adults%20(MIS%2DA)%20is%20an,aged%20patients%20are%20especially%20affected.

Utilization of diabetes self-management program among breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer survivors: Using 2006–2019 Texas Medicare data
Drs Sallam, Serag, and colleagues, Endocrinology
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37498914/

Implementation and Evaluation of a mHealth‑Based Community Health Worker Feedback Loop for Hispanics with and at Risk for Diabetes
Drs Vaughan, Cardenas, and colleagues, Gen Med and Pulmonary Critical Care
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37803098/

The Use of Reframing: Increasing the Importance of Lifestyle Medicine
Dr Vaughan, Gen Med
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15598276231193643

Research Grants

Research Grant Funding Successes

Congratulations to our investigators who received new funding in the past 10 months. The tables show our active, new grants funded since the beginning of the academic year in September 2022. This is not a comprehensive list of all our active awards. If that information would be helpful to you, let me know.

December 19, 2023 • 2:48 p.m.

Department of Internal Medicine: # Grants Funded Sep 2022 –November 2023

Department	Federal	Federal-Internal	Non-Federal	Grand Total
Cardiology			2	2
Endocrinology		1	3	4
Gastroenterology			2	2
Geriatrics	5			5
Infectious Disease	6		2	8
Pulmonary			2	2
Nephrology			2	2
Admin	1			1
Grand Total	12	1	13	26