News and Announcements

Save the Date!

Make sure to block your calendar and join the Feinberg Office of Health Equity (OHE) for the Fall 2025 Lyceum Speaker Series from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Hughes Auditorium on Tuesday, October 14.

Fall Lyceum 2025 Speaker

Leslie R. Walker, MD
Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice President, Seattle Children’s Hospital
Ford/Morgan Endowed Chair and Professor of Pediatrics; Associate Dean, University of Washington School of Medicine
Co-Founder and Executive Sponsor, UW/Seattle Children’s Health Equity Institute for Healthy Pregnancy, Children and Families

Immediately following the lecture, the second annual Health Equity Research Symposium will take place in the Potocsnak Family Atrium from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. The symposium will feature a poster session that highlights innovative research into interventions and policies aimed at reducing health disparities and promoting equitable healthcare for all populations. Abstract submissions will open in July!

Add these events to your calendar.

Join Us

Tuesday, October 14

10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center
Hughes Auditorium & Potocsnak Family Atrium (First Floor)
303 E. Superior St., Chicago

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Presented by the the Center for Community Health and the FSM Community of Practice for Community Engagement

Wednesday, June 4 
11:30 AM – 1:30 PM

Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center
303 E. Superior, Chicago, IL

Featuring a keynote presentation by Joel Rodriguez of the Southwest Organizing Project. Joel is a dynamic and impactful speaker on building relational power and will share insights from our community partners on how we can collectively rise to the challenges of the moment.

Community partners, faculty, research staff, and trainees are all welcome and encouraged to attend. We hope you’ll join us.

Register Here

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Hosted by Center for Health Services & Outcomes Research

Join us for Northwestern’s Asian Health Seminar Series in honor of AAPI Heritage Month. Throughout May, Northwestern faculty will present current research and emerging science on health among Asian populations in the United States.

*All sessions are hybrid. The in-person event will be held in the Stamler Conference Room Suite 1400, 680 N. Lake Shore Dr, 60611 - 14th floor.

Thursday, May 15

Leveraging Family and Caregiver Support to Promote HPV Vaccination and Diabetes Self-Management in Asian American Communities

Ha Ngan Vu, PhD & Layna Lu
2:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Register Here

Thursday, May 29

Cohort Studies for Research on Asian Populations in the U.S.

Namratha Kandula, MD, MPH
2:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Register Here

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Hosted by BWH VERITY and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 

2025 Mini Course: Large Datasets for Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Research. This free course will consist of two 2-hour sessions virtually hosted by faculty members from VERITY/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of California-San Francisco, and University of Alabama-Birmingham. The course will focus on various datasets available for research: EHRs biobanks, and administrative data. Additional information is listed below. 

WHAT: Two 2-hour sessions held virtually (via Zoom).

WHO: Content is most applicable to junior faculty and fellows interested in pursuing a career in clinical research in adult/pediatric rheumatology or other musculoskeletal diseases. Other faculty, residents, medical students, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and research staff are also welcome to attend.

WHEN: Monday, May 12, 2025, from 12:00-2:00PM ET (Session 1) AND Monday, May 12, 2025, from 12:00-2:00PM ET (Session 2). Registration is due by 5:00PM ET on Thursday, May 1, 2025. The course schedule is attached.

COST: This course is free.

REGISTRATION/ADDITIONAL DETAILS: Please follow the link below for additional information and to register for the BWH VERITY and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 2025 Mini Course: Large Datasets for Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Research.

VERITY/UNC 2025 Mini Course:

Large Datasets for Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Research

If you have any questions or issues accessing the link above, please contact VERITY course coordinator, Jacklyn Stratton (jstratton1@bwh.harvard.edu).

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Dr. Rowland Chang was honored with the Lifetime Champion of Yes Award at the Arthritis Foundation 2024 Freedom of Movement Gala in Chicago.

Read more about this achievement here

This October, NUCATS is launching the Art of Science Communication, an 8-week course designed for researchers at all career stages that provides essential training in effectively communicating scientific research to nonexpert audiences.

Participants will gain the skills and confidence to present their work in various settings, from formal public lectures and presentations to informal outreach events. The course features video lectures, background material, and live weekly discussions focusing on crafting impactful messages, generating interest, and engaging with audiences.

The course is open to all faculty and staff within Feinberg, but registration is limited. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your communication skills.

Interested in registering? Please email Abbey Dahl (abbey.dahl@northwestern.edu) for registration information. 

2024 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The Pat & Shirley Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund is pleased to announce the 2^nd round of the Seed Grants for Translational Research. These seed grants provide an exciting opportunity for Northwestern University faculty to accelerate the commercialization of innovative and high-potential research in the life sciences.

The Fund aims to advance translational research discoveries in both engineering and medicine that have the potential to create a meaningful and immediate impact on society. Areas of interest include drug discovery, sensing and measurement, rehabilitation, regenerative medicine, surgery and transplantation, artificial intelligence, and computation.

Proposals will be accepted through August 31, 2024. Typical awards will be funded with a one-year budget ranging from $100,000 to $300,000.

Please refer to the 2024 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS for detailed information on the proposed funding mechanism, eligibility criteria, and submission requirements.

The recording of the informational session for the 2nd Round Ryan Acceleration Fund competition can be found here (VPN required).

Questions should be addressed to ryanrafund@northwestern.edu.

The 2024-25 NUCATS Series on Developing and Enhancing Mentoring Relationships, is a set of monthly 90-minute workshops exclusively for faculty. Registration for each session is made available a month prior. This year, all workshops will be held in-person on the second Thursday of the month from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Dates are listed below:

• October 10, 2024
• November 14, 2024
• December 12, 2024
• January 9, 2025
• February 13, 2025
• March 13, 2025
• April 10, 2025
• May 8, 2025
• June 12, 2025

In addition to the annual offerings of "Establishing and Aligning Expectations," "Cultural Awareness to Enhance Mentoring Across Differences," and "Articulating your Mentoring Philosophy and Plan," sessions will explore "Challenging Mentoring Interactions" and "Mentoring Across Generations."

Further details on the upcoming series will be sent in the coming weeks. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email Morgan Barrowman. Interested in enrolling in the Mentor Training Certificate Program? Visit our website to find out more.

Wearable technologies, created to continuously collect personal health data, automatically gather high-frequency information outside clinical settings. Their popularity in research has generated large-scale time-series datasets. In this lecture Margaret Banker, PhD, assistant professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Biostatistics, will explore the various methods, ranging from conventional to more novel approaches, for analyzing these datasets. As part of the Statistically Speaking lecture series presented by the NUCATS Institute's Biostatistics Collaboration Center, this talk is intended to be educational, introductory, and appeal to a broad audience.

When: Tuesday, February 13, noon

Please contact Abbey Dahl (abbey.dahl@northwestern.edu) for information regarding the location of this event

Join Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center for a two-part interactive workshop. Participants will gain knowledge and actively participate in the multi-step process of crafting a thorough search strategy for systematic and scoping reviews. The workshop will demonstrate effective methods for searching diverse information sources and preparing the necessary documentation for the final manuscript. Faculty, staff, students, and researchers are invited to attend.

Prerequisite Classes and Trainings:

• PubMed
• Conducting a Systematic Review: Part 1 — Planning the Process or Conducting a Scoping Review
• Conducting a Systematic Review: Part 2 — Tools & Resources (also applicable to scoping reviews)
• Topic Searching in PubMed: Using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Register for the Two-Part Interactive Workshop:

• Conducting Systematic and Scoping Reviews: Search Development and Documentation — Part 1, Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 12-1 p.m. via Zoom. Registration required
• Conducting Systematic and Scoping Reviews: Search Development and Documentation — Part 2, Wednesday, April 12, 2024, 12-1 p.m. via Zoom. Registration required

Kristi Holmes, PhD, professor of Preventive Medicine, director of Northwestern’s Galter Health Sciences Library and chief of knowledge management for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (I.AIM), has been named the new associate dean for knowledge management and strategy at Feinberg.

In her new role, Holmes will direct the development of new infrastructure and guidelines to support the sharing of knowledge within Feinberg to accelerate research and discovery.

Read More Here

Effective May 8, 2023, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) will withdraw from the NIH Parent R21 Exploratory/Developmental Grant funding opportunities, including:

• PA-20-195: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-194: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)

Instead, NIAMS has issued the following Notice of Special Interest (NOSI), to support innovative projects that introduce novel scientific ideas, model systems, tools, agents, targets, and technologies that have the potential for significant impact, and to substantially advance research within the NIAMS core mission. 

• NOT-AR-23-006: NOSI: Supporting Exploratory/Developmental Research Focused on NIAMS Core Mission Areas

NIAMS will not accept any applications (new or resubmission) in response to the parent R21 funding opportunities after May 7, 2023, without referencing an appropriate NIAMS NOSI. Applications for non-clinical trial, or mechanistic clinical trial Exploratory/Developmental Research within the NIAMS core mission areas should reference the R21 NOSI NOT-AR-23-006.

Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to consult NIAMS program staff for their specific research area of interest to assess the relevance of their application topic.

View the full list at NIAMS Funding Opportunities.  

The NUCATS Translational Science Pilot Awards program is seeking proposals for highly innovative, multi-disciplinary pilot projects that will advance Translational Science and are aligned with one of two priority areas: Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) or Dissemination and Implementation (D&I). This funding mechanism combines, replaces, and builds on the two prior NUCATS pilot funding mechanisms: Clinical and Translational Pilot Awards and Dissemination and Implementation Pilot Awards. Proposals may request funding for CTR, D&I, or hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies that encompass both CTR and D&I.

• Maximum award amount: $30,000
• Pre-application Letter of Intent deadline: May 12, 2023, by 5 p.m. CST
• View the RFA

If you would like additional information on this or other NUCATS funding mechanisms, please email NUCATS-funding@northwestern.edu.