NIH Awards UB $28.4 Million to Build on Strong Foundation Improving Health Outcomes, Addressing Disparities Through Translational Science

The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) (Grant #UM1TR005296) to UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) was announced today. It is the third CTSA that UB has received under the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Science program. The first was awarded in 2015 and the second was received in 2020.

Today’s announcement brings UB’s total CTSA funding since 2015 to just over $65 million.

The purpose of the CTSAs, awarded to only 63 institutions nationwide, is to speed the translation of research discoveries into improved care for all while prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable members of the community.

“This landmark award reaffirms UB’s stature as a premier public research university that is committed to contributing meaningfully to the health and well-being of the communities we serve,” said UB President Satish K. Tripathi. “It recognizes both the dramatic progress our UB faculty researchers have made in accelerating critical breakthroughs into enhanced patient care and our enormous potential to continue developing cutting-edge innovations and interventions in the interest of a healthier, more equitable society.”

The work of the CTSA is accomplished through close collaborations among researchers throughout UB — including its six health sciences schools and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center — 15 collaborating institutions and influential community partners, which comprise the Buffalo Translational Consortium.

“This renewal ensures that the health of our community will continue to benefit from these critical collaborations,” says Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.  “The CTSA renewal grant is a testament to UB’s commitment to advancing medical research and improving lives. By empowering our researchers to investigate the most vexing health challenges, we’re making a tangible difference in Western New York, across the state and around the world.”

“This grant illustrates the opportunities created by partnerships between the federal government and our public research institutions like the University at Buffalo,” said Rep. Tim Kennedy. “By delivering research that better reflects our populations as a whole, especially at-risk demographics, UB is on the cutting edge of improving health care outcomes here in Western New York and across the nation. This is exactly the type of investment we need to see more of as we continue to strengthen the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and our region’s health care systems.”

“Ten years ago, I was proud to announce the University at Buffalo’s very first award from the NIH’s prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Program to bolster their groundbreaking work in medical research with substantial federal investment. Now, I’m even prouder to announce an additional $28.4 million in federal funding to drive forward UB’s lifesaving research to address health disparities in communities across Western NY,” said U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer.

“This federal investment from the NIH will bolster UB’s leadership and support its commitment to improving health outcomes for Buffalo and beyond. This will help UB’s world-class doctors and scientists to turn research into real-world solutions for better medical treatments and cures, and I’m glad the feds are continuing to invest in making UB stand out as an internationally renowned medical research institution,” Schumer adds.

“Disadvantaged and minority communities continue to face significant health disparities, and it is critical that we invest in bridging those gaps,” said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. “A cornerstone of a healthy society is the ability to live, work and learn free from illness. The University at Buffalo’s continued research is a step in the right direction to improve health outcomes locally and beyond. I’m proud to announce this NIH funding and will continue to fight for those who need it most.”

“This grant represents a recognized commitment on the part of NIH to look at who’s actually doing the work on the ground that matters in communities that are underrepresented or unrepresented,” says Kinzer Pointer, PhD, pastor of Buffalo’s Liberty Missionary Baptist Church and a member of the CTSI Community Advisory Board. “It recognizes those who are walking day to day with people through the challenges they face, who are helping them not only better understand their health, but are actively involved in recovering and maintaining their health.”

These connections have helped Western New York respond to some major challenges, according to Timothy F. Murphy, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor, principal investigator and director of UB’s CTSI. “Because of the powerful community connections we have, we reduced the proportion of fatalities in African Americans during the pandemic, one of few communities nationally to achieve and sustain this,” he says.  

After the tragic racist shooting on May 14, 2022, the CTSI helped address community trauma with mental health expertise and support. Following the blizzard of 2022, which had a devastating, disproportionate impact on communities of color, UB and CTSI leaders advised local planning groups on a data-driven equity focus to respond to future storms.

A key factor in addressing health disparities involves diversifying the pool of people involved in clinical research. In 2023, with assistance and expertise from the CTSI, more than 24% of participants in UB clinical research studies were from underrepresented groups.

“Nationally, that number is less than 10%,” Murphy says. “We have far exceeded the national average in engaging people who historically have not had the opportunity to participate in clinical research.”

To encourage novel approaches to health challenges, the CTSA funds pilot projects; the program has a remarkable 11 to 1 return on investment in attracting major external funding.

For example, Project ASTHMA supports school-based asthma care for Buffalo Public Schools students living below the poverty line. Asthma is the most common chronic disease among Buffalo children. Begun as a pilot study, its purpose is to provide top-quality medical care to children with asthma in economically disadvantaged communities. It delivers care through school-based health centers (distinct from the school nurse’s office) based in the Buffalo Public Schools.

After proving successful, the project was funded with a $3.2 million grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

“If school-based care can result in improved asthma management in these kids, then they have fewer emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and improved quality of life. This then leads to better school attendance,” says Lucy C. Holmes, MD, principal investigator and clinical associate professor of pediatrics at UB, who is also a physician with UBMD Pediatrics and Oishei Children’s Hospital. “Their health, as well as their educational opportunities, improve.”

In partnership with the Community Health Worker Network of Buffalo, the CTSA will also provide funding to develop a curriculum and train community health workers in clinical research. These workers, trained in translating research goals for the general public, will work with patients in local Tops Markets and independent pharmacies in underserved areas in Buffalo.

“People develop relationships with their pharmacists and see them a lot more often than they see their physicians,” says Murphy. “These community health workers will do health screenings and ask patients about social needs, referring them to resources that can help. The goal is to find out if this approach of embedding community health workers in neighborhood pharmacies improves health and reduces health system utilization.”

David Jacobs, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacy practice in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, is principal investigator of this project, which is part of the new CTSA.  

Other projects supported by the renewal include:

• Integrating artificial intelligence through connections with UB’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and using AI in a wide range of efforts. These include enhancing health literacy in communicating with potential research participants and improving the use of electronic health records (EHRs) in Western New York.
• Expanding the nationwide reach of “Sofia Learns About Research,” the multilingual children’s activity book and video game that presents research in a fun, age-appropriate way. At Buffalo’s Explore and More children’s museum, the Sofia game has been played more than 200,000 times.
• Speeding targeted drug discovery through the innovative Computational Analysis of Novel Drug Opportunities (CANDO) platform developed by Jacobs School researchers. CANDO has led to the formation of three startup companies and won a national challenge on novel ways to develop drugs to fight opioid addiction.
• Leveraging UB’s international leadership in ontology, the study of organizing and categorizing knowledge, to enable greater common understanding, UB is leading a national network of CTSA hubs to establish new ontologies for the social determinants of health and other subfields.