From Idea to Impact

By Keith Gillogly

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published in the fall 2025 issue of the UB Medicine alumni magazine.)

Institutions of academic medicine improve the health of our communities and serve as a vital economic engine, generating 7.1 million jobs and adding $798 billion to the nation’s economy.

The Jacobs School is proud to be among America’s academic medicine hubs. Across the nation—with 99,000 students in medical education programs, 162,000 resident physicians, and thousands of other critical health professionals—medical schools, academic health systems, and teaching hospitals are ensuring the health care workforce is prepared to prioritize patientcentered care. Today, and tomorrow.

The practice of modern medicine remains vastly complex.

Yet its fundamental goal hasn’t changed: improving human health.

Achieving that goal means continuously learning more about health, disease and the body’s myriad mysteries. Research is the process that unlocks these mysteries.

As a core component of academic medicine, scientific inquiry touches everything at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. While all research centers strive for excellence, at the Jacobs School, excellence is defined not just by discovery, but by impact.

In Western New York, Jacobs School researchers are already changing lives. Their work and findings today fuel the promises of tomorrow—the discoveries that continue to ripple outward from the lab to the bedside and to communities across Buffalo and beyond.

Deep community engagement, investment in cutting-edge technologies, cultivating the next generation, and collaboration over competition all propel the research enterprise at the Jacobs School. While these efforts have provided great insight, the Jacobs School’s capacity for discovery continues only to grow.

At the Jacobs School, cutting-edge tools and smartly designed spaces provide the means to carry out research processes and transform ideas into discoveries. Yet the tools and environments that enable scientific inquiry are always changing and evolving. It is through continued investment in this infrastructure that the Jacobs School maintains a leading edge and will keep pushing frontiers of knowledge.

Using molecular, cellular, structural and computational biology approaches, scientists at the school are gaining new insights into the body and the function and dysfunction of its systems, cells and molecules every day.

Basic science at the Jacobs School spans genomics and bioinformatics, genome integrity and gene expression, microbial pathogenesis, and the molecular basis of disease, to name but a handful of research areas in focus. 

Researchers have access to a full range of state-of-the-art facilities and equipment that power discovery. The university’s core facilities and those at affiliated institutions provide advanced capabilities in imaging, microscopy, tissue preservation, stem cell research and computational analysis.

“From deciphering protein structure and function to developing new drugs to finding the best ways to deliver treatments that improve human health, our research spans the full spectrum,” says Marc Halterman, MD, PhD, senior associate dean and executive director of the Office of Research. “The truest measure of impact is translating discoveries from the bench to the bedside and from the bedside to the community. That’s why we design research spaces with intent, co-locating cores, imaging platforms, biorepositories, and patient exam rooms to bring science and care together.”

Further, research environments themselves must foster collaboration; the Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) is a prime example.  

Occupying floors five through eight above the Gates Vascular Institute, just blocks from the Jacobs School’s downtown facility, the CTRC puts clinical and translational researchers in shared space. Patient examination rooms, research labs and animal facilities that include a transgenic mouse facility, are all housed under the same roof.

Floors one through four of the hybrid facility focus on providing comprehensive vascular care while underscoring the synergy between clinical care and discovery.

“The whole point is that form enables function,” Halterman says of the CTRC’s collaborative design. “The CTRC was designed so clinicians and scientists share not just a building, but a workflow. When proximity increases, translation accelerates.”

The CTRC was recently upgraded with a new, powerful Philips magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner used for research. The state-of-the-art tool enables groundbreaking discoveries for neurological disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, among other translational imaging capabilities.

The center also houses an advanced Bruker MRI system designed for precision imaging and spectroscopy, offering exceptional detail and fine isotropic resolution.

To suit the research needs of advanced biomedical specialties, entire research facilities can require even greater specificity in terms of their purpose and capabilities. One such facility is the University at Buffalo Hauptman-Woodward Research Institute (UB-HWI), which officially joined UB in January 2025.

Specializing in structural biology research, the institute had been a staple of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus for decades before becoming part of UB. UB-HWI’s federally funded National Crystallization Center gives investigators from across the university—and across the country—direct access to protein crystallization capabilities.

Growing crystals of proteins and other molecules is fundamental to X-ray crystallography, which enables the visualization of molecular 3D structures essential to drug design and development of molecular therapies, such as insulin analogs critical to treating diabetes.

For all the brick-and-mortar spaces propelling research, much of the next frontier will be discovered with the help of digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI). To that end, Empire AI, a more than $500 million statewide consortium announced last year, is bringing a supercomputing center to UB to catapult AI and data science capabilities across New York State.  

With the launch of Empire AI’s initial phase already complete, Jacobs School researchers have begun harnessing new AI abilities to better diagnose and monitor disease, predict protein structures and develop drugs, among other innovations.

Researchers have also developed Semantic Clinical Artificial Intelligence, or SCAI (pronounced “sky”), as a powerful clinical AI tool trained on nearly all available medical literature, existing clinical guidelines, all FDA-approved drug information and toxicogenomic data. With much of its infrastructure and servers housed at UB, SCAI aims to be a key clinical, research and educational partner and consultant, says Peter L. Elkin, MD, professor and chair of biomedical informatics.

“Our paradigm is to ask a consultant when we don’t know,” Elkin says. “And SCAI is a consultant that has the ability to answer health questions on a broad range of topics.”  

At the Jacobs School, education emphasizes research at all levels. Students learn not only how to conduct research but why it’s critical to both academic medicine and society at large.

In the process, they gain the perspectives needed to collaborate across disciplines and become researchers—and tomorrow’s scientific leaders—themselves.

Undergraduates at the Jacobs School can choose from a range of scientific majors, like biochemistry and biomedical sciences, that prepare them for further study and research careers. Research faculty teach many undergraduate courses, granting early opportunities for mentorship.

The school’s master’s programs include many research-intensive specialties across biomedical disciplines. New programs are being explored for research administration and health services research degrees suited to health implementation research and managing researchers.

Doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars continue to play an outsized role in the school’s basic research capabilities and breadth. Further, scholars in the MD-PhD program are training to serve as both physicians and scientists, combining clinical care with research acumen to bridge two essential roles.

To support students, trainees and early-career researchers, federal funding plays no small role. The Jacobs School continues to obtain T32 and KL2 grants from the NIH, which provide pivotal funds for structured, mentored training programs and key bridge funding to help trainees and junior faculty transition to become independently funded investigators.

In terms of trainee research, the Jacobs School’s proximity to UB-affiliated hospitals and institutions throughout the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus gives residents and fellows direct access to patient populations and clinical research facilities and hospitals.

These connections greatly enhance clinical research capabilities and allow trainees to take part in studies addressing some of the most pressing health issues in the region and across the U.S. population— cancer, cardiovascular disease, health care access, pediatric asthma, and neurodegenerative diseases, to name some.

Yet the process of cultivating researchers begins well before residency or postdoctoral training. The Jacobs School is committed to preparing the next generation of scientists, and that means reaching the students and curious minds still years away from entering college.

“Biomedical education is on a continuum,” says John C. Panepinto, PhD, senior associate dean for biomedical education. “So how do we get students thinking about STEM as early as we can?”

Students from K-12 schools throughout Western New York regularly visit the Jacobs School’s flagship downtown building for field trips and inquiry-based workshops aimed at exposing young students to research settings. Many get to visit research labs for a glimpse into the mechanisms behind human health and disease.

Other community outreach highlights have included visiting local schools for microbiome education workshops, hands-on science project demonstrations, and help with running after-school science clubs.

The Jacobs School’s own STEM Outreach trainee ambassador team has carried out much of this work—exposing K-12 students to research, providing mentorship and directly benefitting the community beyond UB.

“Exposure to science and medicine early is important because this is when students are exploring what is possible. And they generally don’t realize the different opportunities and career paths available,” says Jennifer A. Surtees, PhD, chair of the Department of Biochemistry, who has long overseen STEM outreach at the school. “Showing them people who are actually doing this work—and people who look like them—opens their eyes to the possibilities.”

Recently, Surtees and colleagues established a community lab space within the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus known as CELLS (Community Education Laboratory in Life Sciences) to host authentic research experiences for local high school students and others.

“The more often we give students opportunities to be in the research lab, the more they’re going to be able to decide whether or not it’s the right thing for them,” Panepinto adds. “The ones we want to get are the ones who would love it—if they just had the opportunity.”  

It can be difficult to quantify success when so many of the fruits of research, like lives made better by new discoveries, are intangible.

Yet the Jacobs School shines across many of the metrics that indicate research achievement and trajectory.

In 2025, the Jacobs School spent $80.3 million on research expenditures—funds spent to conduct research—the most of any school at UB.

In recent years, some of the faculty-authored papers with the highest impact factor have shed light on cancer-fighting vaccine boosters and improved tumor detection, described more effective malaria vaccines, and reported on AI-powered blood vessel imaging.

While funding and a strong publication record are traditional metrics of research success, it’s the people who are most integral to advancing the school’s research mission. The Jacobs School continues to recruit faculty and investigators with research projects and goals specifically suited to the region’s academic environment and community. By centering recruitment around the school’s research pillars—like human-relevant models, advanced imaging, and AI—new faculty can plug directly into infrastructure that lets their ideas scale quickly.

Some of the ideas and inventions that flow out of the Jacobs School will even be commercialized. By partnering with industry sponsors aimed at solving problems in the health care space, discoveries can lead to solutions for pressing issues.

Securing intellectual property for any new method, device, process or material starts with disclosing it. The Jacobs School annually accounts for about a quarter of all new technology disclosures made across the university, says Timothy Dee, senior associate director in UB’s Technology Transfer office.

While disclosing new technology is but a first step toward protection, licensing and commercialization, that level of volume speaks to the range of potentially transformative ideas and discoveries originating from the Jacobs School.

Inventions by faculty have led to new imaging tools and medical diagnostics, among many other technologies that are on the path to or have achieved commercialization. “We do have some world-class researchers here. And we have some who are under the radar waiting to break through,” says Michael Fowler, PhD, commercialization manager in the Technology Transfer office.

One research tool developed recently at UB uses a fluorescent molecule to measure cell membrane tension, which can be useful for studying cancers with more fluid membranes. Another technology uses low-voltage electrical treatments to eliminate microbial biofilm development and reduce prosthetic implant infections.

“With each engagement that faculty members have with industry, they get that much better at being able to converse with and understand industry’s needs and being able to better present the value proposition of their work,” says Dee.

While the path from invention to marketplace is rarely linear, Jacobs School researchers have shown that ideas can develop into practical solutions and new products that underscore the linkage between scientific creativity and industry partnership.

As new knowledge continues to underpin health care technologies, the Jacobs School will remain a driver of medical innovations. 

Conducting biomedical research requires immense specificity of knowledge and expertise, so much so that it can be easy to lose sight of its broader intent: improving human health across individuals, communities and populations.

These improvements happen only through translation, that is, moving research findings out of the lab and transforming them into new treatments and approaches to medicine.

At the Jacobs School, translational research is both deliberate and ambitious. Laboratory discoveries are nurtured with the goal of moving them into patient care. Throughout this process, community health remains top of mind. “We are very cognizant of the fact that discoveries have to move from basic science to the community,” says Teresa Quattrin, MD, associate dean for research integration. “And we are really connecting with the community in better ways. In order to do translational science, you have to listen to what the community needs are.”

Among many prominent examples, Quattrin points to childhood asthma prevalence and a multidisciplinary Jacobs School and UB research team that has worked with Buffalo Public Schools children to enhance comprehensive asthma care.

The commitment to community health on the part of the Jacobs School and university has been recognized repeatedly through federal funding. Earlier this year, the NIH awarded UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) a seven-year, $28.4 million Clinical and Translational Science Award.

This pivotal grant, UB’s third such award, allows the CTSI to continue its mission of improving health for all populations throughout Western New York while speeding the translation of research discoveries into clinical practices.

Additionally, the school’s partnering with so many of the region’s community-focused organizations and events has enhanced shared missions behind community engagement and well-being. Quattrin notes that this visibility builds trust and keeps researchers attuned to the community while supporting involvement in research and enhancing representation of people too often underrepresented in clinical trials.

Likewise, the Jacobs School has strived to increase both the amount of and access to primary care providers in the region, which will improve community health while boosting research involvement. Last year, UBMD Physicians’ Group, whose doctors are also faculty educators at the Jacobs School, launched UBMD Primary Care as a new clinical practice to expand care for Western New Yorkers across age ranges. “The delivery of clinical care and clinical research are intimately connected,” Quattrin says.

Like so many areas of medicine, recruitment for clinical trials could be on the cusp of new AI-driven enhancements. New models could help sift through a broad base of patient materials and health records to identify potential trial participants based on a study’s inclusion and exclusion criteria, says biomedical informatics chair Peter L. Elkin, MD.

“For research, we want to speed up the translation of research and set the pipelines up to recruit faster for clinical trials and to do it in a more automated way that would be national in scope using real-world evidence,” Elkin says.

Doing so would fundamentally involve no shortage of patient data. To better harness all of this data and information, shared systems need to speak the same language. Therefore, the Jacobs School, along with UBMD, Kaleida Health, and the Erie County Medical Center, have begun a patient-centered implementation of Epic software to create a unified electronic health record system.

Connecting health records, systems and data will allow for seamless flow of clinical data across research platforms. Researchers can more readily access longitudinal data, from labs to imaging to medications, across broader patient populations as opposed to working with subsets.

In terms of research advancement, the Epic implementation could help clinical observations inform translational and basic research studies. For example, data on patient observations and outcomes could be more readily paired with studies investigating a certain biomarker.

All in all, the move to a smarter, integrated health records system will be a game changer for health care and research in the region, enhancing patient connectivity and care while streamlining the data needed to drive translational research.

“By pairing the unified electronic health record, the biorepository, imaging data, and emerging tools in AI, Western New York becomes a true learning health ecosystem where every clinic visit or hospital stay generates knowledge that drives the next breakthrough,” notes Halterman, of the Office of Research. 

Across the country, medical schools seek to conduct leading research. In doing so, they can also tremendously benefit the health of their surrounding communities while fostering collaboration; the Jacobs School and Western New York provide a prime example.

To be most effective, research must engage the community early on and throughout the process, deliver tangible benefits, and be based on community needs rather than researcher presumptions, says Timothy F. Murphy, MD, who was senior associate dean for clinical and translational research before stepping down in October after 44 years of service to the university.

“We have a responsibility as an academic health center and as health care professionals to partner with our community,” says Murphy, who also directed UB’s CTSI since its launch in 2015. “We see our community as an asset. Our community can help us and teach us how to make our research more impactful.”

Research conducted at the Jacobs School has translated into improved survival rates for people with cardiovascular, neurological and neurovascular conditions, a robust response to the opioid crisis, and bold efforts to confront health disparities and promote health equity across local communities.

Further, the Jacobs School has partnered with community health workers to address hypertension and mental health concerns in pregnant people as part of a more unified effort to reduce maternal deaths.

Jacobs School researchers and faculty have also worked to tailor treatment strategies for HIV and other infectious diseases while continuing to develop and study new treatments and drugs. Their work has benefitted patients infected with HIV variants resistant to traditional treatments and those with co-infections, such as hepatitis C.

For the litany of diseases and conditions that Jacobs School researchers and clinicians study, they also seek to address the underlying conditions affecting individual and community health. In many cases, that means confronting health disparities.

Across disciplines, health disparities remain a persistent challenge within and beyond Western New York communities and affect so many facets of health care and research.

Stroke risk, for example, is disproportionately high among Black and Hispanic Americans. They’re twice as likely to suffer from intracerebral hemorrhage and are affected on average 10 years earlier than other populations.

Researchers at the Jacobs School such as Daniel Woo, MD, professor and Irvin and Rosemary Smith Endowed Chair of neurology, are exploring variations in stroke risk factors based on race, ethnicity and sex while investigating the genetic epidemiology of stroke. He and his colleagues may have identified a novel risk factor for vascular dementia, the second leading cause of dementia, and are pursuing novel targets for improving outcomes after intracerebral hemorrhage.

Other research studies have led to the creation of smoking cessation programs targeting pregnant people in the community and new ways of increasing local parents’ and children’s interactions with and understanding of clinical research participation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacobs School research teams leveraged their knowledge of infectious diseases to help keep the Western New York community safe and informed.

By conducting genomic sequencing of COVID-19 samples, researchers tracked the emergence and spread of virus variants within the region, providing essential surveillance while deepening understanding of the virus’ behavior.

Yet for all the developments, new findings and myriad ways that Jacobs School research has enhanced the health of Western New York, there is more to come. As they uncover findings that improve health, researchers remain never satisfied with those results, always curious, and looking to learn more.

One ongoing project follows the success of a substantial undertaking to teach CPR to thousands in the Western New York community. Researchers are now studying how to cultivate youth leadership to promote bystander CPR education in schools and community settings.

Another research team is exploring how embedding community health workers in pediatric clinics could help address root causes of health inequities.

And so much more.

Taken together, these efforts signal that the research enterprise at the Jacobs School isn’t about merely finding answers but creating lasting change. As the school’s research efforts thrive, innovation and community will continue to create a partnership leading to better health and a brighter future for all.