Research Mission

August 25, 2023

Information

Brian Smith, MD & Keith Choate, MD, PhD

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00:00You're actually going to see me a couple
00:02times today in part because COVID has
00:04taken out a couple of the speakers. So.
00:06So I wish it was because I was the most
00:08wonderful speaker in the in the world,
00:10but but I think that's your work.
00:12As as Linda said, there's really
00:14two of us that are tied together at
00:17the hip in terms of the trying to
00:21organize and support the research
00:22mission here at the medical school,
00:25and that's myself and Tony Koleski.
00:27We basically divide things up as to
00:29whether we're kind of doing most of
00:30the work with the clinical departments,
00:32which is my job for most of the work
00:34with the basic science departments.
00:35And to be quite honest,
00:37we kind of just all work together.
00:39And so there are things that we just trade
00:41back and forth depending on who has the time.
00:43And Keith will talk separately in just a
00:45few minutes about the Office of Physician
00:47Scientists and Scientist Development,
00:48which has really created some wonderful
00:51resources I think for for everyone.
00:53So what is the Office of
00:56Scientific Affairs do?
00:57So we oversee scientific affairs
00:58in both the clinical and basic
01:00science departments as well as in
01:01all of the centers and programs and
01:03institutes and all those wonderful
01:05things that have these other,
01:06these other names.
01:07But essentially most things that
01:09in within the medical school are
01:12really very departmentally organized.
01:13And whether that's any of the three
01:16missions and that's really where
01:17you need to get known and you need
01:19to be able to have folks who think
01:21you're doing a wonderful job.
01:22If we get back to the issues of things
01:24like appointments and promotions,
01:25just to just to mention that we try to
01:29provide guidance and resources for faculty,
01:31staff, hiring,
01:31retention of faculty,
01:33etcetera,
01:33I welcome you and I know Tony would
01:36if he was here as well,
01:37you're welcome to to e-mail either
01:39of us if you feel you you want to
01:41do that and that's great and get
01:43a lot of lot of emails.
01:44I get some texts at 2:00 AM,
01:46but that's separate and we're all first
01:48name dot last name at Yale dot Edu, right.
01:51So I mean,
01:52even with the name Smith,
01:53I'm somehow still first name dot,
01:54last name, yell dot Edu.
01:57Although it's interesting because
01:58there's almost always at least
01:59one undergrad who's named Brian
02:01Smith and they have much more
02:02interesting lives than I do,
02:03and I get a lot of e-mail.
02:05Space is a big is a big issue for us
02:07at the medical school because we've
02:09really grown by leaps and bounds over
02:10the course of the last 10 years or so,
02:12and we tend to be a space
02:15constrained these days.
02:16There's a lot of construction going on.
02:17There's a lot of expansion of space going
02:20on whether it's in the wet bench area,
02:23you know kind of classic classic
02:25laboratory sorts of work or
02:27what we call dry
02:28bench meaning health services
02:30research and computational work and
02:32so forth that really doesn't require
02:35a Bunsen burner at your at your side.
02:38So that's something that we actually
02:40do a lot of work work with.
02:42We are and you'll hear more about
02:45the cores both to support web
02:47bench and dry bench research.
02:48I think a little bit later today
02:50I'll be giving you the talk on
02:51the on the YCCI aspect of things.
02:53And then we spend a lot of our time,
02:56which hopefully you therefore don't
02:58have to worry about as much to ensure
03:00compliance with all the wonderful,
03:01wonderful things that are out there
03:03in terms of in terms of federal,
03:07state and other other areas,
03:10we nucleate and maintain relationships
03:12with the partners across Yale University.
03:14So that means we actually have
03:16a fair amount of work that we do
03:18with government and advocacy on the
03:20government front. We try to do that.
03:22We try to work with our state,
03:24congressional and and senatorial aspects,
03:27as well as with the governor's office.
03:29There's a lot of relationships that
03:31go on with foundations to try to get
03:33you funding from things other than the NIH.
03:35And again,
03:35all these kinds of questions,
03:37you know, individual things come up.
03:38There's a lot of details and all of that,
03:40but please just feel free to to contact us.
03:43Most of most will be known through
03:45your department,
03:46but not necessarily and we're
03:47more than happy to to chat with
03:50everybody separately as needed.
03:52And industry is another area that I
03:54think Yale was probably behind a lot of
03:56our peers in terms of interactions with
03:58on the research front over the years.
04:00There is a new and I don't think we
04:02have a separate talk by Yale Ventures,
04:03right.
04:04But there's a new basically office
04:07of technology transfer,
04:09but it's bigger than that.
04:10It's called Yale Ventures now.
04:11It was kind of reimagined and
04:13and recreated about now I guess
04:15about 2 1/2 three years ago,
04:16something like that, if I remember right.
04:19And it's actually interestingly changed
04:21the formula for for intellectual
04:23property and how much of it you
04:25get and all those kinds of things
04:26compared to the university and the
04:28medical school and the departments.
04:29And it's really done a lot to to work
04:31in terms of that and also to really
04:33build out the ecosystem here in New Haven.
04:35I think that really is,
04:37if you just look around in terms of building,
04:40there's a lot going on and
04:41that's actually very,
04:42very terrific,
04:43depending on what your research really is.
04:46We partner with with Keith's office and
04:48as well as with Darren Lattimore's DEI
04:51office to support faculty throughout
04:54the career life cycle with development
04:56as well to raise research funding.
04:58And you may get contacted by that.
04:59And if you do have somebody who you
05:01think is a potential donor out there
05:02or you get into one of those things,
05:04please,
05:05please contact one of us
05:07so that we can do what we can
05:08to sort of help out with that,
05:09not to interfere with what
05:11your relationship may be,
05:12but but to provide kind of
05:14the infrastructure for,
05:14for dealing with those kinds of things.
05:16And finally with the Office
05:18of Communications, obviously,
05:19we do a lot to try to try to do all
05:21those things that I'm really bad at,
05:22like websites and stuff like that.
05:25I should say that in terms of education,
05:28I think Janet did a very nice job of
05:31covering all of the of the medical
05:34school specific educational ventures.
05:36The other area that Tony and
05:38I get deeply involved in.
05:41And any of you who are have appointments
05:43in the Graduate School either because
05:45you're in a basic science department
05:47which automatically gives you a
05:49appointment in the Graduate School
05:50or because you're in a clinical
05:51department either with a secondary in
05:53a basic science department or there's
05:54actually ways that you can be solely
05:56in a clinical department and also
05:58be appointed to the Graduate School.
06:01And the Graduate School program is
06:03actually a program that extends not
06:05just across the medical school but
06:07also extends across the faculty
06:08of Arts and Sciences on the on
06:10the north campus or main campuses.
06:12They like to talk about it.
06:13We we tend to save the North campus
06:16and it's it's really a very we
06:17get great grad students in.
06:19And I think when you're thinking about
06:21getting people to work in your laboratory,
06:23you're going to be thinking if you're
06:24in one of the clinical departments
06:26probably in terms of a variety
06:27of the clinical trainees,
06:28but the Med students are remarkably
06:31good overall.
06:32You know undergrads not bad and
06:35they are actually a terrific way
06:38to to help expand your,
06:39your laboratory and really get into
06:42a real relationship with them to
06:44try to mentor them through to their
06:46career aspirations which often are
06:48to go to either Graduate School
06:50or to medical school and really
06:52across across all of those,
06:54all of those areas.
06:56So I just mentioned that to you again
06:58because it'll it will come up And as
07:00you're beginning to establish your,
07:02your research programs here for those
07:04of you who are research intensive or
07:06or doing any kind of research which
07:08is most of our folks as you may imagine,
07:10we review faculty appointments
07:11to Graduate School,
07:12kind of talked about that,
07:12talked about Yale Ventures,
07:14which is the entrepreneurial
07:15opportunities that are around here
07:17And also coordinate the clinical
07:19research infrastructure which is
07:21predominantly in the Cancer Center in
07:23the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.
07:25And I'll mention a little bit about
07:26that when I talk to you a little bit
07:28later within the departments themselves
07:29and across the Yellow Haven Health system.
07:31So a lot of,
07:33a lot of activity on that front.
07:37What are the ways that we kind of
07:38look at this?
07:38We are determinant to some extent
07:41on space and startup.
07:43We work with the departments.
07:44Departments all have their own
07:46space footprint to work within,
07:48but often they need to work outside
07:50of that or we need to try to Co
07:52localize people with others.
07:53That would be particularly valuable
07:55for you to be able to walk down
07:58the corridor and and meet with.
08:00We similarly again coordinate with
08:02Keith's office and he'll be talking
08:04about this in just a few minutes.
08:05I'm trying to get supplemental
08:07funding for for what you guys all are,
08:10which is junior faculty,
08:11regardless of your age or
08:13junior faculty at this point.
08:15There's a variety of limited grant
08:16submissions that are out there.
08:18You will see these.
08:19There's actually a website you
08:20can go to to look for them.
08:21These are often foundations,
08:23but sometimes they're NIH
08:24grants where the institution,
08:26Yale University,
08:27is only allowed to submit maybe
08:29one or two or whatever grants.
08:32Obviously we need a way to,
08:34to adjudicate that if there's
08:35more than one person or one group
08:38that wants to engage in that
08:40and and that's done through it,
08:41then an internal review process
08:42with with kind of an internal
08:44study section and what have you.
08:46So if you're involved in those
08:48kinds of things that you,
08:49you'll see this right away.
08:52We'll talk a little bit and Amy
08:54Blanche will talk about bleeding
08:55edge technologies and cores.
08:57It is something that we try
08:58to keep an eye on to,
09:00to make research good for everybody here.
09:04Their core facilities,
09:05most of what you would be using probably
09:08are what we call central cores.
09:10It runs run out of the Dean's office,
09:11basically summer departmental
09:13cores and departmental cores can
09:15be everything from something that
09:16takes care of the glass washing for,
09:18you know,
09:1910 PI's in the department to
09:21something that actually extends out
09:23into other departments as well.
09:25And that's not that uncommon.
09:27There is an office for team science,
09:29which is something that was created
09:31that Nancy created when she came
09:33that the Dean and really been
09:35good for those of you who may be
09:37engaged in looking at large grants.
09:39So most of us get used to kind of
09:41doing our own RO ones and those
09:43kinds of grants from foundations.
09:45But when it's a large grant,
09:46they often have all kinds of components
09:48that are beyond the science,
09:50beyond the specific games if you will
09:52that need to be done properly or
09:55you'll get trashed at study section.
09:57And so there is an officer tries
09:58to work on that.
09:59There's actually a pilot grant
10:01program as well asking people to
10:03who have a goal to get something
10:06like a program project grant or
10:08one of what we call you grants and
10:10really get get it to where it is.
10:12Many of these things I can tell
10:14you that for the for the grant
10:16that supports the Yale Center
10:18for Clinical Investigation,
10:19the last renewal that we put in
10:22was was 3998 pages for example,
10:25I was,
10:26I was really disappointed that we
10:28didn't get to 4000 but regardless
10:30and we do things about appointments
10:32to Graduate School and so forth.
10:34Did I go through all of it?
10:35This is this is yours. Yes, Okay.
10:37So those are sort of the big areas
10:39that I just wanted to mention and
10:41I'm going to turn things over to,
10:42to Keith talk about physician
10:44scientists and scientists development.
10:48Well, let me be another who
10:50extends a welcome to all of you.
10:51I wanted to give you sort of a highlevel
10:54overview of some of the resources that we
10:56put together in the office of Physician,
10:58Scientist and Scientist Development,
11:00which is also a new initiative from the Dean.
11:03So what OPSSD really seeks to do is
11:06address practical challenges that are
11:07encountered at different career stages,
11:10to create community and mentorship
11:11that spans all phases of training,
11:13to ensure protected time for
11:15those who need it,
11:16and to provide research support for
11:18investigators while fostering collaborations
11:20which drive future discoveries.
11:21And these are lofty goals,
11:23but we've also put into place
11:25an infrastructure behind them.
11:27So we have a group of individuals
11:29who are tasked with different
11:31elements of this domain.
11:33I'd like to highlight Niadi,
11:35who serves as the Director of Scientists,
11:36Diversity and Inclusion, Valerie Renke,
11:39who's the Interim Chair of Genetics,
11:40but also serving as our Director
11:42of PhD Scientist Development.
11:44Jean Shapiro,
11:45who has a longstanding history
11:46of being deeply invested in
11:49helping early career development.
11:50He's our Director of Grant
11:52Writing and Evaluation.
11:53Nick Licht runs our program
11:55office along with Sarah Ratner.
11:58And so we have a variety of initiatives,
11:59some of which may touch upon your lives.
12:02One is we have a role in funding
12:06and so we have the Yale Physician
12:09Scientist Development Awards which
12:10are an institutional K equivalent
12:12which are helpful in getting
12:14people the preliminary data to
12:16go for extramural K awards.
12:18It's coadministered with
12:19the YCCIK L2 program.
12:21We have an international Physician
12:23Scientist resident fellow Research award is
12:25really intended to enhance our pipeline.
12:27There's also an Anderson Post Doctoral
12:29fellowship which is open to early
12:31career laboratory based investigators
12:33to support an individual postdoc
12:35in their research environment and
12:36all of these funding announcements
12:38will come out throughout the year.
12:40We also have a role in
12:42professional development,
12:43so we have a research program leadership
12:46and management skills course which
12:48I'll highlight again in a moment.
12:49We have a Janeway Society which many of
12:52you will become automatic members of.
12:54Janeway is intended to consist of
12:57individuals who are new appointments
13:00to basic science departments or
13:02individuals in clinical departments
13:04with K Award or equivalent.
13:07We also do a little bit of work on
13:09the networking side with quarterly
13:11luncheons for Janeway Society
13:12members and new assistant professors.
13:15That's cosponsored of the Deputy Deans
13:18and we have a variety of resources,
13:20and I think the resources are
13:22probably going to be the things
13:23that are most useful to you,
13:24and these include a grants library
13:26which has just about every mechanism
13:28you can consider applying for.
13:29In my experience,
13:30the best way to write a grant is to see
13:32how someone else did it in the past.
13:34And so this, I think,
13:36is a real opportunity for folks.
13:39We have a grant writing course that
13:41applies to people both writing
13:42career development awards but also
13:44initial RO ones,
13:45which takes people from an idea
13:47through figures and a final grant,
13:49culminating in a study section.
13:52We have a scientific writing workshop
13:55which contains both didactic portions as
13:57well as paste manuscript writing portions.
14:00And then we also run a very active
14:02mock study section,
14:03which is an incredible opportunity
14:04to take advantage of the incredible
14:07diversity of investigators that we have
14:09here who have expertise in the area
14:11that you're writing your grants in.
14:13And we found the people who go
14:15through mock study section find
14:16it to be an incredibly useful
14:18experience because they get reviewers
14:20one through 3 written comments,
14:21but they also get a copy of the
14:24video of the mock study section
14:26where they can see how those comments
14:28are translated into a score.
14:31Many of you will participate in
14:33the Research Program Leadership
14:34and Management Skills course.
14:35This is a 2 day course which is
14:39run by German company called HFP
14:40Consulting offered to all Research
14:42Focus ladder faculty within the first
14:44three years of their appointment.
14:46So expect to hear from us at some
14:48point over the next three years.
14:50And it covers a variety of topics.
14:52This is an incredibly highly rated course.
14:55It goes through principles
14:57for professional interactions,
14:59skills for effective communication.
15:01It talks about efficiency,
15:02which is something that we all seek
15:04to strive to achieve, establishing,
15:08maintaining collaborations,
15:09team development, solving conflicts.
15:11Those classical questions of hiring
15:13and firing are addressed there and
15:16this actually creates a great cohort
15:18of individuals that are arriving at
15:20the institution at about the same
15:21time and is nucleated groups that
15:23have carried forward and that we we
15:25regroup with these groups at a year
15:27to discuss individuals experiences.
15:29We run this three times a year.
15:32I mentioned the Janeway Society.
15:34This was really meant to recognize the
15:37incredible effort that it takes to
15:39become faculty in the 1st place and
15:42to create a cohort of early career
15:44physician scientists and PhD scientists
15:46to have access to infrastructure
15:49and career development resources.
15:51We have 200 members across 28 department
15:53schools and centers and as I mentioned,
15:56the eligibility is intramural or
15:57extramural career development awards or
15:59new hires in the basic science departments.
16:01We run a series of programs including
16:03a First Fridays seminar series on
16:06leadership management and communication.
16:08We have a leadership group consisting
16:10of the membership of Janeway,
16:12which really drives that first Friday series,
16:15which provides both a perspective
16:16as well as near peer mentorship
16:19around an individual topic.
16:20We run a very successful annual retreat,
16:23but we also engage the members of Janeway
16:26as mentors for others who are rising up,
16:28like graduate students and MDPHD
16:30students to really enhance the
16:32mentorship network that's present.
16:33Institutionally,
16:36our quarterly luncheon has proven
16:37to be a fantastic you're going to
16:40get a taste of Yale catering today,
16:41but we've really upped our game.
16:44But more important than the food is
16:46the opportunity to come together
16:47with leadership of the medical school
16:49and with
16:49other faculty. And I always enjoy going
16:51to these lunches because people sort
16:53of go around the table and talk about
16:55the things they're interested in.
16:56And I see it nucleating. A great program,
16:59project grants right before my eyes.
17:02Grants library, just to give you an idea
17:05of where we stand with the grants library.
17:07And this is something that is in
17:09a state of continuous evolution.
17:12So we have a large number of K&amp;R awards.
17:15We focused on institutional training grants.
17:18We have a lot of diversity supplements.
17:20We've got Peas use UM ones,
17:23loan repayments, pioneer awards,
17:25VA awards and F series.
17:27But in fact, if you are going to
17:29be applying for a grant mechanism
17:31that's not in the grants library,
17:33let us know.
17:33We'll figure out who at the
17:35institution has those grants,
17:36make those early connections that you
17:38can always access a grant that's relevant
17:40to the mechanism that you're applying for.
17:43And so we really seek to be as service
17:45oriented as we can be around the grants,
17:50endeavors.
17:50Our grant writing course is offered
17:52twice a year directed by Jeanne Shapiro,
17:55along with the cadre of senior faculty.
17:58You have a lot of experience in this space.
18:01Small sections of faculty come
18:03together to write grants and they
18:05engage in seminars that are related
18:08to strategy that's matched the
18:10mechanism that's being applied for.
18:12There's a paste writing component with peer
18:14and faculty review and as I mentioned,
18:17it culminates in a study section
18:19and it's highly,
18:20highly sought after and well reviewed.
18:22Manuscript writing is led by Angie
18:26Hoffman who's written a really fantastic
18:29book about scientific communication.
18:30She's kicks it off with two half day
18:33workshops on scientific writing,
18:35which I'd encourage everyone,
18:36regardless of how many papers
18:38you've written to, to come to.
18:40I think she's really thought provoking.
18:42And then we also have this PACE
18:44manuscript writing program where
18:45participants compose of at least central
18:47portions of a manuscript over four to
18:49six weeks with pure and faculty review.
18:51Sometimes it's just about getting
18:53the activation energy to actually
18:54put pen to paper,
18:55and that's part of what this is all about.
18:59And then mock study sections.
19:00You know,
19:01this is a resource which I would
19:03encourage all of you who are writing
19:05grants to really seriously consider
19:06because of a couple of things.
19:07One is it has a fairly aggressive timeline.
19:10It's asking you to submit your grant
19:158 weeks prior to a deadline with the
19:18list of potential Yale reviewers.
19:20We solicit those reviewers and
19:21actually compensate them with gifts
19:23of wine and chocolate,
19:24which we find are more effective
19:26than money and and they and they
19:30wholeheartedly respond to requests and
19:33really I have been very impressed with
19:35the quality of review that's happened.
19:37And so you submit the full grant.
19:39So eight weeks before you give
19:40us specific games and reviewers,
19:416 weeks before the deadline
19:43submit as much of the grant as you
19:44have done and the more you have
19:46done, the better we can do
19:48with the review process.
19:49We rapidly turn that around so that you
19:51have a full month with our comments prior
19:53to the due date for the submission.
19:56We also encourage Janeway Society
19:58members to participate in the reviews
19:59to get a sense of what it's like to
20:02be a part of a of a study section.
20:04We've we've reviewed 41 grants to
20:06date but we have the capacity to
20:08do at least 16 per in a cycle.
20:11We can also accommodate off cycle
20:13applications because we do recognize
20:15that there is some off cycle
20:17awards and we're always happy to
20:19try to accommodate that.
20:20And so that's a bit on some of the
20:23resources that we put together for career
20:25development and scientific support.
20:27And I think that our,
20:29our next slide is really shared by
20:31many of the people who've spoken today
20:35about some of the things that we can,
20:37that we can think about as we begin
20:40to engage in scientific research.
20:42And and so I think I'll,
20:44I'll just hit the high points,
20:45but you know,
20:46I think the beautiful thing about
20:48Yale is no matter what it is
20:49that you're interested in,
20:51there's someone else who's
20:52also interested in it.
20:53And so you just need to find a
20:54way to engage with mentors and
20:56sponsors and people who can make
20:58those connections for you.
20:59Many times that's going to be people
21:01who have an institutional role,
21:02but other times it's going to be
21:04those individuals who are sitting
21:06within your own department.
21:07You know,
21:08I think for every space and resource issue,
21:10there's chairs and vice chairs who
21:13can be your first point of contact.
21:15And then, you know,
21:16I think look at your individual
21:17departmental leadership structure
21:19for who those individuals are.
21:20They can really be the ones who
21:22can make the connections for you
21:24to leadership and help to navigate
21:26the processes of the institution.
21:28You know,
21:29part of this is about getting
21:30out there and and establishing
21:32your reputation of locally,
21:34importantly to get known by individuals
21:36here who could be your collaborators,
21:38but also nationally and internationally.
21:40And so, you know,
21:41seek opportunities to engage and
21:43to collaborate.
21:44You know, I always have said to my
21:47early career faculty that you can
21:48only trust your hands at the bench.
21:50Your best hands are your own hands.
21:53And so if you can be in the lab,
21:54that has an opportunity to really
21:56sort of drive your science forward.
21:58And of course,
21:59I think the reason that we're
22:01all here is that we find joy
22:02in the things that we do.
22:04So thank you so much for your time.