Mujdat Cetin will become the next Robin and Tim Wentworth Director of the Goergen Institute for Data Science (GIDS) at the University of Rochester. The appointment is effective July 1, pending approval of the University Board of Trustees.

Cetin, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has served as the interim director of GIDS since July 1, 2019. He replaces Henry Kautz, the founding director of the institute. Kautz stepped down in early 2018 to serve as director of the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems at the National Science Foundation. Prior to Cetin, Ehsan Hoque, assistant professor of computer science and the Asaro Biggar Family Fellow in Data Science, served as interim director.

“We have a huge opportunity here. We have many strengths at the University that are very well aligned with data science,” Cetin says. “So, this is very exciting for me. As interim director, I have sensed how much emphasis the University places on GIDS, the importance associated with data science, and the enthusiasm for it.

“This is an evolving domain, and we face a lot of competition. Other universities are making major moves in data science. So, our challenge is: How do we position ourselves?” Read more about his ambitious agenda for the institute.

Two University of Rochester physicians — one as an investigator and one as a patient — had major roles in a cutting-edge clinical trial using the body’s own immune cells to fight late-stage cancer. The striking results, showing that 93 percent of the study patients responded to the treatment, were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Patrick Reagan, assistant professor of hematology/oncology at Wilmot Cancer Institute and senior author, helped to run the national clinical investigation of the immunotherapy, known as CAR T-cell therapy. The treatment involves injecting billions of immune cells, which have been supercharged outside of the body in a bio-manufacturing facility, back into the patient to seek and destroy tumors.

Patrick Brophy,  physician-in-chief at Golisano Children’s Hospital, was a patient in the study. He suffered from a rare, aggressive subtype of lymphoma (mantle cell) and was one of the 74 individuals who took part in the trial between 2016 and 2019.

The promise of CAR T-cell therapy is based on decades of research into how the immune system interacts with cancer and how it can be manipulated to fight the disease. So far, CAR T-cell therapy is being offered for lymphoma and leukemia to eligible patients. Research is continuing into other types of cancer. Read more here.

Here are three important links for researchers:

• University’s COVID-19 website for important updates and guidance on working, teaching, and learning remotely
• University of Rochester Medical Center website for restrictions, resources, and news
• Office of Research and Project Administration (ORPA) site on Coronavirus 2019 resources related to sponsored programs

The Council on Government Relations has released a Federal Agency Guidance Matrix that details COVID-19’s impact on proposals and awards for various government agencies, like NIH, NSF, DoD, etc. Learn more.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) invites researchers with COVID-19 related proposals to use the Rapid Response Research (RAPID) funding mechanism, which allows NSF to receive and review proposals having a severe urgency with regard to availability of or access to data, facilities, or specialized equipment as well as quick-response research on natural or anthropogenic disasters and similar unanticipated events.

Requests for RAPID proposals may be for up to $200,000 and up to one year in duration. Well-justified proposals that exceed these limits may be entertained. All questions should be directed either to a program officer managing an NSF program with which the research would be aligned or to rapid-covid19@nsf.gov.

The Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), of which the University of Rochester is a member,  is making available a limited number of grants for collaborative projects that focus on research challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and are urgent and of the moment.

Requests for support, for up to a maximum of £10,000, will be evaluated in consultation with the relevant Global Challenge steering group, to ensure that whatever support we provide is well directed.

Proposals must include at least three WUN member universities across two or more countries, and funds should be expended within one year of the award. For more information visit the WUN website or contact the University’s WUN coordinator, Ruth Levenkron.

Over the next several weeks, the Board on Higher Education of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will be hosting a series of conversations to understand the varied facets of the research response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Topics include:

• how researchers can help the national response efforts
• how labs are shifting research agendas
• how we can crowd-source scientists to improve public information
• how we can provide policy advice to the nation faster

Learn more and register for the series.

While enrollment is on hold for most human subject research studies at the University, medically-necessary and approved COVID-19 clinical trials may continue to enroll participants and may now use electronic informed consent (eConsent) as appropriate.

Please review the Office of Human Subject Protection’s new guidelines for using REDCap for eConsent to determine if eConsent would be appropriate for your study and to learn more about the submission process.

Questions? E-mail your IRB Coordinator or use Who is my IRB Coordinator? on the OHSP website if you do not know who to contact.

Since announcing the lab-research ramp down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Medical Center leaders have been working hard to keep you informed and answer your questions. Read the comprehensive Lab Research Ramp Down FAQ, which has been informed by several town hall and Q&A sessions.

In an effort to better meet the needs of faculty during these disrupting times, the following new zoom workshops have been added to the Online Learning Workshops for University faculty members, graduate students, and other instructors.

Teaching During Times of Disruption – Part II
This will build on the first TDTD workshop and cover advanced capabilities in Zoom, Strategies for Online Discussion, Rubrics for Assignments, Peer Review activities, and Facilitating Student Presentations.
Today: 10-11 a.m.
April 13: 4-5 p.m.

(Click here for a site with more information about Learning During Times of Disruption.)

Moving from Disruption to Online Teaching
This will cover Misperceptions about Online Learning, Online Learning Research, Designing Instruction, the Online Course Template, a faculty guest, and the Advanced Series in Online Teaching for UR faculty.
April 16: noon-1 p.m.
April 20: 10-11 a.m.

Please confirm that audio and video preferences on your computer are enabled prior to the start of the sessions. RSVP here. Questions? Email Adele Coelho.

An Emotional Support/Resources Hotline is now up and running to help faculty, staff, and their families navigate these challenging times. All University faculty and staff, affiliated hospital staff, and all family members can access this free, anonymous, and confidential service by calling (585) 276-3100. The line is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is staffed by nearly 70 volunteer clinicians from URMC. Volunteers can provide guidance and support on a wide range of personal and professional concerns, including:

• anxiety and stress management
• housing
• finances
• food needs
• child care

They can also connect you and your family with a variety of helpful resources. You will not be asked to give your name unless you wish to do so, and no information about your call will be shared with anyone.  Please note that this is not a mental health crisis line; if you need mental health crisis support, please call (585) 275-​8686.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced this week that he’s extending the closure of schools and non-essential businesses in New York through at least April 29.

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Monroe County are now recommending that everyone wear masks when out in public. The CDC offers instructions and guidelines for making cloth face coverings. There are other tutorials for making your own cloth mask out of common cloth items, such as socks, online. And remember that social distancing guidelines continue to be important!

UR Medicine is asking for your help in preparing its workforce for the anticipated surge of COVID-19 cases by donating homemade masks for use by staff who don’t have direct patient contact.

If you’re interested in lending a hand in the effort, or you’re already making masks but not sure where to donate them, here’s a webpage outlining the process at covid.urmc.edu—providing tips on how to get started and where to deliver your homemade masks.

The area’s largest hospital system has opened an offsite donation center at College Town Rochester, and developed a process for accepting and washing handmade masks.

• WHAT: UR Medicine Collecting Unused Handmade Masks
• WHEN: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday – Friday
• WHERE: 40 Celebration Dr. Rochester, NY 14642

The distribution and use of handmade cloth masks for staff do not have direct patient contact will help the health system preserve the supply of medical-grade masks for areas where they are an absolute necessity in protecting hospital staff.

With the onset of COVID-19, the University’s Clinical and Translational Sciencie Institute (UR CTSI) and Center for Community Health and Prevention partnered with local organizations to create an informed community-wide campaign to amplify key messages that local citizens need to know to stay healthy.

The public service campaign, which was created on behalf of the Monroe County Department of Public Health, uses traditional public service announcements, and non-traditional communication tools, such as street art and yard signs.

These messages will be translated into multiple languages to reach as many communities in Rochester as possible.

Given the extreme public health risks surrounding COVID-19, and in accordance with the Monroe County Department of Public Health, Wilmot Cancer Institute is eliminating virtually all hospital visits to prevent potential spread of the disease until further notice.

Wilmot Cancer Institute will no longer permit patients to have visitors in its outpatient settings for the safety of patients, staff, and providers. This includes infusion centers, clinics, and radiation oncology. The new visitor policy will be in place at all Wilmot Cancer Institute locations.

For visitors who accompany patients to appointments, Wilmot has designated waiting areas outside its facilities, and information about those areas will be provided. Read more here.

The $2 trillion stimulus recently signed into law likely won’t be adequate to save the US economy from collapse, according to University of Rochester economics professor Narayana Kocherlakota, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Kocherlakota, the Lionel W. McKenzie Professor of Economics at Rochester, says that while many pundits and policymakers are making comparisons to 2008, the last time the economy fell into a deep recessions, the situation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic face is fundamentally different and requires different responses.

In 2008 and 2009, the productive capacity of the United States had not changed at all. Any fall in output was waste and a sign that we weren’t using all of our productive possibilities to their fullest potential. In that case, the stimulus was an attempt to get consumers to buy more goods and services or to be engaged in projects so that workers could be employed.

Now the government wants a pause in economic activity. During this pause phase when we don’t want people working and we don’t have the same level of goods and services being produced, the question is how people and corporations continue to have enough money to stay afloat. Read more here.

The package does include important relief for New York providers and higher education institutions.

America’s individualistic outlook toward health care has shaped the country’s health care policy and system—and not for the better, according to physician and historian Mical Raz, the Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor in Public Policy and Health.

Now, the coronavirus pandemic “has exposed the limits of such an individualistic approach,” one in which we prize our own health while blaming other people’s poor choices and lifestyles when they fall ill, writes Raz in a Washington Post “Made by History” op-ed.

She outlines how the United States has historically responded to health policy crises—such as the shortage of dialysis machines in the 1960s—by carving out exemptions for treating specific illnesses rather than rethinking the health care system as a whole. “And, over decades, we’ve done this sort of thing hundreds of times, producing an incoherent, inefficient system in every aspect of health care,” Raz writes.

She calls on policymakers not to repeat these past mistakes. Instead, they must respond “by rethinking this individualistic mind-set, in recognition that healthy individuals make healthy communities, which produce a healthy nation.” Read more here.

(In light of the University’s new guidance on Coronavirus —and to help eliminate confusion about the status of upcoming University events during this rapidly evolving situation — Research Connections will not be including any event listings, at least for the short term. The best way to stay up to date on the status of University events is to check events.rochester.edu, which will include cancellations or other changes as they are announced. Thank you for your understanding.)

COMPETITIONS

April 15: Deadline to submit images for the annual Art of Science competition. Read more here.

GRANT DEADLINES

April 20: Deadline to apply for Community-Based Participatory Research Program Pipeline-to-Pilot grants from the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI).

May 1: Deadline to apply for pilot project funding from five programs, through the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience. Learn more.

May 3: Deadline to apply for pilot project funding from the Center for Research on Flavored Tobacco (CRoFT) for research to inform FDA regulation of tobacco products. The application should be submitted through the REDCap portal at http://j.mp/39bC1WF. Questions?  Application contact: Jacqueline Attia, WNY_CRoFT@urmc.rochester.edu Scientific/research contacts:  Scott Steele, scott_steele@urmc.rochester.edu or Deborah Ossip, deborah_ossip@urmc.rochester.edu