Yale Center for Clinical Investigation

Dr. Lewis has found that African-Americans who report a high rate of slights and mistreatments also show metabolic indicators that they are at risk for cardiovascular disease. Her future work will look at coping skills to help people avoid the dangerous health effects of discrimination, while also probing ways to reduce that discrimination.

Dr. Robert Sherwin draws upon his career doing landmark research in diabetes to help new investigators pursue science that improves health care. Reflecting on his role as primary investigator of Yale’s NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award, he sees a need to educate “translators,” researchers who can connect basic scientists and clinicians.

William Tamborlane’s groundbreaking research changed the way diabetes is managed, but he says that research of that kind is becoming increasingly difficult to do. As YCCI Deputy Director for Clinical Research and Director of the Office of Research Services, Dr. Tamborlane works to remove barriers for the next generation of clinical researchers.

Kathleen Uscinski of Yale’s Office of Human Research Protection is streamlining clinical research by working at Yale and with institutions around the country to find ways to ensure safety without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Erik Shapiro’s lab is working to manipulate dormant stem cells to migrate to sites of injury or disease so that the body can effect its own repairs. He terms this out-of-the-box approach “high risk/high reward” science.

Associate Dean for Scientific Affairs Sara Rockwell talks about the pragmatic approach that Yale takes in evaluating the effectiveness of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.

As director of the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences, health economist Peter Peduzzi demystifies research methods – at the same time he works to develop more powerful and sophisticated tools to harness vast amounts of data.

In work he began as a YCCI Scholar, Dr. Peter Morgan found that men who recently stopped using cocaine don’t get enough sleep but are often unaware of it. Finding a suitable sleep aid for recovering addicts may help them continue to stay clean.

Like most drugs, cocaine has pleasurable and uncomfortable effects. Dr. Robert Malison studies how the drug produces these effects in the human brain. This knowledge could lead to new addiction treatments that would make the experience of using cocaine less enticing.

Georgina Lucas, of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale, discusses community-based participatory research. This model, where the university and community enjoy true partnership, spawned a system to fill the gap in specialty care for low-income patients.

Yale’s high-throughput DNA sequencing capabilities allowed Dr. Richard Lifton to make the world’s first diagnosis using DNA alone. He discusses Yale’s investment in genomics and the promise it holds for translational research and clinical care.

The Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program prepares young physicians to make broad, systemic changes in health care. Director Harlan Krumholz describes the unique approach to leadership training in the program as well as its strong emphasis on community-based participatory research.

Yale Center for Clinical Investigation Chief Operating Officer Tesheia Johnson talks about collaboration among institutions ramping up clinical and translational science. Recipients of federal Clinical and Translational Science Awards share best practices as administrators and researchers reach out to colleagues at other consortium schools.

Dean Margaret Grey describes the Yale School of Nursing’s long and deep history of community engagement. YSN’s strength in the community has helped set the direction for Yale’s Clinical and Translational Science Award. Yale nurses have also served as a resource to other CTSA sites nationally.

Dr. Geoffrey Chupp of the Yale Center for Asthma and Airways Disease had identified a biomarker associated with severe asthma, a disease where current treatments only address symptoms. Dr. Chupp’s discovery creates the possibility of treating the root cause in this form of asthma. In the shorter term, it allows doctors to screen patients who may need more aggressive treatment.

Dean of Public Health Paul Cleary talks about how the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation has helped faculty to form true partnerships with New Haven neighborhoods. That gets research into the hands of residents and advocates who can use it to built a healthier community.

Yale School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern talks about the university’s strides in fostering clinical and translational research, the role NIH funding has played in that progress, and his vision to bring still more knowledge to bear on patient care.

Dr. Sandra Alfano, chair of the Human Investigations Committee at Yale, talks about how she’s working with other institutions to improve the way IRBs – or human subject committees -- work. Institutions that have received CTSA funding from the NIH are sharing best practices in the complex process of proposal approval.

Biostatistician James Dziura talks about his work on a study that revealed effective ways for parents to help their children with autism. Professor Dziura is a frequent collaborator with a wide variety of researchers as manager of the biostatistical support unit at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.

It’s not surprising that mothers who abuse cocaine are less attentive to their children. But learning the neural mechanisms behind their responses may lead to interventions that help them parent better and even stop using the drug. Linda Mayes is conducting a multi-site brain imaging study with that goal in mind.

Dr. Peter Herbert, chief medical officer at Yale-New Haven Hospital, talks about how the hospital and university are collaborating to attract top notch clinical and translational researchers and provide them with the resources they need to advance discovery.

David Leffell, deputy dean for clinical affairs and CEO of the Yale Medical Group, describes the Yale system’s investment in an electronic health record. While protecting patient privacy, the EHR will be step one in a process to make data readily available for researchers.