Pediatric Research Day Focuses on Team Science
“Team Science” was the theme of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s 2011 Pediatric Research Day, September 8. The morning-long program featured Bonnie Ramsey, M.D., of University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital, as keynote speaker. She is a national leader in cystic fibrosis (CF) research and translational medicine and director of the CF Therapeutics Development Network Coordinating Center, which coordinates nearly 80 CF clinical research centers across the nation, including one at UNC. She merged these areas in her talk, “Cystic Fibrosis as a Paradigm for Transitional Medicine,” to demonstrate how effective teamwork combined with the methods of translational medicine can accelerate movement of research discoveries into patient therapies.
“Team Science” was the theme of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s 2011 Pediatric Research Day, September 8. The morning-long program featured Bonnie Ramsey, M.D., of University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital, as keynote speaker. She is a national leader in cystic fibrosis (CF) research and translational medicine and director of the CF Therapeutics Development Network Coordinating Center, which coordinates nearly 80 CF clinical research centers across the nation, including one at UNC. She merged these areas in her talk, “Cystic Fibrosis as a Paradigm for Transitional Medicine,” to demonstrate how effective teamwork combined with the methods of translational medicine can accelerate movement of research discoveries into patient therapies.
Ramsey spoke of the “power of a common goal” that leads to shared training programs and shared data. Also, she emphasized “the power of collaboration across all translational levels, so that you come together as a whole.”
“It [the CF example] was industry, academics and families all working together. And what that allows is that you create teams that transition from incremental – what you do in your own work or your own laboratory – to radical thinking.”
In keeping with the theme, the event was organized through a joint effort by the UNC Department of Pediatrics, its Faculty Development Committee and the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute. NC TraCS is home to UNC’s NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA), a national consortium created to speed development of research discoveries into patient therapies.
“We chose this theme because so much research is going in this direction -- from the silo approach to a team approach. This is especially important in pediatrics where many diseases are rare,” said Stephanie Davis, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at UNC and one of the organizers.
Attendees, who also were eligible for continuing medical education credits, heard presentations ranging from guidance on how to forge collaborations to specific examples of extraordinary science underway through such collaborations. During lunch they viewed posters of more pediatric research projects resulting from the work of often multidisciplinary teams.
Carl L. Bose, M.D., received the department of pediatrics’ 2011 Faculty Mentoring Award. Bose is a professor of pediatrics who specializes in newborn intensive care and neonatal pulmonology, including chronic lung disease. Wayne Price, M.D., chief of the division of neonatal-perinatal medicine, described Bose as “always paying attention to evidence-based medicine in clinic … defined by the success of his mentees” and one who “demonstrates how to transition from dependent researchers to nationally and internationally known independent researchers.”
“Most people in academic medicine have a good work ethic, but how do we know if they are going to make a good team member?” asked Matthew Laughon, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor in the division of neonatal-perinatal medicine. He collaborates extensively on multi-site studies with researchers both at UNC and at other institutions. His talk focused on the basics of what makes teams successful and how best to utilize the skills and talents of individual team members for the greater good of the project’s goals. Responsiveness is key, he said.
“If you send them an email and get a response four days later – that’s a negative. If you send an email and get a response later that night – that’s a positive,” he said. Laughon went on to describe other essential habits of a good team member: following directions and helping others. His list for what makes a successful team were: unity, leadership, delegation, authority equaling responsibility, mentorship and trust.
Four other UNC researchers provided detailed examples of their research resulting from team projects.
Eliana Perrin, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of general pediatrics and adolescent medicine, provided detailed examples of the work in childhood obesity by her SCOOPT (Scientific Collaborative for Overweight and Obesity Prevention and Treatment) lab. Among other work, she is currently principal investigator on a multi-site clinical trial with a cohort of over 1,000 babies.
Maureen Su, M.D., assistant professor of pediatric endocrinology, spoke on “What Genetic Mutations in Patients Can Teach us about Autoimmunity.” Her work has studied the role of the Aire gene in children with autoimmune disorders and involved collaborators nationally and internationally from diverse backgrounds.
“I think the topic team science is an example of … what the possibilities are for collaboration across campus in many different departments and in work that we’ve done,” said Ian Davis, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and genetics. In his topic, “Harnessing Genomics to Target Deregulated Transcription in Cancer,” he detailed work in cancer research that has involved collaborators in the UNC Department of Biology, the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the UNC High Throughput Sequencing Core Facility.
Terry Noah, M.D., professor of pediatric pulmonology, closed with his talk on “Translational Studies of Inhaled Pollutants and Airway Host Defense.” He conducts studies in the UNC Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology on the effects of air pollutant exposure on vulnerable groups and the role of smoking in raising the risk for influenza.
“I would love for this meeting to generate collaborations within and outside the department, as well as get young investigators excited about pediatric research,” said Davis. She added that she would also like this event to be an annual one.
