Jennifer Payne, MD, (left), and Matthew Gurka, PhD
New leaders have been appointed to oversee the program for the School of Medicine’s competitive application to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). Experienced researchers Jennifer L. Payne, MD, and Matthew J. Gurka, PhD, will coordinate program activities leading up to the submission in 2028. Reflecting the program’s breadth and reach, it has been named VCaTS — the Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Program. “The new leadership and name reflect a renewed, university-wide commitment to integrating rigorous clinical research with translational and implementation impact,” said Colin Derdeyn, MD, Interim Dean of the School of Medicine.
Jennifer L. Payne, MD, will lead VCaTS as Director of the CTSA Program and Associate Vice President for Research for Clinical Science, serving as scientific and clinical lead for the application. She is Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences and a UVA Vivian Pinn Scholar, with more than two decades of clinical research focused on reproductive and perinatal psychiatry. Dr. Payne directs UVA’s Reproductive Psychiatry Research Program and the Perinatal Mental Health Clinic, and her National Institute of Mental Health- and Department of Defense-funded work has helped identify epigenetic biomarkers of postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis.
Matthew J. Gurka, PhD, will serve as Co-Principal Investigator, bringing biostatistics, pragmatic clinical trial design, and implementation science expertise to the program’s leadership. He is the Evelyn Troup Hobson Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the UVA School of Medicine. Dr. Gurka previously served as founding Chair of Biostatistics at West Virginia University, leading the biostatistics and epidemiology program for that university’s own Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and as Vice Chair of Health Outcomes and Translational Research at the University of Florida.
The NIH CTSA program was founded in 2011 to enable new treatments and cures to be delivered to patients faster. It supports a national network of medical institutions with the goal of speeding the translation of research discoveries into health solutions. “Prior CTSA support has allowed us to build some extremely impactful programs, such as the iTHRIV scholars program. This effort, which the SOM has continued to support, has been a pivotal part of our effort to train the next generation of clinical and translational scientists at UVA,” Dean Derdeyn added.
“CTSAs are critically important to support cutting edge clinical-translational research, including education, career development, and core resources, as well as transformational projects,” noted Suzanne Jan de Beur, MD, Associate Dean for Clinical Research.
VCaTS will coordinate activities across schools, departments, partner institutions, and community stakeholders over the next two years, backed by institutional investment in infrastructure and KL2 workforce development, in partnership with the School of Medicine’s Office of Research and the University’s Office of the Vice President for Research.
Filed Under: Research