Jerold B. Katz Academy of Translational Research

Asubstantial commitment from the Jerold B. Katz Foundation established the Jerold B. Katz Academy of Translational Research, which aims to recruit and retain the world’s most promising transformational researchers in health care. According to Evan H. Katz, one of Jerold B. Katz’s sons and the president of the Jerold B. Katz Foundation, the gift is designed to continually seed innovation and facilitate the discovery of improved treatments and medications. A portion of this gift is intended to support the research efforts of eight investigators, of whom three have been announced.

KATZ INVESTIGATORS Katz Investigators

GIFT IMPACT

Nestor Esnaola, MD, MPH, MBA, FACS

Esnaola is the associate director of Cancer Control and Population Science in the Cancer Center, professor of surgery and division head of surgical oncology in the Department of Surgery. He works closely with Cancer Center Director Jenny Chang, MD, to drive efforts in the areas of cancer prevention, community outreach and engagement, cancer health disparities and population science research. He was awarded Katz Foundation funding to evaluate a patientnavigation intervention tool intended to optimize breast cancer care and address outcome disparities in minorities and underserved women. The tool will be tested in a large-scale, community-based, randomized clinical trial.

Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH

Nasir is a professor of Cardiology, chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Prevention and Wellness in the DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and co-director of the Center for Outcomes Research. Nasir was awarded the Katz investigator endowment to support his efforts to develop a systemwide hospital resource for research in the area of cardiovascular disease prevention. This platform will harness the power of big data, innovative computation paradigms and artificial machine intelligence to integrate clinical and research data of patients with cardiovascular disease. By leveraging dashboards and digital solutions like alert systems and automatic prescriptions, Nasir aims to identify gaps in preventative care among high-risk individuals.

Trisha Roy, MD, PhD

Assistant professor of Cardiovascular Surgery, vascular surgeon-scientist and Katz investigator, Roy is researching advanced imaging options to improve procedural outcomes for peripheral arterial disease. Current imaging techniques fall short at accurately characterizing arterial lesions, which leads to a “one-size-fits-all” approach to treatment. Roy is developing a peripheral arterial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method for evaluating blood vessel blockages that will allow surgeons to precisely tailor surgeries and endovascular procedures to individual patients. By selecting the right treatment for the right patient, Roy hopes to reduce failure rates and make these treatments more successful.