Medical Center Rounds

In naming Adrienne Morgan (PhD ’13) as senior associate dean for Equity and Inclusion at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, URMC reinforced its commitment to build an anti-racist culture. On Oct. 7, 2020—within months of Morgan’s appointment in July—the Medical Center released its Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan, a five-year effort to strengthen diversity and inclusion, address inequities in patient care, and reduce health disparities in the Rochester community.

Morgan added the role to her existing responsibilities as associate vice president in the University’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, which supports increased integration of the Medical Center into broader efforts across the organization.

“I am thrilled that Adrienne agreed to take on this role and has launched comprehensive and inclusive action planning,” said URMC CEO Mark Taubman, MD, dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry. “She’s a proven, energetic leader who knows our challenges and is trusted by faculty and learners. And by serving as the link with the University, she ensures that policies, interventions, and approaches are consistent across the enterprise.”

URMC’s Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan is the product of a process begun in June 2020, when Taubman, after participating in the Medical Center’s White Coats for Black Lives demonstration, acknowledged “the imperative for leadership to move immediately from rhetoric to action in supporting people of color.” Taubman and University of Rochester President Sarah Mangelsdorf joined other community leaders in signing the “Racism Is a Public Health Crisis” declaration by the Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group. “Our intent is to lift everyone up to become their best and healthiest selves, regardless of their identity or the challenges they face,” said Taubman. “These have long been goals of the Medical Center, but now we’ve put a leadership structure and accountability measures in place to ensure we make progress.” To gather input for the plan, Morgan and Medical Center leaders met with students, trainees, faculty, and staff and with organizations such as the

Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering, Association of Minority Residents and Fellows, Black Physicians Network, Diversity

Adrienne Morgan

and Inclusion Executive Committee, Student National Medical Association, and White Coats for Black Lives.

“We want to express our gratitude to everyone who stepped forward, shared their truths, and offered candid counsel,” said Morgan, one of the chief architects of the plan. “Their collaboration and input has shaped this action plan. Moving forward, these groups and many others will be at the table to help us improve our efforts and hold us accountable.”

The Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan outlines clear strategies and actions that will strengthen diversity across the Medical Center, identifies accountable leaders, sets metrics for measuring progress, and assures transparency through regular reporting mechanisms.

Its objectives and actions are organized under five goals: • Build the infrastructure through creation of department- and program-level diversity and inclusion plans, with annual progress reports; designation of trained and certified diversity officers to support the departmental plans; and extensive leadership training. • Recruit a more diverse faculty, student body, and workforce through the enhancement of pipeline programs for students considering a career in health and science; creation of a central recruitment function to increase diversity in candidate pools for faculty and leadership positions; and development of career tracks and support programs to increase retention. • Nurture a respectful environment where everyone feels welcome and supported, through development of a new University antiracism statement; building awareness of different cultures, ethnicities, and

traditions; and teaching equity and inclusion across Medical Center classrooms and labs. • Exemplify inclusion through diversity in artwork and displays in common areas; improving accessibility of diversity and inclusion resources on the URMC website; and converting the former office of Dr. George Hoyt Whipple—a Nobel prize winner and first dean of URMC’s medical school, who engaged in exclusionary hiring and admissions practices—from a museum space to a multicultural space used by today’s students. • Engage in equitable health care by taking steps to treat every patient the same, regardless of identity or zip code; working with community partners to identify and address barriers to care; and using research in health disparities to inform and improve the way

URMC delivers services.

Taubman cites numerous studies demonstrating that health care and research institutions that embrace diversity generate more impactful science, are more innovative, and deliver better care to their communities.

“Over the next five years, the Medical Center will become a more diverse and inclusive institution, composed of students and faculty from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences,” said Taubman. “By improving access to care and preventive services for those who need it most and providing culturally sensitive care to patients of all racial, ethnic, or gender identities, we will improve the health of our community as a whole and make significant and measurable progress in addressing the health disparities in our community.”

Alumnus Harvey J. Alter Wins Nobel Prize

Harvey J. Alter (’56, MD ’60), a senior scholar at the NIH Clinical Center’s Department of Transfusion Medicine, along with British scientist Michael Houghton and Rockefeller University scientist Charles Rice, won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. As a result, “highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available, and these have essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health,” according to the Nobel committee.

Alter is the 13th Nobel Laureate with ties to the University.

“We’re proud that Dr. Alter’s distinguished medical career began here and hope his accomplishments provide inspiration to the young physicians and scientists to-be who are studying and training within the same walls,” said Mark Taubman, MD, URMC CEO and dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Lynne Maquat, the J. Lowell Orbison Distinguished Service Alumni Professor and director of the Center for RNA Biology at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, said Alter’s efforts to reduce the dangers caused by the virus hold important lessons for how medical science can improve human lives.

“In these days of COVID-19, Dr. Alter’s dedication to eliminating problems caused by another virus—hepatitis C infections transmitted by blood transfusions—engenders hope for us all,” Maquat said. “Dr. Alter is a gentleman and a scholar who, through science, has dedicated a large portion of his life to bettering the health of mankind.”

$24M Award Bolsters Continued Translational Science Efforts

University of Rochester Medical Center has been awarded an additional $24.3 million from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health to continue its work in turning scientific discoveries into health benefits more quickly. This brings URMC’s total NCATS funding to $132 million, dating back to 2006 when it became one of 12 inaugural award recipients in the nation.

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the clear and urgent need for biomedical research—especially translational research,” said University of Rochester President Sarah Mangelsdorf. “As one of the nation’s leading research universities, we are devoted to advancing scientific understanding and promoting health, and this award will help us continue those efforts.”

This award supports the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI), which provides funding, training, and resources to help researchers rapidly translate discoveries into therapies. The UR CTSI was one of the first institutions to be accepted into the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program—the largest single grant program at the NIH. As a testament to its leadership in translational science, the UR CTSI was selected in 2017 as the coordinating center for the CTSA Program.

“The UR CTSI has been a leader in translational science since its inception,” said URMC CEO Mark Taubman, MD. “In those years, the Institute has brought nearly $132 million to the university, which it used to build a research infrastructure that is helping our researchers move quickly at a time when the entire world is experiencing a shared crisis and desperately awaiting solutions.”

The development of the UR CTSI was the catalyst for the construction of the Saunders Research Building, completed in 2011 through $50 million in New York State funding. Built as a home for clinical and translational research, the building was named in recognition of E. Phillip Saunders, whose long-standing commitment to medical research at URMC and generous $10 million gift has been instrumental in fostering research into muscular dystrophy, cancer, and translational biomedicine.

With the new grant, the UR CTSI will move beyond physical and virtual confines to help researchers conduct studies remotely, integrate research with clinical practice, and break down barriers to diversification of the research workforce.

“Long before COVID-19 began spreading around the globe, the UR CTSI was working to address critical issues that slow or impede research,” said Nancy Bennett, MD, co-director of the UR CTSI and director of the Center for Community Health & Prevention at URMC. “The current crisis highlights just how amazing and important the work of our faculty, students, and staff is.”

Before a global pandemic forced the world to stay home, the UR CTSI was working on ways to bring research to the community, cutting travel and parking from the equation. To help more people—and a more diverse set of people—participate in health research, the UR CTSI plans to improve the university’s capability for remote research and to build a research bus that can bring the clinic to participants.

“These remote research efforts are just a few of the ways we hope to ensure that our studies reflect the diversity of our communities,” said Martin Zand, MD, PhD, who is UR CTSI co-director and senior associate dean for Clinical Research at URMC. “Being virtually and physically present in the community will help us address health disparities—like those seen in COVID-19— and ensure that therapies work for everyone.”

With continued funding for these efforts, the UR CTSI will ramp up efforts to connect with communities that experience health disparities and are typically underrepresented in health research, including Black, Latinx, Deaf, pediatric, elderly, and rural communities.

Over the next five years, the UR CTSI will build a “learning health care system” connecting researchers, clinicians, and diverse community members. Working together, they will identify health challenges and build solutions that are responsive to community and health-system needs and can be easily adopted.

Beyond connecting the people behind research and medicine, the UR CTSI is also actively integrating the data from each of those realms. The recently launched COVID-19 Biobank is just one example of this work. The Biobank provides researchers with access to blood samples that are COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative and links those samples with relevant laboratory and de-identified patient data. This saves time and effort for researchers and will give them a broader view of the COVID-19 situation, helping them find connections they might not have otherwise seen.

In addition to ensuring diversity among research participants, the UR CTSI is renewing its commitment to diversifying its workforce. The Institute will work to break down the “walls” that keep members of the Black and Latinx communities, women, and people with disabilities from advancing in biomedical research careers. The UR CTSI vows to, in the coming years, recruit more faculty and students from underrepresented groups. By encouraging our existing workforce to recognize and address the inborn biases inherent in all people, the Institute hopes to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment in which a diverse workforce can thrive.

Designation Advances URMC’s Leadership in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research

In 2020, the University was designated an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Accompanied by more than $6 million in NICHD funding, this award affirms URMC’s national leadership in research for conditions such as autism, Batten disease, and Rett syndrome. It will help translate scientific insights into new ways to diagnose and treat these conditions and give patients and families access to cutting-edge care.

The IDDRC at the University of Rochester is led by John Foxe, PhD, director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, and Jonathan Mink, MD, PhD, chief of Child Neurology at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

“The new center will span research from molecule to mind and elevate and accelerate the pioneering work that our scientists and clinicians are undertaking in this field,” said Foxe. “This recognition will enable us to not only strengthen and expand the scope of research, but also attract new scientists, clinical researchers, and students and will accelerate the process of moving discoveries from the laboratory bench to the clinic in the form of new therapeutics and interventions.”

Mink noted that “Improving the health and wellbeing of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has long been one of the core missions of URMC and is woven into our history, dating back to the founding principles of the School of Medicine and Dentistry and the creation of the biopsychosocial model, which revolutionized the approach to complex physical and mental conditions. This designation will build upon this foundation and help improve the lives of patients with these conditions.”

URMC is one of 14 NICHD-designated IDDRC institutions in the U.S. Combined with its previous awards as a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service (UCEDD) and in Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND), this designation places URMC among a small group of institutions recognized for leadership in IDD research, training, care, and community partnership.

The IDDRC’s research will be closely integrated with the Medical Center’s clinical programs in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Child and Adult Neurology, Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health and Wellness, and the Complex Care Center. These provide care for children and adolescents with a variety of neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral conditions.

The IDDRC consists of five research clusters that collectively will enable a better understanding of the genetic, environmental, nutritional, social, and molecular mechanisms of these conditions. These clusters comprise 105 investigators with 197 current or pending research projects. Researchers will work in collaboration the URMC Clinical and Translational Science Institute to move new discoveries into clinical trials.

While the IDDRC will encompass research on a wide range of conditions, one of its key projects will focus on Batten disease. URMC is home to the University of Rochester Batten Center (URBC), one of the nation’s premier centers for the study and treatment of the condition. With several potential gene therapies in advanced stages of development, URMC will focus on identifying biomarkers to help evaluate the effectiveness of these experimental treatments. URBC is designated a Center of Excellence by the Batten Disease Support and Research Association (BDSRA).

The IDDRC award is the culmination of a five-year expansion of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience. That growth included the recruitment of 40 new scientists, many of whom work in the field of IDD; investments in complex-care clinical infrastructure; more than $20 million in investment in new research facilities and capabilities; and the development of new research initiatives across basic, translational, and clinical research for these conditions.