VCU Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research

04/17/2026

On April 8, vice president for research and innovation, P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D. presented the annual State of the Research fireside chat with David Oglethorpe, Ed.D., assistant vice president, VCU Academic Affairs Communications.

Thank you to all the Wright Center team members who attended the presentation and who helped conduct outreach about the Wright Center's programs, resources and services, including our Research Design Studios.

Learn more about the State of the Research here: https://news.vcu.edu/article/vcu-aims-to-be-an-international-hub-for-research-vp-rao-says-in-annual-address

04/16/2026

Congratulations to the first cohort of honors students in the VCU–VSU Mentorship Pod, (pictured here with Wright Center associate director, Patrick Nana-Sinkam, MD).

On April 10, we held a closing ceremony at Virginia State University, where VSU honors students were awarded certificates for completing their intensive clinical and translational research training.

The mentorship pod is a collaboration with Virginia State University, one of our partner institutions in our CTSA award.

04/15/2026

A new study at VCU and VCU Health aims to answer a question about how a change to SNAP benefits will affect the daily lives and dietary choices of food-insecure families.

To get meaningful data, they needed hundreds of participants in a matter of weeks.

To collect this high-integrity data on a tight timeline, the Wright Center's informatics team and VCU Health’s Enterprise Analytics built a specialized informatics pipeline within VCU Health’s Epic electronic health record (EHR) system.

The team’s efforts proved highly successful, resulting in the collection of over 300 baseline surveys during the month of March. “This recruitment approach yielded no bot-generated responses, which is a rare feat in incentivized survey research,” said Jennifer Lambert, MD, MHS, who is leading the study.

While the primary goal was learning about how the new policy would affect Virginia families, the project’s technical rigor caught the attention of national evaluators, earning VCU Health its eighth research “gold star” from Epic Systems.

Read more about this innovative informatics story here:

The Wright Center and VCU Health’s Enterprise Analytics built a specialized informatics pipeline within VCU Health’s Epic electronic health record (EHR) system to collect high-integrity data for a study on SNAP benefits. In the process, they earned national recognition for their software innovat...

04/10/2026

“This is really why we do the work that we do. It's to prepare the next generation.” –S. Patrick Nana-Sinkam, M.D. Watch the next generation of medical professionals talk about the Wright Center’s mentoring pod.

04/10/2026

The Wright Center recently welcomed six pre-med honors students from Virginia State University (VSU) to the VCU medical campus.

This visit represents a vital piece of a much larger mission. VSU is a key partner institution in the Wright Center’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This collaboration is a core component of our training and outreach programs, designed specifically to cultivate the next generation of clinical researchers.

Patrick Nana-Sinkam MD FCCP ATSF, Associate Director of the Wright Center, said, "I consider this to be an investment in our workforce, and ultimately an investment in our patients. The better the workforce we have, the better care our patients receive."

A huge thank you to our faculty mentors from the VCU School of Medicine and VCU Dentistry who provided one-on-one guidance to these future physicians:

⭐ Karen D. Hendricks-Muñoz, M.D., MPH (Pediatrics)
⭐ Christina Philips, D.D.S., M.S.D. (Orthodontics)
⭐ Ronsard Daniel, M.D. (Anesthesiology)
⭐ Vashti Bandy, M.D. (General Surgery)

We also want to thank Tamas Gal, Ph.D. and Alexander Brunfeldt, PhD for their expertise in leading the students through a hands-on session with research informatics tools.

Read the full story on our blog: https://blogs.vcu.edu/cctr/2026/04/06/vcu-vsu-partnership-leads-to-a-long-term-mentorship-program-with-undergraduate-honors-pre-med-students/

04/09/2026

Rather than focusing on the areas where mortality is highest, a multidisciplinary team is putting a spotlight on communities that are performing significantly better than expected despite facing the same risks as their neighbors who are struggling.

Fatal drug overdoses have been Virginia’s leading cause of unnatural death since 2013, and researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Department of Health say more than five Virginians die every day from an opioid drug overdose. Behind the statistics are parents, children, and neighbors lost to the opioid crisis—a human tragedy felt in every zip code, leaving a wake of grief that no ledger can truly capture.

While the headlines often focus on the areas hit hardest, researchers are now looking in a new direction: toward the communities that are beating the odds.

Read the full article: https://blogs.vcu.edu/cctr/2026/03/23/by-finding-bright-spots-in-the-opioid-crisis-vcu-researchers-are-mapping-a-path-to-better-outcomes/

04/08/2026

As part of VCU’s Research Weeks, we were proud to host the Wright Center Visiting Scholar Mini-Symposium, a dynamic partnership between the VCU Wright Center and the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical & Translational Science (GHUCCTSCommunity).

This program offered KL2/K12 researchers a unique platform to share science across disciplines and forge new collaborations.

A huge congratulations to our featured speakers for their insightful presentations:

💡 Chelsea Sawyers, Ph.D. (VCU) – Integrating genetics and neuroimaging to understand adolescent stress and suicidality.

💡 Erica E. Coates, Ph.D. (Georgetown) – Exploring culturally specific protective factors in Black families through the BLESSED Research Group.

💡 Paul Kline, PT, DPT, Ph.D. (VCU) – Developing movement-based interventions for chronic musculoskeletal conditions.

💡 Bonnie C. Carney, Ph.D. (Georgetown) – Investigating the pathophysiology behind post-burn hypertrophic scar development.

Thank you to our colleagues from GHUCCTS for making this exchange of ideas so impactful. Together, we are bridging disciplines to improve human health!

04/07/2026

Tomorrow, please join P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., vice president for research and innovation, for the State of the Research fireside chat, as he looks back at our monumental year and celebrates the people who make Virginia Commonwealth University a premiere research university.

Michael Rao, Ph.D., president of VCU, will provide welcome remarks.

Looking back on the year that VCU crossed the half a billion mark in both research expenditures and sponsored funding, the numbers are what show our impact, but the people and their stories are what truly matter. The late nights in the lab, the tired eyes searching for answers to the most vexing questions, the innovators who make up our research community are the ones who drove VCU to cross institutional boundaries and break records in FY25!

Following the conversation, we will celebrate research and innovation at Scott House for a reception. We hope to see you there!

🗓️ Date: April 8, 2026
🕚 Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Cabell Library-Lecture Hall, Room 303 (901 Park Ave, Richmond, VA 23284). Reception to follow at VCU Scott House.
RSVP: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/40cd5d516a4f45e9af947238dd36d0d8

04/07/2026

Happening tomorrow!
Is your research reaching the people who set policies?

Policymakers don't read scientific journals—so how do you bridge the gap? Join the VCU Wright Center for a vital session in our Research Impact Series: "Using Your Research to Shape Policy."

We are honored to host Steven H. Woolf, M.D., M.P.H., Director Emeritus of the VCU Center on Society and Health, and Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health. As a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a leading voice in population health, Dr. Woolf will share how to pair rigorous data with strategic outreach to catch the eye of decision-makers.
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM
Register: https://vcu.zoom.us/meeting/register/0jhPi3zrQR6LBem9KzevPw #/registration

04/06/2026

Happening tomorrow!
The VCU Wright Center is proud to host our Visiting Scholar Mini-Symposium on April 7th, partnering with the GHUCCTSCommunity Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical & Translational Science.

Join us on April 7th to hear from four incredible scholars:

Chelsea Sawyers, Ph.D. (Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics): Integrating genetics and neuroimaging to understand adolescent stress and suicidality.
Erica E. Coates, Ph.D. (Georgetown University): Exploring culturally specific protective factors in Black families through the BLESSED Research Group.
Paul Kline, PT, DPT, Ph.D. (VCU College of Health Professions): Developing movement-based interventions for chronic musculoskeletal conditions.
Bonnie Carney, Ph.D. (Georgetown): Investigating the pathophysiology behind post-burn hypertrophic scar development.

🗓️ Date: April 7, 2026
🕚 Time: 11:00 AM ET
🔗 Register here: https://vcu.zoom.us/meeting/register/FY6KOdz3SD-ALNjGSeCPZw #/registration

04/06/2026

A personal appeal from Wright Center director, F. Gerard Moeller, M.D., regarding NIH open access compliance:

“I am making a personal appeal to every researcher in our community to pay close attention to the NIH’s new open access policy. This is especially critical for Principal Investigators and first authors.

The stakes for our center are incredibly high: if even one paper that cites our Wright Center NIH grants is out of compliance, the NIH views the entire Wright Center as non-compliant. This isn’t just a minor administrative hurdle—it can slow or even stop our grant renewal for the next year. We need everyone’s full cooperation to protect our collective funding and research mission.”

Please take a moment and read the full column from Dr. Moeller here:
https://blogs.vcu.edu/cctr/2026/03/30/from-the-director-a-personal-appeal-regarding-nih-open-access-compliance/