Comparative Effectiveness Research Grants to Top Universities
Annual grant initiative will support M.S. and Ph.D. programs

The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington have each received a $250,000 grant to establish a three-year graduate certificate program.  This program is formally known as the PhRMA Foundation Center of Excellence for a Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Educational Program. 

The program’s goal is to initiate the process of organizing, building, and delivering university based M.S. and Ph.D. curricular programs in U.S. colleges and schools to instill knowledge and hone CER skills in students.  These students will eventually teach, research, and interpret CER to better patient outcomes.  The new grant – which will be awarded annually – will also help support programs for high-quality CER, such as those under way at the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, by giving researchers and practitioners the educational tools they need to help carry out CER studies.

“In an effort to attract well-qualified candidates to the growing field of CER and build a strong foundation for such patient-centered research, we awarded – for the first time ever – a grant to top educational institutions to develop a graduate-level curriculum around CER,” said Jean Paul Gagnon, chairman, Comparative Effectiveness Research Advisory Committee, PhRMA Foundation.  “While there were several excellent candidates that applied for the grant, this year’s recipients were chosen because they displayed strong track records conducting CER and demonstrated a commitment to advancing the field through related activities.” 

CER examines the clinical effectiveness, benefits and risks of different medical or health care interventions, including drugs, medical technology, or approaches to organizing and managing health care.  The results of these comparison studies are used by medical professionals to make informed health care determinations with the goal of improving patient care.
 
"My colleagues and I at the University of Washington are very excited and pleased to be launching a Graduate Certificate Program in Comparative Effectiveness Research with the support of the PhRMA Foundation,” said Lou Garrison, Ph.D., professor and associate director, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research & Policy Program, University of Washington. “As we move into this new era of patient-centered, real-world outcomes research with active stakeholder engagement, there is a tremendous need for newly trained researchers to take advantage of these new opportunities and to address critical methodological and information needs."

“The faculty members of the Center for Healthcare Services and Outcomes Research at Johns Hopkins University are excited to develop a Center of Excellence in Comparative Effectiveness Research Education,” said Jodi B. Segal, M.D., MPH, associate professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University.  “We are beginning by developing a certificate program in comparative effectiveness research that will be available to degree and non-degree students. Concurrently, we will be converting two of our CER-relevant courses so that they are accessible through the Hopkins online learning program; and we will prepare a series of seminars that will be available via a video archive to all viewers.”

As part of the grant, both universities are required to collaborate with one another to help produce high caliber comparative effectiveness researchers and practitioners who interpret and use research results to help improve health outcomes.  For more information about the criterion for the award, click here. 
[Criteria for Center of Excellence for CER Education Program]
For 46 years, the PhRMA Foundation has supported the field of drug discovery and the careers of scientific investigators, faculty members and physicians.  By funding the research of more than 2,200 young scientists, the Foundation has helped pave the way for the future of biopharmaceutical care. 

For more information on Comparative Effectiveness Research read
"Curricular Considerations for Pharmaceutical Comparative Effectiveness Research” which was published in January 2011 in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (PDS).  To view the article, click here: [Curricular Consideration for Pharmaceutical Comparative Effectiveness Research]

Research Supported by the PhRMA Foundation Funding

PValidation of a diagnostic microarray for human papillomavirus: coverage of 102 genotypes.
Arron ST, Skewes-Cox P, Do PH, Dybbro E, Da Costa M, Palefsky JM, Derisi JL.
SourceDepartment of Dermatology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. [link]

Synergistic cytotoxicity of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine and absence of poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase involves chromatin decondensation Authors: Yiran Zhou, Xiaoxing Feng, David W. Koh Affiliations: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA [link] 
 
Voltage-gated Na+ channel SCN5A is a key regulator of a gene transcriptional network that controls colon cancer invasion, Cancer Research,       70       (17), September 2010, Carrie House, Charles Vaske, Arnold Schwartz, Vincent Obias, Bryan Frank, Truong Luu, Narine                   Sarvazyan, Rosalyn Irby, Robert Strausberg, Tim Hales, Joshua Stuart, and Norman Lee [link]

"Sialidase enhances recovery from spinal cord contusion injury" Andrea Mountney a, Matthew R. Zahner b, Ileana Lorenzinia, Martin Oudega c,d,1, Lawrence P. Schrammb,e, and Ronald L. Schnaara,e,2 [link]

The code within the code: MicroRNAs target coding regions. Forman JJ, Coller HA.
Cell Cycle. 2010 Apr 13;9(8). [link]

Detailing regulatory networks through large scale data integration.
Huttenhower C, Mutungu KT, Indik N, Yang W, Schroeder M, Forman JJ, Troyanskaya OG, Coller HA.  Bioinformatics. 2009 Dec 15;25(24):3267-74.  [link]

Discovering structural cis-regulatory elements by modeling the behaviors of mRNAs.
Foat BC, Stormo GD.Mol Syst Biol. 2009;5:268. Epub 2009 Apr 28. [link]

Rapid DNA Library Construction for Functional Genomic and Metagenomic Screening.
Jonathan E. Schmitz,1,2 Anu Daniel,1 Mattias Collin,1, Raymond Schuch,1 and Vincent A. Fischetti1*  [link]

Xu, Z., Mansour, H.M., Mulder, T., McLean, R., Langridge, J., and Hickey, A.J. Heterogenous Particle Deaggregation and Its Implications for Therapeutic Aerosol Performance. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2010) 99 (8) March 15: 3442-3461.  Published online in Wiley InterScience. Abstract  [link]

Schroeder, S.J. "Advances in RNA Structure Prediction from Sequence: New Tools for Generating Hypotheses about Viral RNA Structure-Function Relationships," J. Virol. 2009,  83, pp. 6326-6334.  [link]

Schroeder, S.J., Turner, D.H. "Optical Melting Experiments of Nucleic Acid Thermodynamics," Methods Enz. 2009, 468, pp. 371-387.  [link]

Mansour, H.M., Xu, Z., and Hickey, A.J. Dry Powder Aerosols Generated by Standardized Entrainment Tubes from Alternative Sugar Blends: 3. Trehalose Dihydrate and D-Mannitol Carriers. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2010) 99 (8) March12; 3430-3441.   Published online in Wiley InterScience.  [link]

Xu, Z., Mansour, H.M., Mulder, T., McLean, R., Langridge, J., and Hickey, A.J. Dry Powder Aerosols Generated by Standardized Entrainment Tubes from Drug Blends with Lactose Monohydrate: 1. Albuterol Sulfate and Disodium Cromoglycate. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2010) 99 (8) March 2: 3398-3414.  [link]

Understanding the Behavior of Amorphous Pharmaceutical Systems during Dissolution
Author(s): Alonzo DE (Alonzo, David E.)2, Zhang GGZ (Zhang, Geoff G. Z.)1, Zhou DL (Zhou, Deliang)3, Gao Y (Gao, Yi)1, Taylor LS (Taylor, Lynne S.)2 Source: PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH    Volume: 27    Issue: 4    Pages: 608-618    Published: APR 2010  [link]

Antiestrogenic Effects of the Novel Sphingosine Kinase-2 Inhibitor ABC294640.
James W. Antoon, Martin D. White, William D. Meacham, Evelyn M. Slaughter, Shannon E. Muir, Steven Elliott, Lyndsay V. Rhodes, Hasina B. Ashe, Thomas E. Wiese, Charles D. Smith, Matthew E. Burow, and Barbara S. Beckman Endocrinology published September 22, 2010, doi:10.1210/en.2010-0420 [Link] 

Nuclear Factor Kappa B is Constitutively Activated in Prostate Cancer In Vitro and is Increased in Prostatic Intra-epithelial Neoplasia and Adenocarcinoma of the Prostate. Clin Cancer Res. 2004 Aug 15; 10(16): 5501-7. Sweeney C, Shanmugam R, Li L, Bhat-Nakshatri P, Baldridge L, Zhang S, Gardner T, Kao C, Koch M, Nakshatri H, Cheng L. [Link]

Practical approach for using Medicare data to estimate costs for cost-effectiveness analysis. Expert Rev. Pharmacoeconomics Outcomes Res. 5(2), 153-162 (2005). Tumeh, John W, Susan G Moore, Rachel Shapiro & Christopher R Flowers.

Rapid analysis of the DNA binding specificities of transcription factors with DNA microarrays. Nature Genetics. 2004 Dec; 36(12):1331-1339. Epub 2004 Nov 14. Mukherjee S, Berger MF, Jona G, Wang XS, Muzzey D, Snyder M, Young RA, Bulyk ML.[Link]

Reverse-engineering transcription control networks. Physics of Life Reviews 2, 65-88. Gardner, TS & J Faith. (2005)[Link]

Structural Determinants of the Pharmacological Properties of the GABAA Receptor a6 Subunit. The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 309:1108-1115, 2004. Brandon C. Drafts and Janet L. Fisher.

Synaptic Activation of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors Regulates Dendritic Outputs of Thalamic Interneurons. Neuron, Vol. 41, 611-623, February 19, 2004. Govindaiah and Charles L. Cox.

The a1 and a6 subunit subtypes of the mammalian GABAA receptor confer distinct channel gating kinetics. The Journal of Physiology, 561:2 (2004) pp433-448. Janet L. Fisher.

The Antiangiogenic Property of Docetaxel is Synergistic with rhuMAb-VEGF or 2-Methoxyestradiol but Antagonized by Endothelial Growth Factors. Cancer Res 2001; 61: 3369-3372. Sweeney, C., Miller, K.D., Sissons, S., Nozaki, S., Douglas K. Heilman, Jianzhao Shen , Sledge G.[Link]

The Influence of Water Content of Triglyceride Oils on the Solubility of Steroids. Pharmaceutical Research, Vol. 22, No. 5, May 2005. Laura M. Land, Ping Li, and Paul Michael Bummer.

The Phase III Trial in the Era of Targeted Therapy: Unraveling the "Go or No Go" Decision. Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 21, No 19 (October 1), 2003: pp 3683-3695. Roberts, Thomas G. Jr, Thomas J. Lynch Jr, & Bruce A Chabner.

Portal Osmopressor Mechanizm Linked to Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4 and Blood Pressure Control
Julia McHugh, Nancy R. Keller, Martin Appalsamy, Steven A. Thomas, Satish R. Raj, Andre Diedrich, Italo Biaggion, Jens Jordan and David Robertson [pdf]

The Relationship Between Water Vapor Absorption and Desorption by Phospholipids and Bilayer Phase Transitions. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, September 2006 - Published online in Wiley InterScience. Heidi M. Mansour, George Zografi.

Trends in the Risks and Benefits to Patients With Cancer Participating in Phase 1 Clinical Trials. JAMA, November 3, 2004 - Vol 292, No. 17 (Reprinted). Roberts, Thomas G. Jr, MD, MSocSci, Bernardo H. Goulart, MD, Lee Squitieri, Sarah C. Stallings, PhD, Elkan F. Halpern, PhD, Bruce A. Chabner, MD, G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD, Stan N. Finkelstein, MD, Jeffrey W. Clark, MD.

Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide Selectively Depolarizes Thalamic Relay Neurons and Attenuates Intrathalamic Rhythmic Activity. J Neurophysiol 90: 1224-1234, 2003. Sang-Hun Lee and Charles L. Cox.