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T R A N S L A T I O N A N D
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I N N O V A T I O N
Two Faculty Receive National Innovation
Award
From National Center for Accelerated Innovations
Innovation is a skill in high demand in academic medicine. Fortunately at Case Western
Reserve University (CWRU) and University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center we have
many faculty who are nationally recognized for their innovative research and their dedication to
translational medicine. But, you don’t have to take my word for it. The National Center for
Accelerated Innovation (NCAI), a grant program funded by the NIH and managed as a
partnership between the Cleveland Clinic, CWRU, UH Case Medical Center, and institutions
across the state, recently awarded funds to Drs. Saptarsi Haldar and Carlos Subauste to help
accelerate promising technologies developed in their laboratories. The NIH’s Heart Lung and
Blood Institute developed the NCAI program to increase the generation of new, patient
benefiting products related to priority targets in the heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders space.
Our Ohio consortium has established an efficient infrastructure to propel early-stage projects
forward and to engage and educate researchers to be full partners in transforming their
discoveries into high-impact advances in patient care.
Dr. Haldar is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Case Cardiovascular Research Institute,
and his research centers on the development of BET bromodomain inhibitor drugs for human
heart failure. These bromodomain proteins are critical mediators of pathologic cardiac
hypertrophy and heart failure pathogenesis. Dr. Haldar's team will use the award to develop
inhibitors as a novel therapeutic strategy in human heart failure, in both pre-clinical and firstin-human studies. His award will be matched by funds from the Prentiss Strong Heart Program.
Dr. Saptarsi Haldar, Assistant Professor, Case Cardiovascular Research Institute
Dr. Subauste is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Ophthalmology and Pathology and an
infectious disease specialist with UH Case Medical Center. Dr. Subauste's research is focused
on inhibition of CD40-TRAF signaling for the treatment of vascular inflammatory disorders,
and he will use his award to synthesize and test the CD40-TRAF inhibitor in pre-clinical
models of inflammation. His award will be matched by funds from the Council to Advance
Human Health Accelerator Fund.
Dr. Carlos Subauste, Associate Professor of Medicine, Ophthalmology and Pathology,
Division of Infectious Diseases
We expect more good news soon, as the NCAI recently solicited a third round of letters of
intent. Thirty-five letters were received, of which 14 came from CWRU or UH Case Medical
Center. This week, 12 investigators were invited to submit full proposals, 6 of them from
CWRU/UH Case Medical Center. What a terrific performance from our faculty! If you don’t
know about the NCAI program or want to learn about support for your inventions and
innovation, please visit the SOM Office of Translation and Innovation website to see the wide
range of opportunities and resources that are currently available to help you move your
discoveries forward.
- Mark Chance, Vice Dean for Research