by Bill Snyder
Patricia Griffin, MD, chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will be the guest speaker at the 2018 Vanderbilt Translational Research Forum October 26 at the Vanderbilt Student Life Center.
Griffin oversees surveillance and investigation of sporadic illnesses in the United States caused by enteric (intestinal) bacteria as well as hemolytic uremic syndrome, a condition often caused by infection by the E. coli bacteria that can lead to life-threatening kidney failure. She will speak at noon.
The daylong event will begin at 8 a.m. with the presentation of the annual mentoring and service awards.
This year the Award for Distinguished Service to Translational Scientists will be given to Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, associate professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Meharry Medical College and executive director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance.
A national leader in community-engaged research, Wilkins co-directs the Meharry-Vanderbilt Community-Engaged Research Core in the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. The goal is to bring together academic researchers and community members to improve community health and health care through community-engaged research.
This year’s recipient of the Excellence in Mentoring Translational Scientists Award is James Crowe Jr., MD, the Ann Scott Carell Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center.
A pioneer in the rational design of vaccines and neutralizing antibodies against a long list of pathogenic viruses, Crowe also has been recognized for his mentorship of medical and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
The awards presentations will be followed by plenary and breakout sessions on a wide variety of translational research given by 26 Vanderbilt faculty members. For more information and to register, go to https://my.vanderbilt.edu/translationalresearchforum/.