Dear Colleagues,

Please mark your calendars—Research Day 2026 is officially set for Tuesday, April 21st! We look forward to bringing our community together once again to celebrate inquiry, innovation, and the impactful work happening across our institution. Additional details, including the call for abstracts and event agenda, will be shared in the coming months.

We would also like to extend a sincere thank you to the more than 100 colleagues who took the time to complete our R&D Improvement Survey. We heard your concerns as well as your compliments, and over the next several months we will be working to address the issues raised and implement solutions to help our processes flow more smoothly.

Thank you for your continued commitment to advancing research excellence.

Warm regards,

Michael Wilson, MD, PhD

You asked, we linked

Click here to see our prior newsletter editions (scroll down to “Research and Development News”)!

Your Research. Your Story. Your Impact.

Have you ever wanted to share the story behind your research — what drives you, what excites you, and why it matters? Our Marketing team is creating short videos featuring researchers like you!

This is your opportunity to showcase your work, inspire others, and shine a light on the discoveries shaping the future of health and science.

👉 Interested? Email Nicole Arbogast to learn more or sign up!

Submitting an NIH Grant for the January cycle? Start now—don’t get caught in the crunch!

If you plan to submit a NIH grant application for the January cycle, please remember to notify the appropriate contact in advance:

• For Department of Medicine submissions: Please also email Julie Eckstrand with your plans.
• For all other submissions: Email Melissa Mercure to inform her of your intent to apply.

 Your early notification helps ensure proper support and coordination. Thank you!

Payroll Costing Allocations (PCAs) for Effort on Sponsored Projects

To help simplify effort reporting on sponsored projects, the grants team can set up Payroll Costing Allocations (PCAs) for any staff or physician whose time should be charged to a sponsored project. A PCA assigns a percentage of any employee's salary directly to the appropriate grant worktag, ensuring payroll expenses are automatically routed to the correct award for each pay period. 

Once the percent effort is confirmed and the PCA in place, investigators, physicians, and staff whose time is on a sponsored project don't need to manually adjust payroll charges. The PCA remains active for the designated sponsored project period, and the only required follow-up is completing the quarterly Workday effort attestation to verify that the recorded effort matches the work performed. If you need to add or update a PCA for your project, please contact the grant administrator assigned to your sponsored project. 

Workday Implementation Update

With the successful implementation of Workday, we’ve made significant progress in transitioning sponsored project financial data. Life-to-Date data have been converted from Lawson for all sponsored projects, and validation of this data is currently underway to ensure accuracy and completeness.

At the same time, we are collaborating with consultants to develop custom reports that will help monitor project finances. Each report is rigorously verified against validated data before release to maintain reliability.

We are also partnering with HR to create training modules for PIs, Research Directors, and other Research Leaders. As with any large-scale, system-wide implementation, this process is taking longer than anticipated. We expect these learning modules to be available in early 2026.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about your sponsored project, please reach out to your R&D liaison for assistance.

Carilion Clinic TriNetX
Virtual Training Schedule

Carilion offers instructor-led, focused training for an in-depth, step-by-step learning experience building patient cohorts and delving into Analytics. The facilitator will be Dee Myers. Please get in touch with HART@carilionclinic.org with the subject of 'TriNetX Training' for training outside of the scheduled sessions. If you haven’t taken a class or need a refresher, this is your opportunity to do so!  Let Dee Myers know which date you prefer and she will send a meeting invitation.

• Dec 17, 10:30am - noon
• Jan 8, 10:30am – noon
• Jan 21, 1:30 – 3pm
• Feb 4, 10:30am - noon
• Feb 19, 1:30 – 3pm
• Mar 4, 10:30am – noon
• Mar 26, 1:30 – 3pm

 https://redcap.link/v5pw9j7j to sign up for TriNetX digitally.

For more information visit:https://redcapweb.carilionclinic.org/redcap/surveys/?s=dcUCIpMAzk8BqKH2

Edmundo Rubio, MD, is the principal investigator for a clinical trial that may help improve early detection for current and former smokers through blood samples. This study aims to validate blood-based biomarkers for identifying heavy cigarette smokers at the highest risk of having asymptomatic early-stage lung cancer, warranting screening by low-dose CT. Learn more: https://bit.ly/48W2RnW

OPTIMIZE-GNI (Infectious Diseases). Although medications like antibiotics are important weapons for fighting illness, they can have unwanted side effects. For example, two antibiotics used to treat antimicrobial-resistant gram-negative infections (meropenem and cefepime) can decrease kidney function in some patients.

The ‘gold standard’ method for assessing kidney function involves using iohexol as a marker, but some patients have allergic reactions to this compound. As a potential alternative, the OPTIMIZE study is investigating cystatin (Cys-C), a normal protein produced by cells in the body and released into the bloodstream. The goal of the OPTIMIZE study is to show that, in terms of estimating kidney function, using calculations based on Cys-C is at least as accurate as using those involving iohexol. Having accurate information about patients’ kidney function helps physicians to tailor patients’ treatment plans to minimize side effects and maximize therapeutic benefit.

Persons eligible to participate in OPTIMIZE include adult (≥18 years old) ICU patients who receive meropenem or cefepime as part of their clinical management. Participants will receive iohexol on day 1 of the study. During the study period (2 or 3 days for each participant), a total of 12 blood samples will be collected for research purposes. The amounts of iohexol and Cys-C in these samples will be determined and used to calculate kidney function. The accuracy of the Cys-C method will be compared with that of the standard (iohexol) method. For more information about OPTIMIZE-GNI, click here.

We are proud to recognize Saige Dagenhart, who will celebrate their one-year anniversary with Carilion on December 2, 2025. This milestone reflects Saige’s dedication and contributions to our team.

Melissa Mercure, PhD, Grant Management Administrator, was honored on Monday, November 7 at the annual Shine Awards ceremony as part of a team recognized for their outstanding work. The team received the Courage Value Award for their efforts on the Violent Injury Recovery and Support Program.

Congratulations to Dr. Cesar Bravo and Aiden Discordia for achieving the enrollment goal in the SiD study. This clinical trial is designed to evaluate the safety and performance of the Stryker Shoulder iD, a personalized shoulder implant tailored to individual patient needs. 

The team successfully enrolled 8 patients in only 6 months, ahead of schedule. We extend our sincere thanks to the entire study team for their dedication in screening and enrolling participants.

Click here to review the results!