Administrative Updates

By , February 8, 2024

This is a message from Vice Chancellor for Research Penny Gordon-Larsen.

Today I am sharing the news that Steve Marshall will be stepping down as director of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC), effective March 1, 2024. After more than a decade at the helm of IPRC, he will be returning to his faculty position in the Department of Epidemiology within the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and will continue his research activities with the center.

Beth Moracco, IPRC’s current associate director, will serve as the center’s interim director beginning March 1. Between February 12 and March 1, Marshall and Moracco will work together to efficiently transition leadership of the center.

For more than 30 years, researchers at IPRC have addressed vital societal issues including domestic abuse, car crashes, traumatic brain injury, home and workplace safety, and opioid overdose — and have worked closely with practitioners to change policies and save lives.

Under Marshall’s leadership, IPRC expanded in size and increased its impact while maintaining continuous funding as a CDC Injury Control Research Center. Additionally, he oversaw hundreds of research projects that have improved the lives of people in our state and beyond. We are grateful for his years of service, talent, and dedication to the field of injury and violence prevention.

Moracco has served as associate director of IPRC since 2017 and brings more than 15 years of experience in higher education leadership to her new role. She is also an associate professor in the Department of Health Behavior at Gillings and is the chair of faculty at the University.

Please join me in thanking Steve for his service to IPRC and Carolina, and in supporting Beth in her new role.

Permalink: Leadership transition at the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center

By , February 6, 2024

Craig Fletcher has been contributing to research at Carolina for 14 years.

Craig Fletcher has worked for UNC-Chapel Hill in a variety of roles, most recently as associate vice chancellor for research and director of the Division of Comparative Medicine within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. He is also a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine within the School of Medicine (SOM) and an assistant dean for animal research resources in the SOM Office of Research.

What brought you to Carolina?

I fell in love with Carolina during an internship after my undergraduate studies at N.C. A&T State University. I was part of a summer program that allowed veterinary students with an interest in lab animal medicine to shadow veterinary and biomedical scientists. It was my first experience with research, and I was fascinated that investigating animal models could lead to the development of cures for human disease.

The nurturing environment I experienced during that internship was one of the best experiences of my career. It inspired me to apply to a graduate program, and I went on to the University of Florida to complete my doctoral training in veterinary medicine. I pursued formal doctoral research training at Johns Hopkins University. After receiving my PhD in pathobiology and infectious disease, I joined the faculty at Hopkins.

During this time, I served on a National Institutes of Health scientific review group — academic scientists that review grant applications from fellow scientists. I served alongside a UNC-Chapel Hill faculty member, Virginia Godfrey, who remembered me from my internship. She recruited me to join Carolina.

How has your role here changed over the years?

In 2009, I started in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, where I continued my studies on why certain people are predisposed to having inflammation in blood vessels, which can lead to cardiovascular disease. I also helped move labs and animals into the newly constructed Genetic Medicine Building and continued to develop programs for the facility to advance preclinical translational research at Carolina.

In 2012, I became the director of the Division of Comparative Medicine. Comparative medicine is the study of disease in humans and animals, examining similarities and differences between the two. This integrated approach ultimately makes basic, medical, and clinical research more efficient and effective. Because animals are imperative for this research, I was also appointed attending veterinarian for UNC-Chapel Hill, responsible for the health and wellbeing of these animals.

At this time, UNC-Chapel Hill’s research scope and prominence was growing quickly, and our division grew with it. When I started as director, our group had 80 people in it. Today, we have more than 200. We expanded our comparative medicine programs and support while maintaining compliance and working with other entities like the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and the Office of Animal Care and Use.

In 2017, as a result of my work developing and supporting our comparative medicine and preclinical translational research programs, I was promoted to the newly created position of associate vice chancellor for research (AVCR) and maintained my position as director of the Division of Comparative Medicine. I was also appointed vice chair of the SOM’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. In these roles I have continued my work developing our research strategy and infrastructure, in addition to growing partnerships with key stakeholders.

One of our biggest current endeavors is the Translational Research Building, which will expand our ability to perform basic science research along with therapeutic drug discovery and development. As a part of this project, I have received an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to open a core for UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus for high containment research. We will break ground on the Translational Research Building in 2025.

What’s kept you at Carolina?

Carolina’s programs create a unique training and educational environment that enhances the diversity of scientists and educators and provides opportunities for individuals to dramatically increase their knowledge in the sciences. This environment has shaped one of the best and most respected comparative medicine programs in the country.

What contribution are you most proud of?

In 2021 I was awarded the Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecture for my strategic planning involving research animals and new initiatives and programmatic activities. This recognition has honored our most eminent faculty members. I was so unbelievably humbled by this recognition, and it would not be possible without tremendous support from the staff and faculty.

What is a uniquely Carolina experience you’ve had?

One of my first meetings at Carolina was with Oliver Smithies, UNC-Chapel Hill’s first full-time faculty member to win a Nobel Prize. Smithies’ work made possible the creation and use of knockout mice, which have contributed significantly to scientists’ understanding of how individual genes work. He embodied Carolina’s culture as a true scholar and colleague in pursuing research excellence for societal problems.

We are a public institution and providing for the people of North Carolina is at the forefront of our work. Our faculty and staff reflect the people of the state. It is an honor to work alongside my colleagues, and I am grateful for the collegiality and culture at Carolina.

Rooted recognizes long-standing members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community who have aided in the advancement of research by staying at Carolina. They are crucial to the UNC Research enterprise, experts in their fields, and loyal Tar Heels. Know someone we should feature? Nominate a researcher.

Read more Rooted stories here.

Permalink: Rooted: Craig Fletcher

By , January 17, 2024

Tracy Heenan has been the director of the Office of Animal Care and Use for 30 years.

In 1994, Tracy Heenan was an associate at a small animal veterinary practice when she heard about a newly created position at UNC-Chapel Hill that piqued her interest. At the time, the number of Carolina’s research initiatives involving animals was small, and the care and use programs had been established for only a few years.

Since then, Heenan, who is also a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine within the School of Medicine, has been instrumental in growing OVCR’s Office of Animal Care and Use (OACU), the managing office of the University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

UNC Research spoke to Heenan about the evolution of OACU and what researchers should know about the resources available to them.

How has your position changed over the years?

It was a totally different world back when I started. It was just me — I was the office. Since then, we’ve added training programs and grown our staff to include 10 full-time positions. As the overall animal program at UNC-Chapel Hill has grown, so has our office.

I’ve had the great fortune of working with wonderful supervisors who were flexible and gave me full responsibility for making changes or adding to our program. Some additions were necessary due to external regulations for animal care and use and the compliance areas that have developed. I have also had the benefit of working with capable and engaged OACU employees who have been instrumental in shaping the program.

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

I’m most proud of starting the laboratory animal coordinator program. It is unique to Carolina, and other institutions across the country have modeled their programs after it.

I thought it was important to develop a robust hands-on training program for researchers working with animals, so in 1998 I started an initiative and hired my first training and compliance coordinator to provide this training. It then became a UNC-Chapel Hill requirement that every researcher who would touch or work with animals had to attend formal training classes and be certified.

In conjunction with this requirement, we developed the laboratory animal coordinator program. Every investigator laboratory that works with animals is required to have a coordinator who receives didactic animal-use training from my office and gets a certification of their proficiency. They are then allowed to train other lab members and serve as a liaison for the IACUC, OACU, and the investigator laboratory.

How does your office work with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)?

OACU supports IACUC in its regulation and compliance efforts. While IACUC is the overall authority on animal care and use at the University, the committee requires help with the day-to-day logistics of ensuring that all federal policies, accreditation standards, and institutional requirements are being met. This includes working closely with the Division of Comparative Medicine, which manages the day-to-day care and medical treatment for animals, and Environment, Health, and Safety, which is responsible for managing the safety of employees working with animals.

Every six months, we help inspect all animal housing facilities, including investigator labs where animal work is conducted and procedure locations. In addition, my office has three main operational units to support the work of the IACUC: education and oversight, protocol administration, and grant congruency.

What do you want researchers to know about your office?

Investigators have a huge amount of administrative burden. In many respects, the IACUC requirements can feel like a lot. We understand that, and we want researchers to know that although we are a compliance office, we don’t want to represent a roadblock or burden. We want to be helpful, answer questions, facilitate research, and help investigators succeed.

Permalink: Inside UNC Research: Looking after the wellbeing of animals

By , December 12, 2023

A message to the research community on research compliance.

Dear UNC Research Community,

We are pleased to announce important updates to our clinical research compliance services. Effective immediately, the Clinical Research Compliance Office (CRCO) is the new, central point of contact for all Investigational New Drug (IND) and Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) compliance requirements from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Key Points:

1. Point of Contact:

• The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) has worked with TraCS to transfer support for all matters related to IND and IDE compliance to the Clinical Research Compliance Office.
• For any questions or assistance regarding IND/IDE submissions to the FDA, please reach out to the Clinical Research Compliance Office at ClinResComp@unc.edu.
• The CRCO will provide support to UNC researchers in the preparation or review of:
  • Initial IND or IDE applications
  • Annual progress reports
  • Responses to FDA inquiries

2. Institutional Oversight:

• The CRCO is committed to ensuring appropriate institutional oversight of commitments made under investigator-sponsored INDs and IDEs.
• The CRCO will work closely with researchers to uphold compliance standards and facilitate successful interactions with the FDA.

3. Resources:

• OVCR has temporarily contracted with Advarra to provide additional subject matter expertise and administrative support while the CRCO fills vacant positions.
• Please reach out to the CRCO who will coordinate with Advarra to ensure responsive timelines and accurate advice to ensure that investigators have the best support services available.

Please feel free to contact the CRCO for any further clarifications or assistance. We are dedicated to supporting your clinical research endeavors and maintaining the highest standards of compliance.

Thank you for your continued commitment to advancing scientific discovery and improving patient care.

Sincerely,

Quinton Johnson

AVC for Research Compliance

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

Permalink: Important updates to clinical research compliance services