C. KENNETH AND DIANNE WRIGHT CENTER FOR CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH VCU BLOG

How does a junior faculty member evolve into a national leader in periodontal research? For S. Esra Sahingur, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., the catalyst was the Wright Center’s KL2 scholarship. Now the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Student Research at the University of Pennsylvania, Sahingur’s career trajectory—including nearly $4 million in NIH R01 funding—demonstrates how the Wright Center’s K12 Program serves as a powerful launchpad for clinician-scientists.

RICHMOND, Va. — The C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research announced today the awarding of $100,000 to four interdisciplinary research projects at Virginia Commonwealth University. These $25,000 pilot awards are funded through the Wright Center’s $27 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), […]

Last week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Wright Center’s own Emily Zimmerman, Ph.D., M.S. and Leah Gregory, M.P.H., M.S.W. brought VCU’s innovative community engagement strategies to a national audience of peer institutions. They presented at the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) annual conference, Translational Science 2026 (TS26), one of the most significant annual gatherings […]

The Wright Center and VCU Health’s Enterprise Analytics built a specialized informatics pipeline within VCU Health’s Epic electronic health record (EHR) system to collect high-integrity data for a study on SNAP benefits. In the process, they earned national recognition for their software innovation.

Good news for the VCU community: The VCU Wright Center is pleased to announce the launch of our institutional license for Overton, the world’s largest searchable database of policy and grey literature. This powerful resource is available to anyone with a vcu.edu or vcuhealth.org email address. For every researcher and administrator focused on demonstrating the […]

Clinical trials are the cornerstone of medical innovation, offering hope to patients and driving advancements in treatment. A recent article in Richmond Magazine highlights the pivotal role of clinical research in our region, featuring personal stories of clinical trial participants. These experiences underscore the profound impact these studies can have on individual lives and the […]

As the research landscape grows increasingly interdisciplinary and complex, Virginia Commonwealth University is taking bold steps to ensure its graduates are not only academically prepared but career-ready. A new undergraduate minor, Research Ecosystems, has been approved and will launch in Fall 2025, providing students with a comprehensive introduction to the operational, regulatory, and strategic aspects […]

The Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority (VOAA) is accepting proposals from state agencies for its 2025 funding cycle to support evidence-based initiatives addressing the opioid crisis. Eligible projects should align with VOAA’s priority areas, including mobile crisis services, overdose reduction, expanded treatment access, recovery supports, and workforce development. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) may submit one institutional […]

On October 17th, 2024, the Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research at Virginia Commonwealth University held its first-ever Research Day, bringing together over fifty scholars, faculty, and partners to showcase research aimed at advancing clinical and translational science. This event emphasized collaboration and networking, showcasing the impact that community-engaged research can have on the […]

Retrospective research is a cornerstone of advancing medical knowledge, allowing researchers to draw valuable insights from existing data. However, accessing and utilizing this data can be a daunting task, particularly when navigating complex systems like TriNetX, Cosmos, and EPIC. A recent Research Town Hall at VCU, titled “How do I get the data needed for […]