Clinical Research Achievement Awards recognize UB’s Kayler, Clemency and Lipshultz

Each year, the Buffalo Translational Consortium Clinical Research Achievement Awards recognize clinical researchers for their hard work, their dedication to translational research, and the significance of their findings. These studies have an impact that stretches far beyond Western New York. The 2021 winners’ research demonstrated that:

• Hardest-to-place kidney transplants are associated with a small amount of graft failure and delayed graft function, and therefore offer great value when compared with not receiving a kidney transplant at all
• Patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are treated with an inhaled steroid are less likely to require emergency department care or hospitalization due to COVID-19 than those treated with a placebo
• Children who are newly diagnosed with cancer and who are treated with dexrazoxane do not see any adverse effect or impact on their long-term mortality, event-free survival, or second cancer risk

The annual awards honor outstanding accomplishments in clinical research performed at a Buffalo Translational Consortium (BTC) institution, with investigators from the University at Buffalo or Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center serving as lead authors. In order to be eligible, research findings must have been published or in press in the past 12 months. One Top Award winner and two Award Finalists are being recognized for 2021.

This year’s Clinical Research Achievement Awards Top Award winner is Liise K. Kayler, MD, Program Director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation, Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She was selected for a study titled “Hardest-to-place Kidney Transplant Outcomes in the United States,” which was published in the July 1, 2021, issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Kayler is the university lead investigator for a 2021 UB CTSI Community Partnership Development Seed Grant Program-awarded project titled “Co-Creating Solutions to Enhance Kidney Transplant Access of Black Western New Yorkers with End-Stage Kidney Disease.” In addition, she was the Principal Investigator for a study awarded 2020-21 CTSI Translational Pilot Studies Program funding, “Feasibility of an eHealth Educational Intervention for African Americans With End-stage Kidney Disease.”

Recognized as a Clinical Research Achievement Award Finalist is Brian Clemency, DO, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Jacobs School. He was selected for a study titled “Efficacy of Inhaled Ciclesonide for Outpatient Treatment of Adolescents and Adults With Symptomatic COVID-19: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” which was published in JAMA Internal Medicine on November 22, 2021.

The results of Clemency’s study were also outlined in a UBNow article on November 24, 2021. He was previously a Clinical Research Achievement Awards finalist in 2019 and was the Principal Investigator for a study awarded 2018-19 CTSI Translational Pilot Studies Program funding, “Hospital Observation Upon Reversal (HOUR) With Naloxone: A Multicenter Decision Rule Validation.”

Also recognized as a 2021 Clinical Research Achievement Award Finalist is Steven E. Lipshultz, MD, A. Conger Goodyear Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Jacobs School. He was selected for the study titled “Late Health Outcomes After Dexrazoxane Treatment: A Report From the Children’s Oncology Group,” published in the October 13, 2021, issue of Cancer.

This is the second year in which Lipshultz was recognized as an awards finalist; in 2020, he was recognized for a study titled “Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction in HIV-Uninfected Infants Exposed in Utero to Antiretroviral Therapy,” published in the March 15, 2020, issue of AIDS.

The annual BTC awards competition aims to identify major advances resulting from the region’s investment in clinical research to benefit the health and welfare of the Western New York community. In order to be eligible for an award, the research should contribute to the understanding of human disease and physiology, and demonstrate an impact on the understanding, prevention, and diagnosis or treatment of disease.

“There is a wide range of innovative clinical research being conducted throughout the Buffalo Translational Consortium,” states Awards Committee Chair Anne B. Curtis, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair, Department of Medicine, Jacobs School. “Our Clinical Research Achievement Awards are designed to highlight the most novel and impactful of these clinical research studies. The results of these research studies lead to advances in the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions that improve the health and wellbeing of patients in our community and far beyond.”

The award winner and award finalists have been invited to present their research at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute Annual Forum on March 16, 2022. They will also be invited to attend Translational Science 2022, a national conference of key thought leaders, future collaborators and funding agencies, scheduled to be held in Chicago April 20-22, 2022.