The Translational Research Pipeline: Strategies for Funders to Facilitate Bench-to-Bedside Research [Spring 2025 HRA Members Meeting, March 12, 2025]

Many non-profit organizations fund biomedical research that ultimately aims to improve human health. This session provided an overview of the translational science pipeline and explored ways in which non-profit funders can support and facilitate the translation of basic science research into clinical application.

Moderator

Angela McCarty
Associate Research & Grant Administrator, American Heart Association

Angela McCarty is the Associate Research and Grants Administrator who co-leads the American Heart Association’s Lay Stakeholder in Science and Research program. This program’s primary focus is to integrate patients, survivors, advocate and thought leaders into AHA’s science and research landscape. Angela also, co-developed this program which initiated in 2014 with 16 volunteers and has now since grown it to date with over 200 potential volunteers to serve on various science and research projects. She has also worked with pre-award managing Fellowship Bioengineering and Genomics, Innovative Project Award, Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Science, Career Development Award, Transformational Project Award and post award grant management.

Speakers

David Groppe, PhD
Clinical Data Scientist, Persyst Development Corporation

David Groppe is a data scientist at the Persyst Development Corporation where he develops analytics software to aid epilepsy diagnoses. Dr. Groppe earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science in 2007 from the University of California where he developed novel statistical methods for EEG analysis under Drs. Marta Kutas and Scott Makeig. Subsequently, Dr. Groppe worked under neurosurgeons Dr. Ashesh Mehta at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Dr. Taufik Valiante at the Krembil Neuroscience Center, creating software to analyze data from epilepsy surgery candidates. In 2017, Dr. Groppe won an entrepreneur award from the Ontario Brain Institute to commercialize that software, which led to his joining Persyst. Dr. Groppe uses the lessons he learned transitioning from academic research to industry to advocate for ways to accelerate research translation. Towards this end, he served on the American Epilepsy Society Translational Research Committee from 2020 to 2023.

Zimple Kurlawala, MD, PhD
Senior Scientific Portfolio Manager, Translational Research, Michael J. Fox Foundation

As a Senior Scientific Portfolio Manager at the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Dr. Kurlawala oversees the proteomics and data subtyping portfolios, playing a pivotal role in driving biomarker discovery for Parkinson’s disease. With a keen eye on the dynamic landscape of omics technologies, she actively seeks to leverage emerging advancements to accelerate biomarker identification and development.

Maya Bader, PhD
Director of Research, Lupus Research Alliance

Maya Bader, PhD. is the Director of Research at the Lupus Research Alliance. She manages the Translational Bridge Award (TBA) and the Common Mechanisms in Autoimmunity Insight Award. She also oversees several research initiatives, including the Common Mechanism in Autoimmunity partnership, the development of a lupus biomarker roadmap, and LRA’s data strategy. Maya has 12 years of research experience and 10 years of scientific grant administration and program management experience. Prior to joining the LRA, she was a Program Manager at the CHDI Foundation (Los Angeles, CA), where she managed a diverse portfolio of academic and industrial scientific research collaborations and philanthropic-led development of therapeutics and biomarkers for Huntington’s Disease. Maya served as the Associate Director of Scientific Grants at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (Manhattan Beach, CA), where she oversaw the scientific and administrative aspects of the organization’s grants program. Maya earned her Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in Genetics and Cell Biology and was a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow at UCLA, studying Developmental Neurobiology.

Arjan Quist, PhD
Executive Director of Innovation Management, Office of Innovation + New Ventures, Northwestern University

Arjan oversees the Invention Management team and advises on technology assessment, innovation identification, intellectual property protection and translational activities, in support of our mission to bring Northwestern University research to the marketplace. These technology translation efforts involve licensing negotiations with a variety of small to large strategic partners as well as supporting startup company formation. Arjan is a regular lecturer at Northwestern’s Responsible Conduct in Research classes on IP, and a mentor in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps program.

Prior to joining Northwestern, Arjan was the Director of Nanotechnology at Richmond Chemical, a chemical and biosciences company, where he managed the formation of a nanoscale probe/imaging branch from concept to first revenue generating contract in the pharma space. Previously, Arjan was a Research Scientist in Biophysics at the Neuroscience Research Institute at UC Santa Barbara, and in Materials and Surface Science at the Materials Science Department and Center for Surface Biotechnology at Uppsala University (Sweden). Arjan earned his PhD in Materials Science and Ion Physics from Uppsala University in Sweden, and a MSc in Experimental Physics from the ‘Vrije’ University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.