Emory has again set a record for sponsored research funding this academic year, surpassing $1 billion for the first time. Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC) brought in nearly 95 percent of that record-breaking total. The Emory School of Medicine (SOM) secured over $700 million, the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) over $179 million, Emory National Primate Research Center over $90 million, and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (SON) over $32 million, with other WHSC initiatives rounding out the WHSC total.

Joe Depa, a global leader in data operations, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), has been named Emory’s inaugural chief data and analytics officer. He began his new position on Sept. 11. In this role, Depa will use the power of data to enhance health outcomes by ensuring better patient care and reducing clinician burnout, expand Emory’s academic impact through groundbreaking research and education, and create an environment where the Emory community can thrive by focusing on efficiency and culture. Read more.

A new study finds that a natural compound found in many plants inhibits the growth of drug-resistant Candida fungi—including its most virulent species, Candida auris, an emerging global health threat. “Drug-resistant fungal infections are a growing health care problem,” says Cassandra Quave, senior author of the study and SOM associate professor. “Our findings open a new potential approach to deal with these infections, including those caused by deadly Candida auris.”Read more.

The National Institutes of Health  (NIH) has selected researchers from RSPH, SOM, and the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) to partner on the creation of a Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence. The MSM and Emory partnership is one of 10 research centers nationwide chosen for the NIH initiative aimed at developing and evaluating innovative approaches to reduce pregnancy-related complications and deaths, while also promoting maternal health equity. Read more.

An Emory registry that tracks out-of-hospital cardiac arrests nationwide is expanding into eight largely rural states thanks to new grant funding from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Emory’s Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) will use the three-year, $899,215 grant to improve cardiac arrest response and survivability in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The funding will bolster efforts to improve regional data sharing, coordination, and response efforts through the creation of a Midwestern Helmsley CARES Collaborative. Read more.

A new federal agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services selected Emory as the inaugural recipient of funding to support transformative breakthroughs in health research. The $24.8 million cooperative agreement from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health will support the work of Philip Santangelo, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, and his lab in the development of a cutting-edge programmable approach to prevent, treat, and potentially cure diseases. Pictured above l-r: Lorena Chaves, Jose Assumpcao, and Philip Santangelo will be part of the collaborative effort. Read more.

Bacteria draw from an arsenal of weapons to combat the drugs intended to kill them. Among the most prevalent of these weapons are ribosome-modifying enzymes. These enzymes are growing increasingly common, appearing worldwide in clinical samples in a range of drug-resistant bacteria. Now scientists have captured the first images of one important class of these enzymes in action. The images show how the enzymes latch onto a particular site on the bacterial ribosome and squeeze it like a pair of tweezers to extract an RNA nucleotide and alter it. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the findings, led by scientists at Emory. Read more.

A team at Emory and Georgia Institute of Technology has created a simple-to-use software program to allow researchers to leverage powerful artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and uncover new insights from imaging data—without having to know how to write complex computer code. Described in Nature Communications, the iCLOTS program employs AI algorithms in a simple interactive package for researchers to be able to more efficiently analyze data from microfluidics devices or other imaging technology. Pictured above: Professor Wilbur Lam and PhD student Kirby Fibben use the iCLOTS software to analyze data. Read more.

Researchers are gaining insights into how schizophrenia develops by studying the strongest known genetic risk factor. When a small portion of chromosome 3 is missing, called 3q29 deletion syndrome, it increases the risk for schizophrenia by about 40-fold. By analyzing how patterns of altered gene activity overlap in two models of 3q29 deletion syndrome—in mice and in human brain organoids—scientists have spotted an unexpected change in brain cells: impaired mitochondrial function. The results are published in Science Advances. Read more.

Mark your calendar for Saturday, October 7, and lace up your shoes for the 2023 Winship 5K. Now in its 13th year, the event has raised more than $8.4 million in support of research to prevent, treat, and cure cancer at Winship. Every step brings us closer to a cure. Learn how you can volunteer or participate in-person or virtually. Register, find a team, and learn more here.

At Emory, everyone is empowered to play a role in creating a safe and prepared community. The Emory READY campaign, launching this fall, is designed to help strengthen each person’s ability to be aware, prepared and ready when on campus. And being “Emory READY” is about to get easier with the new Emory Safe app, now available in the Apple and Google app stores. The existing Live Safe app no longer works. Read more.

A group of organizations, including the SON, has released a joint brief titled, “Heat is Here, Let’s Protect Workers,” on the prevention of heat-related illness, injury and death among workers in the construction and agriculture industries in the United States. Read more.

Health Connect South is hosting its 10th annual gathering. See agenda here. Emory faculty, staff, and students can get complimentary passes to join in person. The Georgia Aquarium, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Register here.

Bioentrepreneurship Networking, hosted by Biolocity. Discover how early disclosure of inventions to the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) lays the foundation for fostering innovation and accelerating its path to implementation, featuring a talk by Michael Tanenbaum,  assistant director of OTT’s Faculty and Start-up Services. HSRB-II Room N600. 4:30–6:00 p.m. RSVP here.

Dialogue with the Makers: 'The Only Doctor' Film Screening. Join us for a first-hand look at the primary care crisis in rural Georgia. Screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. Emory School of Medicine, 4:00–6:00 p.m. Register here.

State of the WHSC address by Ravi Thadhani. WHSC Administration Building Auditorium. 4:00–5:00 p.m. A reception will follow, 5:00–6:00 p.m.