Team Science
Working across disciplines, Miller School researchers seek answers to medicine’s hardest questions, and UM is banking $30 million on their success
There’s a common image of scientists working alone in their labs, enduring setbacks and failures until they finally succeed. This perception isn’t wrong so much as incomplete. Over the past several decades, researchers have solved most of the easier biological problems — the so-called low-hanging fruit — and must now tackle increasingly difficult questions. As research has grown more complex, scientific teams have replaced sole practitioners.
“Team science is essential for us to take bold steps,” said Henri R. Ford, M.D., M.H.A., the Miller School’s dean and chief academic officer. “For example, engineers have the answers, but not necessarily the questions. Medical people may have the questions but not the answers. By bringing engineers, scientists and physicians together, we can solve difficult problems.”
This shift toward team science is one part necessity and two parts common sense. To be fully understood, intricate biology must be addressed from multiple angles: genomics, epigenomics, immunology, cell biology, biochemistry and many other disciplines. These techniques produce massive data troves, which require in-depth, computational expertise to be understood and made actionable. Further downstream, the scientists who invent new therapies must work with business, legal and financial experts to deliver those discoveries to patients.
For decades, scientists have filled gaps in their own knowledge by seeking collaborators with complementary expertise, and the results have paid major health dividends. Now, the Miller School is taking team science to the next level, building a creative ecosystem to solve the most complicated scientific riddles in the least amount of time. To support that ecosystem, the University of Miami has announced a commitment of $30 million over five years for basic science research.
“Every problem must be analyzed from multiple angles,” said Stephen D. Nimer, M.D., the Miller School’s executive dean for research and director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Immunologists, endocrinologists, nephrologists, neurologists and many others can study Type 1 diabetes. The key is uniting each specialty in concert to find solutions and help people.”
Team Science
The Power of Teams
Dr. Nimer, who holds the Oscar de la Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, and many other faculty members and staff are on a mission to bring people together across the university to advance team science. To support this work, the Miller School has created nine research categories:
- Aging
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular Health
- Inflammation and Immunology
- Mental Health
- Neuroscience
- Nutrition, Metabolism, Obesity and Diabetes
- Physical Fitness and Bone and Joint Health
- Virology and Emerging Infections
These categories are intentionally outside normal departmental boundaries to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations. To take this strategy a step further, the Miller School is holding annual retreats or symposia for each category. These meetings give scientists unique opportunities to see what other researchers are doing and find potential collaborators. To up the ante, Dr. Nimer is pledging team science awards to support these internal projects, with up to $1 million committed to some categories. The university’s $30 million funding — which will support neuroscience and aging — brings even more financial firepower to those two interrelated areas of research focus.
“This cross-pollination has a powerful impact on science,” Dr. Nimer said. “For example, my lab meets with six or seven other labs every Thursday. There are dozens of people in the room, and while nobody knows everything, collectively, we know a lot more, and everyone’s contributions make the science stronger.”
One recent symposium, focused on virology and emerging infections, united experts in infectious diseases, epidemiology, virology, engineering, psychology, intellectual property and other areas.
“We’re recruiting multidisciplinary expertise to address specific issues,” said infectious disease specialist Maria Alcaide, M.D., professor of medicine and vice provost for research and scholarship, who chaired the symposium. “Team science unites investigators from different disciplines to understand a specific condition, uniting all these different points of view to improve health outcomes.”
Dr. Alcaide has spent much of her career studying HIV, a multifaceted condition. She notes that infectious disease experts need help from virologists, immunologists, cardiologists, gerontologists, behavioral scientists, cellular and molecular biologists, and many others to fully understand the disease.
One theme at the symposium was using their HIV expertise to better understand other emerging infections, a strategy that served Miller School scientists well during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the changing climate, more virus and infection outbreaks are inevitable, and it’s important to create close ties between scientists and clinicians. Symposium attendees also discussed how to expand collaborations to other institutions in Florida and the Caribbean to anticipate potential outbreaks and foster a greater exchange of ideas.
“It’s critically important to have continuous conversations and collaborations,” Dr. Alcaide said. “Everything is about context: We need to understand the disease and the patients. That is how we develop solutions.”
Team Science
Perpetual Innovation and Excellence
The university’s investment over the next five years will create a new program in computational biology within the Miller School and build collaborations between multiple university departments and institutes, including the Department of Psychology, the Frost Institute for Chemistry and Molecular Science, and the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing.
University of Miami CEO and acting president Joe Echevarria views the university’s investment in basic science research as an example of mission fulfillment for the university, which resulted from teamwork across its schools and colleges initiated this summer.
Echevarria said, “Our focus is on delivering world-class education, research and patient care. This investment, which is essential to progress on all three of those fronts, will ultimately benefit the population we serve — patients, students and the wider community.”
While translational medicine, the providence of many academic health institutions, works to “translate” discoveries from basic science research into clinical applications, basic science research makes those fundamental discoveries. An increased focus on basic science research at UM increases the potential of findings that revolutionize science, shape the future of clinical interventions and provide unique opportunities for students pursuing careers in science and the healing professions.
“This investment, involving critical study in the areas of neuroscience and aging, exemplifies the University of Miami’s long-term commitment to impactful research that benefits society,” said Guillermo “Willy” Prado, Ph.D., interim executive vice president for academic affairs and provost.
The Miller School anticipates that the funding will help attract scientific luminaries in neuroscience and aging and more effectively fulfill its mission of delivering high-quality patient-centered care.
“We’re investing in fundamental research in neuroscience and aging because that’s an area in which we can truly be distinctive and impactful,” Dean Ford said.
“In part,” he added, “this is because of the location of Miami at the gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean. And in part, it’s because of the unique population we have here and the opportunity to translate fundamental discoveries into interventions that can be applicable to a diverse group of people — an advantage that most other institutions don’t enjoy to the same extent we do.”
Computational biology has emerged as a key area that would help advance neuroscience and aging research at the Miller School. Used to simulate and model biological systems, computational biology is a funding priority for the NIH. The program will advance neuroscience and aging research at the university by providing insight into the structural and functional properties of proteins encoded by genes that influence aging and neurodegenerative disorders.
“UM cannot be a great research university without stronger basic sciences,” Dr. Nimer said. “Investment in basic sciences will elevate our institution.”
Investing in an advanced computation infrastructure and scientific expertise will help UM researchers create models from biological, genomic and clinical findings. These models can be used to predict disease risk, aid in drug discovery and tailor patient treatments.
“The benefits of this investment are unlimited,” Dean Ford said. “With luminaries at the helm, we will develop robust programs that initiate discoveries. Those discoveries will then attract companies that want to invest and fund clinical trials that save lives — all while we are attracting more talent and teaching the next generation of scientists to carry this work forward.”
For information on how to support the Miller School’s research initiatives, click here
University of Miami Medicine
FALL 2024
