ACTSI Trainee Joins Emory Faculty

Seema Kini, MD, MSc, a graduate of the dual-degree MD/MSc program in the Emory Laney Graduate School and a trainee in the Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science institute (ACTSI) TL1 program’s inaugural cohort, recently joined the faculty of Emory Medical School as an assistant professor in Dermatology. Kini began the TL1: Medical Scientist Training program in 2009 and in spring of 2011 received her dual MD/MSc degrees from Emory University School of Medicine and Laney Graduate School. She completed her master’s thesis comparing the quality of life impact of chronic pruritus (a sensory perception causing an intense desire to scratch) to that of chronic pain using directly elicited health utilities. She then entered a Dermatology Residency Training Program at Emory.  Kini is also affiliated with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston and Emory University Hospital.

ACTSI established this NIH-supported TL1 Medical Scientist training program which includes two tracks: a MD/MSCR track and a PhD/MSCR track. The goal is to equip trainees with the skills required to develop a career in multidisciplinary clinical and translational research. The TL1 program uses a team-science approach and provides mentored and didactic training for predoctoral students performing clinical and/or translational research in health-related fields. The TL1 program supports a select group of trainees as they embark on careers as outstanding patient-oriented researchers, teaching them how to design and conduct clinical research, analyze data, consider relevant ethical and legal issues, write manuscripts and grants, develop and present scientific grants, develop and present scientific posters, and compete for research funding. The goal of the program is to increase the number of well-trained clinical and translational scientists who can lead the design and oversight of future clinical investigations critical to the overall mission of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Learn More about the TL1 program

ACTSI is a city-wide partnership between Emory, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Georgia Tech and is one of over 60 in a national consortium striving to improve the way biomedical research is conducted across the country. The consortium, funded through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards, shares a common vision to translate laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients, engage communities in clinical research efforts, and train the next generation of clinical investigators.