Team science

Clinical research moves to center field

If clinical research is a team sport, UTHealth Houston has a head coach.

Daniel I. Sessler, MD, is the university’s inaugural vice president for clinical and outcomes research, charged with broadly increasing the quality and quantity of UTHealth Houston’s clinical research. Sessler joined the university in 2024 from the Cleveland Clinic, where he served as Michael Cudahy Professor and chair of the Department of Outcomes Research.

“The UTHealth Houston clinical research environment is ripe for growth. We already have world-class basic science. But the amount of clinical research we do is disproportionality small,” Sessler explained.

“The disparity matters,” he added, “because basic science often doesn’t translate into clinically actionable procedures, drugs, and treatments. In fact, there is a noticeable disconnect. Treatments that work in animals often don’t work in people. The only way to know which are effective and safe is to study people.”

Sessler said his goal is to “increase clinical research broadly across the university, rather than just enhance specific pockets of expertise.”

Part of that process was establishing a Center for Outcomes Research, modeled after his successful department at Cleveland Clinic, which conducted more than 1,200 clinical studies. The new center is led by Alparslan Turan, MD, Sessler’s longtime Cleveland Clinic colleague, who is assistant vice president for translational research at UTHealth Houston. Both physicians also serve as professors in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

“Our center is an interdisciplinary hub for improving patient-centered outcomes,” Turan said, adding that the center provides strategic guidance, consulting services, training and development, and administrative assistance. It also conducts dozens of studies, including large multinational trials.”

Collaboration in action

Sessler pointed to Holger Eltzschig, MD, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine and associate vice president for translational research and perioperative programs at UTHealth Houston, as an example of translational research in action.

Eltzschig, who is also the John P. and Katherine G. McGovern Distinguished University Chair, co-led a cross-specialty team of basic science and clinical faculty that conducted a multisite clinical trial during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During COVID, people were scared and looking for answers — and we were a group that was generating answers,” said Sam Luber, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Nancy, Clive and Pierce Runnells Distinguished Professor in Emergency Medicine. “It was truly amazing that we were able to put this together during the pandemic and rapidly conduct a clinical trial that enrolled more than 400 patients.”

The collaboration featured a mix of basic science and frontline clinical experts, resulting in a new treatment option for patients with serious lung injury.

“Our lab has been working on a molecule called HIF for some time, and we identified various mechanisms by which it might provide lung protection,” said Xiaoyi Yuan, PhD, associate professor of anesthesiology, critical care and pain medicine. “It was a dream come true to see basic science so rapidly translated into clinical care.”

The Department of Emergency Medicine led on the clinical side, caring for and enrolling patients.

“Our findings — from promising preclinical models to encouraging results in a multicenter clinical trial — suggest that targeting HIF pathways is a novel and powerful approach to protecting patients with acute respiratory failure,” said Bentley Bobrow, MD, professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, vice president of healthcare innovation at UTHealth Houston, and co-lead author of the study. “This represents an important step in translating molecular discoveries into real-world therapies that save lives.”

The future of clinical research

Collaboration is a central element of clinical research, Sessler said.

“Clinical research is a team sport, involving patients, nurses, surgeons, and other clinicians — and they all need to be involved,” he said. “All work together with a common goal of doing meaningful research.”

The Center for Outcomes Research has methodology experts who can guide projects from initial concept through completion. “We know how to take an idea, turn it into a hypothesis, turn it into a formal protocol, and then get it done,” Sessler explained. “Furthermore, the center provides considerable support for junior investigators, even those without established funding. We’ll help anybody who comes by.”

According to Eltzschig, Sessler and Turan are pivotal to UTHealth Houston’s research enterprise. “Recruiting Drs. Sessler and Turan was transformative for clinical research at UTHealth Houston and builds on existing momentum provided by so many of our faculty,” Eltzschig said.