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Boise State’s Clinical and Translational Research Program

Two people with glasses are smiling and looking at a research slide while in a lab setting

Clinical research directly involves people or uses human elements such as behavior or tissue samples. Translational research applies findings from scientific inquiry to clinical and community practice to benefit individuals and the community.

Thus, clinical and translational research takes research from bench to bedside in a way that makes it relevant beyond the lab. The Clinical and Translational Research Program works with three community partners: Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center, and Acutus Medical.

What does the Boise State Clinical and Translational Research Program do?

  • Provides networking opportunities with regional medical professionals and facilities
  • Helps with research concept development
  • Offers mentorship and an experiential pipeline
  • Helps organize grant writing workshops
  • Provides Institute of Translational Health Science (ITHS) and Clinical Translation
  • Research Infrastructure Network (CTR-IN) information

Meet Director Cheryl Jorcyk

Dr. Cheryl Jorcyk is director of the Boise State clinical translational research program. She is a professor in both the Department of Biological Sciences and in the Biomolecular Research Ph.D. Program.

Jorcyk is chair of the Boise State University Biomedical Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects committee and a member of the Regional Advisory Workgroup for University of Washington ITHS. She has received clinical/translational research training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston through the American Association for Cancer Research.

Jorcyk holds a Ph.D. in biology from Johns Hopkins University and her undergraduate degree, also in biology, from Pennsylvania State University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Current Research Focus

Currently, Jorcyk’s lab focuses on studying the role of the inflammatory factor Oncostatin M (OSM) in breast cancer invasion and metastasis, and translational studies to develop a novel therapeutic to block OSM are underway. She first began studying OSM and its function in tumor progression through collaboration with the Boise VA Medical Center.

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