by Leigh MacMillan

Julie Bastarache, MD, associate professor of Medicine, has been appointed Assistant Vice President for Clinical & Translational Scientist Development at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The new role will enhance and extend Edge for Scholars at Vanderbilt, which provides comprehensive research career development resources to early-career faculty, pre- and postdoctoral trainees, and leaders of institutional training grant awards.

Edge for Scholars, developed under the leadership of Katherine Hartmann, MD, PhD, Vice President for Research Integration at VUMC and associate dean for Clinical & Translational Scientist Development at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, serves more than 400 scientists at Vanderbilt and reaches 45,000 academics nationally with a bi-weekly newsletter and online content.

Bastarache has previously worked with Hartmann on multiple Edge for Scholars initiatives, and she became program director of the KL2 Mentored Clinical Research Scholar Award during the most recent renewal of the Clinical and Translational Science Award that provides support to the Vanderbilt Insitute for Clinical and Translational Research.

“I am thrilled to continue working with Edge for Scholars in this new role,” Bastarache said. “Thanks to Dr. Hartmann’s vision, Vanderbilt is a national leader in career development and early-career success for basic and translational scientists. I aim to continue the robust programming and support for early-career scientists while developing new initiatives for early- and mid-career researchers.”

Hartmann said that Bastarache is uniquely suited to the role.

“Dr. Bastarache is an extraordinary scientist who is nationally known for her success in reverse translation in critical care research — that is, advancing the care of patients with sepsis by taking observations, diagnostics and specimens from the clinical space back into the lab to uncover mechanisms and develop new therapeutic approaches,” Hartmann said. “This means she is unusually facile across most of the methodologic domains in which our early-career scientists are launching their work.”

Hartmann also noted that Bastarache utilized Vanderbilt’s career development resources while growing her own career and has served in leadership roles as chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee for VUMC, associate program director for Resident Research in Medicine, and assistant director of the Nielson Society, which provides support for the careers of PhD and MD tenure-track faculty in the Department of Medicine as they develop independent research careers.

“Dr. Bastarache has been a long-term part of our mentoring strength,” Hartmann said. “She is a dedicated resource for individual researchers and invests heavily in providing expertise as part of activities that help our faculty thrive like internal study sections, grant pacing workshops, studios, and launching the annual research career development retreat.”

Bastarache said that in her new role, she will focus on three main areas: “increasing national visibility of our scholars, fostering new collaborations between scholars, and providing financial resources to mid-career investigators.”

Bastarache completed her MD, internship, residency and fellowship in Allergy/Pulmonary at Vanderbilt. She joined the faculty of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in 2005.