John Buse, MD, PhD, has been appointed the Co-Chair of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program Steering Committee, along with Christopher P. Austin, MD, the Director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health. The CTSA Program Steering Committee provides direction to NCATS and the ~60 CTSA-funded institutions around best practices in clinical and translational research, workforce development and future directions.
In discussing the appointment, Buse said that he is “humbled to have the opportunity to serve in coordinating the efforts of the outstanding CTSA institutions as we pursue NCATS’ vision to improve health through smart science.”
Buse is the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor, chief of the division of endocrinology in the department of medicine, director of the UNC Diabetes Care Center, Co-Director of the NC Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the University of North Carolina. Embodying excellence and innovative leadership, Buse has led or participated in more than 200 clinical studies and dozens of epidemiologic analyses and translational projects.
His breadth of investigation ranges from early stage clinical characterization of new molecular entities to seminal trials, including critical drug safety outcomes studies. He is renowned for co-chairing the ACCORD trial, which demonstrated a lack of benefit of more intensive goals for glycemia, blood pressure and lipids, and for chairing the LEADER trial, which was the first demonstration of the broad effect of the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide to reduce cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk.
Buse has been listed since 2015 among Thompson Reuters “Highly Cited Researchers” recognizing the top 1 percent of global investigators and is widely sought after as a lecturer, consultant, collaborator and clinical trial investigator.