New CCTS Director: Carrie Byington, MD, Will Dere, MD

It is with sadness that we announce that Dr. Don McClain will be leaving his position as co-director of our Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) to direct a new Center on Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

All of the Core Directors, CCTS staff and investigators will greatly miss Dr. McClain. He and CCTS co-director Dr. Carrie Byington established a unified Study Design and Biostatistics Core that served as the impetus for the new Department of Population Health Sciences in the School of Medicine, launched educational programs such as the Master of Clinical Investigation and propelled a fourfold increase in our translational research funding to $72.6 million.

Dr. Carrie Byington, a member of the national CTSA Executive Committee and leaders in scientific workforce development will assume the role of Director. Dr. Will Dere, who recently joined us executive director of our Program in Personalized Health, has agreed to join Dr. Byington as co-director of the CCTS. We are fortunate to have someone of Dr. Dere’s experience to step in as the new co-director. He is an internationally regarded medical researcher with 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, and his expertise in drug discovery will greatly benefit the CCTS mission of bringing promising bench science to patient care.