Heatwole Earns Robert G. Holloway CTSI KL2 Alumni Lectureship

Chad Heatwole, MD, MS, is the recipient of the Robert G. Holloway CTSI KL2 Alumni Lectureship in Clinical & Translational Science for 2025.

"Each year, UR CTSI selects a recipient of the Holloway Alumni Lectureship who has not only demonstrated research excellence but also contributed meaningfully to the KL2 Career Development community through mentorship, collaboration, and advancing the mission of team science,” said Jin Xiao, DDS, PhD, director of the UR CTSI Translational Science Scholar Award program—formerly the KL2 program. “As a nationally recognized leader in neuromuscular research, Heatwole has pioneered the development of patient-reported outcome measures that have transformed how clinical trials assess meaningful change in rare neurological diseases.”

Heatwole is a professor of Neurology and the director of the Center for Health + Technology (CHeT), a multidisciplinary institute that advances therapeutic innovation by integrating technology, data analytics, and patient centered outcome development.

“Under his leadership, CHeT has become a national leader in designing multi center trials, deploying wearable sensors and digital tools, modeling disease progression, and developing regulatory grade outcome instruments used worldwide,” Xiao said.

Heatwole's leadership and dedication to collaborative research exemplify the spirit of the Holloway lectureship and the KL2 program, which seeks to prepare researchers for careers in clinical and translational science and research.

“Clinical and translational research provides a pathway to significantly help those who suffer from disease,” Heatwole said. “The discovery and validation of new and beneficial treatments to reduce human suffering is a great mission and has the potential to help many people.”

Heatwole sees later-stage translational research as the crossing of an important threshold.

“While therapeutic development is built on large-scale scientific input and eventually requires numerous regulatory steps, the discovery of therapeutic benefit and safety through clinical trials signals a clear point of discovery,” he said.

The field of translational science and research is challenging but ultimately rewarding to those who pursue it.
“It takes scientific rigor, patience, and dedication,” Heatwole said. “There are many hurdles and obstacles for every success. There is a joy in working as a team towards a common goal. There is a deep satisfaction in helping others that suffer from illness.”

As director of CHeT, Heatwole oversees the intersections of expertise and research that lead to creating innovative treatments and therapies. 

“I lead a group of about 100 people in a six-unit, academic clinical research organization dedicated to advancing human therapeutics, health, and knowledge though skillfully conducted research, exceptional people, and global partnerships,” Heatwole said. “I facilitate the conduct, planning, management, implementation, analysis, and rescuing of numerous multi-center clinical research studies. Simultaneously, my group develops, validates, and licenses innovative technologies and outcome measures to improve how research is conducted and how therapies are evaluated.”

As an alumnus of the KL2 Career Development program, Heatwole benefited from mentorship and support at a critical time in his career. He now has the opportunity to pay it forward.

“This lectureship will help me share some of the knowledge and skills I have picked up over the years to a promising new group of investigators,” he said.

As part of the lectureship, Heatwole will present at the upcoming Translational Science Day on October 29. The Robert G. Holloway CTSI KL2 Alumni Lectureship in Clinical & Translational Science is named in honor of Robert Holloway, MD, PhD, who served as director of the KL2 Career Development program for 17 years.

Jonathan Raab | 9/29/2025