NCRR Reporter - Critical resources for research.

IN THIS ISSUE . . .
Winter/Spring 2008


WEB EXCLUSIVE:
Comment on NCRR's Draft Strategic Plan by April 23

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:
Bringing Research Advances More Quickly to Patients

COVER STORY:
Engaging Communities
Partnerships among researchers, health care providers, and patient communities are helping to bring research advances to the people who need them.

CTSAs IN FOCUS:
Updates on the Clinical and Translational Science Awards

RESOURCE BRIEFS:
Research Unit Goes to Extremes
A Planetarium Show on Diabetes
Connectivity Enables Collaborations

SCIENCE ADVANCES:
More Than Skin Deep
Scientists discover ways to generate embryonic stem cells from skin tissue.

NEWS FROM NCRR:
People, Awards, Grants, and New Developments

Web Exclusives:
What's New, Upcoming Events, Funding Opportunities

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DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:
Bringing Research Advances More Quickly to Patients

Community engagement is a critical element in the translational research process and one that NCRR has supported for many years. With the advent of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) consortium, new and far-reaching opportunities have developed that will bring research advances more quickly and efficiently to patients. Read more.

COVER STORY:
Engaging Communities
Partnerships among researchers, health care providers, and patient communities are helping to bring research advances to the people who need them.

Women who participate in studies at the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College have access to fitness and nutrition counseling as well as the center's exercise facilities. (Photo/Earl Zubkoff)

NCRR-funded programs all over the nation—at institutions such as the University of Pittsburgh, Meharry Medical College, and the University of California, Davis—increasingly involve their communities as full partners in the research process. The key to this engagement, regardless of the type of program or the population served, is two-way communication. Read more.

CTSAs IN FOCUS:
Updates on the Clinical and Translational Science Awards

Clinical Research Associate Networks. Through its Roadmap Initiative, NIH has awarded supplemental funds to four members of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards consortium to determine the necessary components for creating and maintaining networks of community-based medical providers who are qualified, trained, and eager to participate in research studies. Read more.

RESOURCE BRIEFS:
Research Unit Goes to Extremes

Mayo Clinic researchers—including CTSA-funded investigator Bruce Johnson—are studying the effects of altitude illness by examining workers who travel from Antarctica's sea-level McMurdo Station to the high-altitude South Pole. (Photo courtesy of Mayo Clinic)
Each year when summer comes to the southern hemisphere, hundreds of researchers and support staff descend on the South Pole. And every year, a few of them may need to be evacuated because of severe altitude illness. A study by Mayo Clinic researchers is trying to figure out why this happens. Read more.

A Planetarium Show on Diabetes
Through innovative methods, including movies, videos, and board games, professor John Pollock of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh has been finding ways to engage children and their families in science. His latest endeavor is the world’s first planetarium show on biomedicine. Read more.

Connectivity Enables Collaborations

A collaboration between researchers at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore was made possible by high-resolution video streaming using Internet2 connectivity. Read more.

SCIENCE ADVANCES:
More Than Skin Deep
Scientists discover ways to generate embryonic stem cells from skin tissue.

Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his colleagues at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (NPRC) have generated embryonic stem cells from rhesus macaque skin cells using somatic cell nuclear transfer. Research at NCRR-funded NPRCs has played an important role in the field of regenerative medicine. (Photo/Michael McDermott)

Take skin cells, tweak them a bit, and they can become heart cells for a patient with chronic heart disease or insulin-producing cells for a patient with diabetes. Although these cell-based therapies are still in the future, two recent studies by NCRR-funded researchers are helping to pave the way for them. Read more.

NEWS FROM NCRR:
People, Awards, Grants, and New Developments

Web Exclusives

What's New:

Upcoming Events:

Clinical Research Networks: Building the Foundation for Health Care Transformation. A May 8, 2008, discussion of findings from the Clinical Research Networks Program and how it can help transform clinical and translational research. The program is a series of far-reaching projects designed to transform the nation's medical research capabilities and speed the movement of research discoveries from the bench to the bedside. Register to attend.

Accelerating the Dissemination and Translation of Clinical Research into Practice. A May 9, 2008, workshop to discuss and share best practices and ways in which researchers can partner with community health care providers to translate clinical research into practice. Participants will develop recommendations for academic-community collaborations and partnerships with other community programs to better facilitate translating science into community-based practice. Register to attend.

National Advisory Research Resources Council. The May 14, 2008, meeting of the NCRR's advisory council will include an update on the progress of formulating the Center's next strategic plan, as well as reports on a wide range of NCRR-supported activities that enhance the participation of minority, rural, and other underserved communities in the nation's biomedical research enterprise. This meeting will be videocast via the NIH Web site. Read more.

Funding Opportunities:

  • Lab to Marketplace: Tools for Biomedical and Behavioral Research (SBIR R43/R44) encourages the translation of technologies for biomedical or behavioral research from academic and other non-small business research sectors to the marketplace. Read more.
  • New Technologies for Transient Molecular Complex Characterization (SBIR R41/R42) encourages grant applications from small businesses that propose to develop new technologies, tools, or processes for the study of transient molecular complexes. Read more.
  • New Technologies for Transient Molecular Complex Characterization (SBIR R43/R44) encourages grant applications from small businesses that propose to develop new technologies, tools, or processes for the study of transient molecular complexes. Read more.
  • Cryopreservation of Germplasm for Effective Management of Animal Genetic Resources (R01) seeks to encourage the further development of technologies for germplasm collection, evaluation, processing and cryopreservation for research animals where multiple strains and mutants are available. Read more.
  • Cryopreservation of Germplasm for Effective Management of Animal Genetic Resources (R21) seeks to encourage the further development of technologies for germplasm collection, evaluation, processing and cryopreservation for research animals where multiple strains and mutants are available. Read more.
  • PHS 2008-02 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH for Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications invites eligible United States small business concerns to submit Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant applications. Read more.
  • PHS 2008-02 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH, CDC, and FDA for Small Business Innovation Research Grant Applications invites eligible United States small business concerns to submit Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant applications. Read more.
  • Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Award (U54) invites applications for institutional CTSAs that will enable applicants to innovate and to transform their own environment to develop and advance clinical and translational science as a distinct discipline. Read more.
  • Human Pluripotent Stem Cell (hPSC) Research Using Non-Embryonic Sources (R21) invites applications proposing research on hPSCs from non-embryonic sources. This FOA addresses Executive Order 13435 issued by President George W. Bush on June 20, 2007. Read more.
  • Human Pluripotent Stem Cell (hPSC) Research Using Non-Embryonic Sources (R01) invites applications proposing research on hPSCs from non-embryonic sources. This FOA addresses Executive Order 13435 issued by President George W. Bush on June 20, 2007. Read more.

The NCRR Reporter is a quarterly magazine produced by the NIH National Center for Research Resources to foster communication, collaboration, and resource sharing in areas of current interest to scientists and the public. For more information about NCRR, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov. Please send comments, ideas for future articles, and subscription requests to NCRR's Office of Science Policy and Public Liaison at info@ncrr.nih.gov.