IN THIS ISSUE . .
.
Summer 2007
SPECIAL NOTICE:
NCRR Seeks Input for New Strategic Plan by August 24
DIRECTOR'S
MESSAGE:
Partnerships, Collaboration, and Connectivity Transform Clinical and Translational Science
CRITICAL RESOURCES:
Forging a Path From Laboratory to Clinic
CTSA consortium accelerates the process of bringing research discoveries to patients.
CTSAs IN FOCUS:
Updates on the Clinical and Translational Science Awards
RESOURCE BRIEF:
Modeling Brain Growth to Detect Disorders
FUNDING MATTERS:
From Brain Imaging to Chemical Probes
Grants enable advanced technologies.
SCIENCE ADVANCES:
Genetic Resources for the Rhesus Macaque
Genetic tools will enhance studies with a widely used animal model.
NEWS FROM
NCRR:
People,
Awards, Grants, and New
Developments
Web Exclusives:
Upcoming Events, Meeting
Summaries, Funding Opportunities
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SPECIAL NOTICE:
NCRR Seeks Input for New Strategic Plan by August 24
NCRR is seeking input from the scientific community to develop a new strategic plan covering the five-year period from 2009 to 2013. This document will inform and guide NCRR’s priorities for developing the infrastructure, tools, and training biomedical researchers need to understand, detect, treat, and prevent a wide range of diseases. Read more.
DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:
Partnerships, Collaboration, and Connectivity Transform Clinical and Translational Science
With the upcoming announcement of the next round of Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) in September, it is the ideal time to feature the training and research under way at the current CTSA sites. This issue of the NCRR Reporter provides firsthand accounts of how CTSA support is enhancing investigators’ skills by providing training in multidisciplinary and translational research, supplying new tools that transcend specific research areas, offering regulatory and patient recruitment assistance, and generally working to break down barriers from laboratory to clinic. Read more.
CRITICAL RESOURCES:
Forging a Path From Laboratory to Clinic
CTSA consortium accelerates the process of bringing research discoveries to patients.
Scientists are making great strides in unraveling the molecular underpinnings of many diseases. But translating this understanding into treatments and cures for patients requires a broad set of skills and expertise, as well as access to specialized equipment, resources, and training, all of which are frequently beyond the reach of most academic laboratories and institutions. The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium, established by NCRR as part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, strives to remove roadblocks and ease challenges on the path from bench to bedside. Read more.
CTSAs IN FOCUS:
Updates on the Clinical and Translational Science Awards
Feeding the Pipeline of Clinical and Translational Researchers. CTSAs are helping institutions provide new and enhanced training programs at the intersection of the basic, clinical, and population sciences to give researchers the skills they need for establishing successful careers in clinical and translational research. The key, according to those running these programs, is to combine flexibility with rigor. Read more.
RESOURCE BRIEF:
Modeling Brain Growth to Detect Disorders
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown are developing methods to model the development of the outermost layer of the human brain, the cerebral cortex. They may one day help doctors diagnose autism and other neurological disorders at an early stage by detecting clues about when and how brain development begins to differ from normal. Read more.
FUNDING MATTERS:>
From Brain Imaging to Chemical Probes
Grants enable advanced technologies.
John Gore, director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science in Nashville, Tenn., is using a sophisticated imaging technique to determine which parts of the brain are active when, for example, schizophrenic patients experience hallucinations or alcoholics have cravings. Maurizio Pellecchia of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, Calif., is using another complex technology to study how proteins interact with one another and with other molecules. These scientists’ pioneering research recently got a boost. Read more.
SCIENCE ADVANCES:
Genetic Resources for the Rhesus Macaque
Genetic tools will enhance studies with a widely used animal model.
The rhesus macaque has long been a valuable animal model for studies on AIDS, neuroscience, and metabolic diseases. Such studies are often enhanced by factoring in the genetic underpinnings of various conditions. Is there a particular combination of genes, for example, that enhances the response to a vaccine? Or are there particular genetic variations that render monkeys more prone to developing diabetes? Finding answers to these questions will be greatly facilitated by the development of more refined genetic tools and resources. Read more.
NEWS FROM NCRR:
People, Awards, Grants, and New
Developments
Web Exclusives
Upcoming Events:
25th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate AIDS Models. A scientific forum for disseminating and exchanging new research findings, ideas, and directions among an international group of scientists whose research focuses on experimental immunodeficiency virus infections. The goal is to better understand how HIV and SIV cause disease and to facilitate the development of new methods for the treatment, control, and prevention of AIDS in human populations. Register to attend.
National Advisory Research Resources Council Meeting. This September 11 meeting of NCRR’s advisory council will include discussions about the Clinical and Translational Science Award program, support for synchrotrons, and engaging tribal colleges and underserved communities in research. Read more (11KB PDF file, requires free Acrobat Reader).
Fostering Collaborative Community-Based Clinical and Translational Research. September 14 is the date for the second of two regional one-day workshops to identify key barriers to and enablers of effective academic-community research partnerships and to develop and disseminate guidelines and best practices for conducting community-based clinical and translational research in minority communities and other medically underserved communities. Read
more.
Meeting Summaries:
Funding Opportunities:
-
Sharing Data and Tools: Federation using the BIRN and caBIG Infrastructures (R01). Invites applications to make neuroscience data or tools more broadly available to the research community by making use of the BIRN or the caBIG infrastructure. Read more.
-
Data Ontologies for Biomedical Research (R01). Solicits applications from institutions or organizations that propose to develop an ontology that will enable software to understand how two or more existing data sets relate to each other, advancing the use of informatics approaches in biomedical research. Read more.
-
Neuroimaging Informatics Software Enhancement for Improved Interoperability and Dissemination (R03). Supports modification and enhancement of existing neuroimaging informatics tools and resources that are hosted or being considered for inclusion into the NIH Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse. Read more.
-
High-End Instrumentation Grant Program (S10). Solicits applications from groups of NIH-supported investigators to purchase a single piece of biomedical research equipment that costs more than $750,000. The maximum award is $2.0 million. Read more.
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NIH Offers SBIR Niche Assessment Program to Phase I Awardees. Available to SBIR Phase I awardees in fiscal years 2007 and 2008. Read more.
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NIH Offers Commercialization Assistance Program to SBIR Phase II Awardees. Available to NIH SBIR Phase II awardees from 2002 to 2007. Read more.
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