Contents
News from NCRR
People, Awards, Grants and New Developments
New Animal Model Resource Planned
Scientists who work with animal models can look forward to a new Web site and database being designed to increase research efficiency, improve collaboration and ultimately help bridge the gap between basic science and human medicine. With funding from NCRR, the "Linking Animal Models to Human Disease Initiative" (LAMHDI) will integrate data and information about animal models and make them available to health researchers throughout the world. This new resource is being developed to make it easier for the biomedical research community to locate, identify, apply and build upon the most useful animal models for the research.
"LAMHDI will give biomedical researchers worldwide access to a simple, yet comprehensive Web-based resource that will enable scientists to quickly find the best animal models for their research studies," said Harold Watson, LAMHDI project officer, NCRR Division of Comparative Medicine. "Critical tools such as these can help accelerate the research process, ultimately leading us to faster treatments."
The initiative grew out of an August 2008 meeting on Animal Models: Informatics and Access. At this meeting, animal research and informatics experts explored ways to remove research barriers and to develop frameworks for effective computation on existing animal models data to facilitate medical progress. To learn more about this meeting, visit Animal Models: Informatics and Access.
The $1.57 million NCRR-funded project will be supported by a contract to Turner Consulting Group, a government technology, strategy and IT firm.
RCMI International Symposium on Health Disparities
Focusing on the theme of Research Outcomes Accelerating Discoveries for Medical Applications and Practice, the Eleventh RCMI International Symposium on Health Disparities was held December 1-4, 2008, at the University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine. The symposium was sponsored by NCRR's Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program, which enhances the research capacity and infrastructure at 18 minority colleges and universities that offer doctorates in health sciences. With 490 attendees and more than 300 scientific sessions, the symposium highlighted basic, clinical and translational research on the biological, environmental, cultural, socioeconomic and bio-behavioral bases of health disparities in cancer, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases, obesity and metabolic syndromes and neuropsychiatric disorders.
In recognition of World AIDS Day, the 2008 symposium opened with a keynote address on overcoming the scientific challenges in HIV prevention given by Lauren V. Wood, senior clinical investigator in the Vaccine Branch at the National Cancer Institute. Other keynote speakers included Dr. Barbara Alving, NCRR director; J. Donald Capra, president emeritus, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation; John E. Maupin, Jr., president, Morehouse School of Medicine; and Sidney McNairy, Jr., director, NCRR Division of Research Infrastructure. Emma Fernandez-Repollet, vice president of research and technology and professor of pharmacology at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, received the Frederick C. Greenwood Award for her commitment to the training of minority scientists, her leadership and accomplishments in research administration, her long-standing service and dedication to the RCMI community, and contributions to biomedical research.
Also featured were keynote and plenary lectures by individuals who have made significant and seminal contributions to research on health disparities, improving health care access and delivery, and partnering with vulnerable populations and marginalized communities to eliminate health disparities.
Additional information about the presenters and their research can be found at www.mpi-evv.com/2008RCMI/researchpath/default.htm.
