RCN: Communications Media for Mineralized Tissue Research

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This grant will provide the resources to establish three communications media to foster the progress of bone research. The three communication/interaction media structures proposed are (a) a monthly Seminar Series at a site across the street from the Empire State Building, very near the major transportation hubs in New York City, (b) an Annual Workshop on a topic related to the mechanosensory system in bone and (c) the development of a Website that supports and sponsors a Bulletin Board, Cyberspace Bone Journal Club, Cyberspace Bone Seminar Series and other types of networking communications. The impact of the proposed monthly Seminar Series and the Website will be very broad in the spectrum of people they reach, from undergraduate to senior research professor. The Annual Workshop, on the other hand, is more focused on the active researcher, but students who are active researchers will make presentations as they have done in the past in these workshops. Thus, these three media structures are layered in levels of specialization corresponding to level of professional training. Moreover, the impact desired is different at the different ends of this people spectrum. The impact desired with the younger of our participants is to develop in them a lifelong interest in the subject, although they may not make research in this area a livelihood. The impact desired with the already committed researcher (both national and international) is to have these media become a part of his/her daily research life, like listening to the weather report. The primary objective of this proposed communication activity is to create interest, a sense of community, and enhanced understanding in bone research amongst all the participants, especially the involved graduate and undergraduate students. This will be achieved by assimilating information and making this information accessible and useful to participants, researchers farther afield, and the public at large. With respect to the people doing research, the objective is not to dictate research directions, but to stimulate research thinking by posing well-framed research questions. Thus, each year certain research questions will be formulated by the core participants and these research questions will be carefully developed in the communications media. The core participants are Adele Boskey (Head of the Mineralized Tissue Section at the Hospital for Special Surgery and Professor of Biochemistry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University), Timothy Bromage (Director of the Hard Tissue Research Unit and Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College of CUNY), Stephen C. Cowin (PI, Director of the New York Center for Biomedical Engineering (NYCBE) and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the City College of the City University of New York (CUNY)), Susannah P. Fritton (Director of the Tissue Mechanics Laboratory, New York Center for Biomedical Engineering and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the City College of CUNY), X. Edward Guo (Director of the Bone Bioengineering Laboratory and Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Columbia University), Clinton T. Rubin (Director of the Musculo-Skeletal Research Laboratory and Professor in the Departments of Orthopedics and Mechanical Engineering at SUNY Stony Brook) and Mitchell B. Schaffler (Director of Orthopaedic Research and Professor of Orthopedics, Cell Biology and Anatomy at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine). Each of these people represents a community consisting of senior bone research people, graduate students and, in most cases, undergraduate students.