MEDICAL SCIENCES CAMPUS RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT-SUPPLEMENT

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The goal of the current RCMI Program on the UPR Medical Sciences Campus is to continue the development of high quality biomedical research, building on the progress which was made during the first five years of funding. To achieve this goal the Program has focused on developing infrastructure and providing research support services, as well as to increase the number of active research personnel, including faculty, research associates, research assistants and technicians. The limited number of active researchers, as well as highly trained technical personnel, has been identified as one of the most important factors limiting research productivity at present. Improvements in the research infrastructure and environment have improved our ability to address this problem immediately. Key research areas have been selected for development because of existing or potential strengths. the scope of the Program has also been expanded to include clinical and biosocial research. The Program consists of two major components: the regular program and the AIDS program. Within the regular component there are three basic research activities, whose focus is to increase the number of faculty, research associates and technical personnel working in the areas of neurobiology, cell physiology and pharmacology, and molecular biology. A clinical research activity, the cancer cytogenesis laboratory, is also included in the regular program. Support is also provided to continue development of a major research support facility: the Central Electron Microscopy Unit. After seven and a half years, this was the final year of funding for the Flow Cytometry Laboratory. This facility, as well as other specialized laboratories and services that received RCMI support during first cycle, are now being sustained with institutional funds and/or funds generated by charge-back systems, or are seeking support. The AIDS component of the current program expands efforts, begun in 1989 under an AIDS supplement to our original RCMI grant, to develop basic and clinical research in AIDS. Two major activities from the original supplement remain active. One of these represents an effort to expand clinical research in AIDS, by establishing a multidisciplinary Research Clinic, which provides coordinated access to a controlled outpatient population, appropriate management of patient records and necessary laboratory testing. The second activity supports a research program in natural products with potential anti-HIV actions, by providing the resources needed to establish a state-of-the-art anti-HIV assay system in the researcher's laboratory. Funds were also obtained, through an AIDS supplemental Application, to expand the anti-HIV Screening Program initiated in 1991 and to support a new research project: Role of HIV-1 env Gene variation and Tropism in Vertical Transmission. This project is a collaborative effort between young investigators, with complementary expertise in the areas of molecular biology/virology and cellular immunology. This project will strengthen our ongoing efforts to develop research in molecular biology.