Development of a Mind-Body Center at NYUSOM

描述（由申请人提供）：压力是一种复杂的医学问题，其中心理、社会、文化和生理因素都可以在疾病的发展中相互作用。与压力有关的健康问题是地方性的，可以采取任何数量的医学或精神形式。这项拨款提案描述了在纽约大学建立一个新的多学科身心中心的计划，该中心致力于压力和健康方面的基础、临床和转化研究。该中心统一的科学主题集中在社会心理应激、边缘脑、神经内分泌应激反应（特别是下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴和交感病理肾上腺素能系统）的相互作用以及应激反应对身心功能的下游影响。本中心的其他主题包括了解使压力和健康恶化的适应不良行为，以及改善压力对健康影响的应对机制和其他保护因素。该中心的目标是建立一个智力环境，在这个环境中，来自不同领域的项目科学家可以自由交流思想，并为跨学科研究项目开发标准化的评估系统。行政核心将组织中心活动和资金，并负责数据管理。研究核心将汇集项目科学家和资源，并由委员会管理。试点项目将作为开发中央标准化资源的起点，包括临床协议、基础科学方法和神经影像学协议。培训和发展核心将为小组成员提供跨学科培训，并为年轻研究人员和临床医生提供一个论坛，以了解压力和健康方面的研究，并与资深研究人员密切互动。该中心的教育目标包括社区和培训生外展以及年度会议。拟议中的中心的长期愿景是，正在进行的关于压力和健康的跨学科纵向研究将与利用相同共享资源的单个研究项目共存。这种基础设施将促进个别研究人员之间的更多知识，并通过提供一个讨论研究问题和未来项目计划的定期论坛，丰富应力研究领域。这种基础设施还将通过防止研究重复、提供集中的共享资源以及在管理委员会内部拥有一个内在的制衡系统来提高研究成本效率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Stress is a complex medical problem in which psychological, social, cultural, and physiological factors all can interact in the development of illness. Stress-related health problems are endemic, and can take on any number of medical or psychiatric forms. This grant proposal describes a plan for the development of a new multidisciplinary mind-body center at NYU dedicated to basic, clinical, and translational research in stress and health. The unifying scientific themes of this center focus on the interactions of psychosocial stress, limbic brain, the neuroendocrine stress response (particularly the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathoadrenergic system) and the downstream effects of the stress response on physical and mental functioning. Other themes of this center include understanding the maladaptive stress-induced behaviors that worsen stress and health, as well as coping mechanisms and other protective factors that ameliorate the health effects of stress. The goal of this center is to build an intellectual environment in which program scientists from a variety of fields can meet for the free exchange of ideas and to develop standardized batteries of assessments for use in interdisciplinary research projects. An Administrative Core would organize center activities and funds, and would be responsible for data management. A Research Core would bring together program scientists and resources, and would be governed by committee. Pilot projects would serve as the starting point for the development of central standardized resources, including clinical protocols, basic science methods, and neuroimaging protocols. A Training & Development Core would provide cross-disciplinary training for group members and a forum for young researchers and clinicians to learn about research in stress and health, and to interact closely with senior investigators. Educational goals of the center include community and trainee outreach and annual conferences. The long-term vision for the proposed center is one in which ongoing interdisciplinary longitudinal studies of stress and health would coexist with individual research projects that utilize the same shared resources. Such an infrastructure would promote greater knowledge among individual researchers and would enrich the field of stress research by providing a regular forum for the discussion of research issues and plans for future projects. This infrastructure also would improve research cost efficiency by preventing study duplication, providing a centralized shared resources, and having an intrinsic system of checks and balances within the governing committee.