Oklahoma IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Oklahoma's IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) will build State capacity to carry out biomedical research by supporting promising new faculty, recruiting students into biomedical research careers, and sustaining vital core facilities. The Network is diverse, comprising two lead institutions whose primary missions are biomedical research, education and patient care and twelve collaborating institutions. The Network includes Oklahoma's only Historically Black College and University, a primarily undergraduate institution with the highest number of Native Americans of any college in the nation, Oklahoma's only tribal college, and several other institutions with large numbers of students from underrepresented groups. The scientific themes of Oklahoma's INBRE are multi-disciplinary, targeting the fields of Microbiology & Immunology, Cancer, and Neuroscience. This thematic focus is closely linked with the strategic research plans of the two lead biomedical research-intensive institutions. INBRE will support research in these disciplines by six investigators from primarily undergraduate institutions and four from the lead institutions. The goal of research support through INBRE will be enhancing the opportunity for these investigators to develop independent research programs. Each participating investigator will be expected to develop new NIH grant applications to support their research projects within 18 months of the commencement of the INBRE grant. Support for students will be provided by summer internships, participation in the faculty research projects and enrollment in new educational programs in bioinformatics and genomics. Students will participate in research activities at both the lead institutions and their own campuses. The primary core facilities to be supported by INBRE will be focused on functional genomics. An integrated network of bioinformatics facilities dedicated to supporting research in functional genomics will also be supported through INBRE. INBRE will support the development of a new core facility whose centerpiece will be a functional magnetic resonance imager (MRI) devoted exclusively to animal research. The MRI is available to all participating INBRE investigators and will support statewide research in cancer and neuroscience. Collectively, INBRE support for faculty research, students and core facilities will be a major step in Oklahoma's efforts to become nationally competitive in biomedical research.