GENERAL CLINICAL RESEARCH CENTER

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EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. This grant proposal seeks funding to continue support for the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, including the main GCRC at Emory University Hospital (funded since 1960), and a satellite GCRC at Grady Memorial Hospital (open for 1.5 years). The Emory GCRC Program goals span the NCRR guidelines by providing: 1) an optimal setting for the study of human physiology and pathophysiology; 2) a facility for the investigation of the cause and natural history of human illness and the definition of disease progression, prevention, control, and cure; 3) the means for the rapid translation of advances in basic scientific knowledge into paradigm-shifting methods for disease identification and patient care; and 4) institutional resources for training health professionals from multiple disciplines in clinical investigation. This application summarizes clinical research carried out since the previous submission, and presents the activities proposed for the next cycle. The Emory GCRC will optimize opportunities for translational research based on its location on the Emory University campus, while the Grady satellite GCRC will take advantage of its location at an inner-city hospital, and focus on the natural history, mechanisms, and management of disorders that are more prevalent in the population that Grady serves, such as blunt head trauma, sickle cell disease, HI-V/ADS, low birth weight, alcoholism, psychiatric conditions, and diabetes; the disparities in health suffered by ethnic minorities are due in part to lack of representation in medical research studies aimed at conditions which are particularly common in such populations, and the Grady satellite GCRC should help to solve this problem. The number of protocols and principal investigators at both the Emory and the Grady satellite GCRCs has increased steadily, reflecting a broad range of faculty research interests. The present application contains 87 separate protocols, with involvement of faculty from the Schools of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing at Emory, and Morehouse School of Medicine as well. We attribute expanded use of our GCRC program to a combination of promotion of clinical research by GCRC staff and faculty, availability of the Grady satellite GCRC, recruitment of faculty clinical investigators, and the NIH commitment to clinical research career support exemplified by the individual and institutional "K" series awards; Emory has both K12 and K30 programs, and many K12- and K23-supported faculty utilize the GCRCs. Emory's new Research Strategic Plan has a strong emphasis on translational and integrative multidisiplinary research, and the Emory GCRC Program (with units in both university and urban hospital settings) is expected to play a vital role in this endeavor - applying cutting edge, state of the art tools and methodologies to produce the critical new knowledge needed to advance human health.