Strengthening Botanical CAM Research: A Collaboration between CUNY and Columbia

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a collaborative CAM research development capability enhancement program between City University of New York (CUNY) and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. An area of strength for both institutions is in botanical studies, and this will be the focus of the project. Lehman College, CUNY will serve as the lead minority-serving institution (MSI), but other CUNY MSIs will also participate in the project. Lehman houses CUNY's Plant Science doctoral program, and has a number of faculty with particular strength in basic plant biology research. In addition, researchers at the New York Botanical Garden, located less than a mile from Lehman and a partner in CUNY's doctoral program, will participate in this research development program. Columbia University's Rosenthal Center brings an established record in clinical and basic science research in medicinal plants. The proposed program, headed by established collaborators Dr. Edward Kennelly (Lehman) and Dr. Fredi Kronenberg (Columbia), has two specific aims: developing collaborative botanically-oriented CAM research projects between CUNY and Columbia researchers for submission to NIH as R01 or R21 applications; and educating CUNY investigators on the NIH research grant application process. The program will be open to ten CUNY botanical researchers. The aims will be accomplished through a two-stage program of research development and priority setting. The research development stage will give CUNY and Columbia researchers a chance to learn about each others' work though a monthly seminar series. The CUNY researchers will attend two continuing medical education courses "Botanical Medicine in Modern Clinical Practice" and on nutrition "Nutrition and Health: State of the Science and Clinical Applications" to give them a broad view of how botanicals are used in the US. Additional opportunities for CUNY faculty to participate in workshops on grant writing, institutional review boards, and CAM-specific issues for scientific paper writing are described. In the priority-setting stage, CUNY faculty who have completed the first research development stage will be asked to develop a concept paper for an NIH research application. The concept papers will be reviewed by appropriate Columbia researchers, and up to three concept papers will be selected for intense development. Based on the research strengths at CUNY we anticipate that CAM-related research projects may be developed in the areas of ethnobotany, cancer chemoprevention, traditional Asian medicine, and metabolic engineering. We anticipate that within a year after the end of the project period, several R21 or R01 botanically-related CAM applications will be submitted to NIH.