Mentoring Obesity and Diabetes Research in Louisiana

描述（由申请人提供）： 肥胖和超重影响超过50%的美国总人口，成年发病的糖尿病影响8%的美国总人口，但非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人的发病率要高得多。彭宁顿生物医学研究中心是路易斯安那州州立大学系统的一员，该中心正在通过招募、指导和留住有前途的年轻科学家，努力加强路易斯安那州对肥胖和成人糖尿病的研究。我们的COBRE提案涉及四个初始项目，这些项目采用细胞生物学和分子方法，使用动物和人类细胞系来解决与脂肪细胞分化和肌肉胰岛素抵抗相关的问题。COBRE提案的具体目标是：（a）扩大肥胖/糖尿病研究细胞生物学研究人员的临界质量;（B）指导在确定优先事项和多任务、批判性思维、假设制定、实验计划、口头和书面交流、实验室管理和职业规划方面表现出巨大潜力的初级教师;（c）执行初级调查员的评价标准，以增加他们获得持续的独立R 01资金的机会;（d）促进合作和互动的研究环境，使初级研究人员可以进行国家认可的研究，以及（e）通过建立细胞生物学核心和增加对彭宁顿生物医学研究中心基因组学核心的支持，加强肥胖/糖尿病研究的研究基础设施。我们的目标是从COBRE计划中毕业至少8名初级教师。已作出承诺，“毕业”未来的初级科学家从COBRE计划，是路易斯安那州立大学巴吞鲁日学院和PBRC的临床科学学院的一部分。COBRE计划的长期目标是增加路易斯安那州有前途的年轻科学家的保留，并培养获得重点计划项目所需的科学家临界质量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Obesity and overweight effect more than 50% and adult-onset diabetes affects 8% of the overall population of the United States, but the incidence among African Americans and Hispanics is far higher. The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a member of the Louisiana State University System, is leading an effort to enhance research in Louisiana on obesity and adult-onset diabetes by recruiting, mentoring, and retaining promising young scientists. Our COBRE proposal involves four initial projects that employ a cell biological and molecular approach to address questions relating to adipocyte differentiation and muscle insulin resistance using both animal and human cell lines. The Specific Aims of the COBRE proposal are to: (a) expand the critical mass of investigators in the cell biology of obesity/diabetes research; (b) mentor junior faculty displaying great promise in setting priorities and multi-tasking, critical thinking, hypothesis formulation, experimental planning, oral and written communication, laboratory management, and career planning; (c) implement evaluation criteria for junior investigators that increases their odds for acquiring continuous independent R01 funding; (d) foster a collaborative and interactive research environment in which Junior Investigators may conduct nationally recognized research and (e) strengthen the research infrastructure for obesity/diabetes research by establishing a Cell Biology Core and by increasing support for the Genomics Core at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Our goal is to "graduate" at least 8 junior faculty from the COBRE program. A commitment has been made to "graduate" future junior scientists from the COBRE program that are a part of the LSU-Baton Rouge faculty and the clinical sciences faculty of PBRC. The long-term goal of the COBRE program is to increase the retention of promising young scientists within Louisiana and to develop the critical mass of scientists required to acquire a focused program project(s)