COBRE for Skeletal Health and Repair

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) is to establish a multi-disciplinary translational research center focusing on cartilage and joint health and disease mechanisms and developing repair strategy. The projects encompass clinical, biological, and engineering research fields. Projects 1 and2 analyze how long bones are built up during skeletal development. Projects 3 and 4 examine how joint cartilage degenerates in adult joint diseases. Project 5 studies how to repair and re-build healthy cartilage joint. The investigators and mentors are selected from five departments in Rhode Island Hospital/Brown Medical School (Orthopaedics, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, Medicine, and Bioengineering). The junior investigators include three clinician/scientists and two basic research scientists. The mentors also include both clinician/scientists and basic research scientists. Each mentor is a Principal Investigator of multiple federal grants (NIH RO1 or VA). They will supervise junior investigator's research projects, serve as their role models, and mentor them to obtain federal research project grants. Our vision is, by establishing this research infrastructure, we will enable clinicians working side-by-side with basic research scientists, junior investigators with senior investigators, and biologists with bioengineers. This multi-disciplinary approach is absolutely necessary to develop translational strategies for prevention and treatment of skeletal joint diseases.