Mentoring Obesity and Diabetes Research in Louisiana

 描述(由申请人提供)：近三分之二的美国人口临床上超重或肥胖，近10%的人口患有成人糖尿病。肥胖和糖尿病是统称为“代谢综合征”的一系列疾病的核心因素。我们位于彭宁顿生物医学研究中心的生物医学研究卓越中心(COBRE)的成立是为了加强代谢疾病的研究，方法是增加致力于这项研究的外部资助的教职员工数量，并扩大开展这项研究所需的科学基础设施。在Cobre的第一和第二阶段，我们的中心为15名初级教员提供了支持，他们获得了美国国立卫生研究院的14项资助(7项RO1，2项R03，1项R21，1项R56，2项R41，1项R43)和5项研究资助。此外，通过(1)通过硬件升级和为核心活动增加生物信息学支持来增强基因组核心，以及(2)建立了一个出色的、装备精良的细胞生物学和生物成像核心，为机构教职员工和我们的Cobre支持的项目绩效指标提供了高水平的专业知识和服务，研究基础设施得到了显著的改善。我们Cobre在第三阶段的具体目标是通过以下方式进一步扩大从事代谢性疾病研究的生产性研究人员的临界质量：(A)保持我们在中心前两个阶段建立和完善的高效指导文化；(B)确定、指导和留住我们从机构培训补助金中脱颖而出的最有才华、训练有素的初级科学家；(C)通过利用机构支持继续促进我们的科学核心的增长，以保持其对中心科学家成功的强大积极影响，以及(4)通过支持对获得新的外部支持和维持中心的基础和翻译研究活动至关重要的研究试点项目，维持一个协作的多学科研究环境。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nearly two-thirds of the US population is either clinically overweight or obese and almost 10% of the population has adult-onset diabetes. Obesity and diabetes are central elements of a cluster of pathologies collectively referred to as "metabolic syndrome". Our Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center was established to enhance research on metabolic disease by increasing the number of extramurally-funded faculty devoted to this research and expanding the scientific infrastructure needed for its conduct. During Phases I and II of our COBRE, our Center has provided support to 15 junior faculty members who have obtained 14 NIH grants (7 RO1, 2 RO3, 1 R21, 1 R56, 2 R41, 1 R43) and 5 research grants from the ADA. In addition, the research infrastructure has been significantly improved by (1) enhancement of the Genomics Core through hardware upgrades and addition of Bioinformatics support to the core's activities, and (2) establishment of an outstanding, well equipped Cell Biology and Bio-imaging Core that has provided high levels of expertise and service to institutional faculty and Project PIs supported by our COBRE. The Specific Aims of our COBRE in Phase III are to further expand the critical mass of productive investigators engaged in metabolic disease research by (a) maintaining the highly effective mentoring culture we have built and refined during the first two phases of our Center; (b) identifying, mentoring, and retaining our most talented, well-trained junior scientists emerging from our institutional training grants; (c) continuing to enhance the growth of our scientific cores by leveraging institutional support to sustain their strong positive impact on the success of Center scientists, and (4) sustaining a collaborative multidisciplinary research environment by providing support for research pilot projects that are critical to obtaining new extramural support and sustaining the Center's basic and translational research activities.