Development of a Mind-Body Center at NYUSOM

压力是一个复杂的医学问题，其中心理，社会，文化和生理因素都可以在疾病的发展中相互作用。与压力有关的健康问题是地方性的，可以采取任何形式的医疗或精神病。这项拨款提案描述了一项计划，在纽约大学建立一个新的多学科身心中心，致力于压力和健康的基础，临床和转化研究。该中心的统一科学主题集中于心理社会压力，边缘脑，神经内分泌应激反应（特别是下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴和交感肾上腺素能系统）的相互作用以及应激反应对身心功能的下游影响。该中心的其他主题包括了解适应不良的压力引起的行为，恶化压力和健康，以及应对机制和其他保护因素，改善压力对健康的影响。该中心的目标是建立一个智力环境，使来自各个领域的项目科学家能够聚会，自由交流思想，并开发标准化的评估组合，用于跨学科研究项目。行政核心将组织中心的活动和资金，并负责数据管理。研究核心将汇集项目科学家和资源，并由委员会管理。试点项目将作为开发中央标准化资源的起点，包括临床协议、基础科学方法和神经成像协议。培训和发展核心将为小组成员提供跨学科培训，并为年轻研究人员和临床医生提供一个论坛，以了解压力和健康方面的研究，并与高级研究人员密切互动。该中心的教育目标包括社区和学员外展和年度会议。拟议中心的长期愿景是，正在进行的跨学科压力和健康纵向研究将与利用相同共享资源的个人研究项目共存。这样的基础设施将促进研究人员个人的更多知识，并将丰富压力研究领域，为讨论研究问题和未来项目计划提供一个定期论坛。这种基础设施还将通过防止研究重复、提供集中的共享资源以及在管理委员会内建立内在的制衡系统来提高研究成本效率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Stress is a complex medical problem in which psychological, social, cultural, and physiological factors all can interact in the development of illness. Stress-related health problems are endemic, and can take on any number of medical or psychiatric forms. This grant proposal describes a plan for the development of a new multidisciplinary mind-body center at NYU dedicated to basic, clinical, and translational research in stress and health. The unifying scientific themes of this center focus on the interactions of psychosocial stress, limbic brain, the neuroendocrine stress response (particularly the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathoadrenergic system) and the downstream effects of the stress response on physical and mental functioning. Other themes of this center include understanding the maladaptive stress-induced behaviors that worsen stress and health, as well as coping mechanisms and other protective factors that ameliorate the health effects of stress. The goal of this center is to build an intellectual environment in which program scientists from a variety of fields can meet for the free exchange of ideas and to develop standardized batteries of assessments for use in interdisciplinary research projects. An Administrative Core would organize center activities and funds, and would be responsible for data management. A Research Core would bring together program scientists and resources, and would be governed by committee. Pilot projects would serve as the starting point for the development of central standardized resources, including clinical protocols, basic science methods, and neuroimaging protocols. A Training & Development Core would provide cross-disciplinary training for group members and a forum for young researchers and clinicians to learn about research in stress and health, and to interact closely with senior investigators. Educational goals of the center include community and trainee outreach and annual conferences. The long-term vision for the proposed center is one in which ongoing interdisciplinary longitudinal studies of stress and health would coexist with individual research projects that utilize the same shared resources. Such an infrastructure would promote greater knowledge among individual researchers and would enrich the field of stress research by providing a regular forum for the discussion of research issues and plans for future projects. This infrastructure also would improve research cost efficiency by preventing study duplication, providing a centralized shared resources, and having an intrinsic system of checks and balances within the governing committee.