Mentoring Obesity and Diabetes Research in Louisiana

描述(由申请人提供)： 肥胖和超重的影响超过50%，成人糖尿病影响美国8%的总人口，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立大学系统的成员之一，该中心正在领导一项努力，通过招募、指导和留住有前途的年轻科学家来加强路易斯安那州关于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，这些项目使用细胞生物学和分子方法来解决与脂肪细胞分化和肌肉胰岛素抵抗有关的问题，使用动物和人类细胞系。科布雷提案的具体目标是：(A)扩大肥胖/糖尿病细胞生物学研究的研究人员的临界质量；(B)指导初级教员，在设定优先事项和多任务、批判性思维、假设制定、实验规划、口头和书面交流、实验室管理和职业规划方面表现出极大的潜力；(C)实施初级研究人员的评估标准，增加他们获得持续独立R01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开展国家认可的研究；(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核心的支持，加强肥胖症/糖尿病研究的研究基础设施。我们的目标是从科布雷项目中“毕业”至少8名初级教员。科布雷项目的未来初级科学家是路易斯安那州立大学巴吞鲁日分校和PBRC临床科学系的一部分。科布雷计划的长期目标是在路易斯安那州增加有前途的年轻科学家的留住，并培养获得有重点的计划项目所需的临界数量的科学家(S)

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)