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The Center of Excellence in Oral and Craniofacial
Biology
Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)
LSU School
of
Dentistry Awarded NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)
Grant
The National Center
for Research Resources (NCRR) at the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) awarded LSU School of Dentistry a Center of Biomedical Research
Excellence (COBRE) grant. The $10.7 million grant, extending from
September 2004 through July 2009, is the largest grant ever received at
LSUSD, and also one of the largest in the LSU Health Sciences Center
system.
General
Information
The grant is entitled “Mentoring Oral
Health
Research in Louisiana.” The theme is “Oral Infectious Diseases.”
The intent of the grant is to develop junior faculty in the School of
Dentistry into independent researchers. There are five faculty members
who have written peer-reviewed projects, along with a mentoring plan
written by the principal investigator, Dr. Paul Fidel.
COBRE
Projects
Each project
focuses on a particular disease or infection that afflicts children
and/or adults, including the HIV+ population. The COBRE grant requires
that each project have a principal investigator (the junior faculty
member)and also a network of mentors guiding that PI. Each project is
structured with two separate degrees of mentors.
Cores
There
are three cores
in the COBRE program to assist the JPIs. They are administrative,
biomedical equipment, and statistical
cores. Each has a different role and is led by a JPI.
External
Advisory
Committee
The
COBRE grant also requires the use of an External Advisory Committee.
This committee,
made up of professionals from around the country, comes to LSU every
six months to monitor the progress of the COBRE and submit a report.
COBRE
Programs/Mentoring Plan
The mentoring/training component
of the
COBRE is the most
critical to the program and the most important for the success of the
JPIs. The general plan includes mentoring activities by the primary and
secondary mentors, a communication infrastructure and didactic training
lectures. This general plan is similar overall to our original
submission, but has been refined according to the suggestions from the
previous review.
Research
Training Lecture Series/Statistical Core Didactic Series
Another area
of the
scientific development of the JPIs a Clinical Research Training Lecture
Series
given by faculty from the dental or medical schools. There is also
periodically a Bio Statistical Didactic Series given by members of the
Statistical Core.
Clinical
Research Training Lecture Series
These lectures took place bi-weekly for the first full
semester of their tenure in the program. The intent was to provide some
intense training in the area of clinical research while they are in the
process of setting up their laboratories. Topics included: a general
course in clinical research, biostatistics, equipment resources, HIPAA,
progress reports/presentations, research ethics, technology transfer,
epidemiology, human subjects (IRB) and animal care (IACUC), clinical
trials, and grant writing. The mentors were asked to participate in as
many sessions as possible and were the actual lecturers in some cases.
Economic
Impact
The
economic impact of the COBRE grant is extensive. It has contributed:
- Nine new jobs in the dental school
- Partial salaries for 21 current
LSUHSC faculty and staff
- Research
support for up to 11 faculty (new and existing)
- $850,000 for new scientific
equipment
- $400,000 for laboratory renovations
Overall
Significance
The
COBRE grant is significant for many reasons. In addition to being the
largest grant ever received at the School of Dentistry, LSUSD is the
only dental school in the state, and therefore the only resource for
promoting oral health research in Louisiana. From that perspective, the
grant allows LSUSD to not only develop junior faculty into independent
researchers, but also to conduct cutting-edge research in the area of
oral health.
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