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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. |
