The purpose of the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program is to foster health-related research and increase the competitiveness of investigators at institutions located in states with historically low aggregate success rates for grant awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). To provide flexible support to build research capacity, the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) of the National Institutes of Health invites applications for Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) from investigators at independent biomedical research institutions or biomedical research institutions that award doctoral degrees in the health sciences or sciences related to health within IDeA eligible states. Collaboration with other non-doctoral degree granting and research performing institutes or institutions is encouraged.
The purpose of this Request for Applications (RFA) is to augment and strengthen the institutional biomedical research capacity through flexible support to expand and develop biomedical faculty research capability and enhance research infrastructure through support of a multi-disciplinary center, led by a peer-reviewed, funded investigator with expertise central to the research theme of the proposal. The application must have a thematic scientific focus in a specific research area, such as neuroscience, cancer, structural biology, immunology, or bioengineering, and may use basic, clinical or both research approaches to attain the goals of the proposed center. The scientific leadership provided by one or more established biomedical research faculty is critical to the success of this initiative, especially for the mentoring of promising junior investigators. The center is intended to support investigators from several complementary disciplines. It will enable the institution to develop a critical mass of investigators and enhance their competitiveness in a specific research area that accelerates the rate at which those investigators compete for other complementary NIH research grant support. It is also anticipated that, in some instances, the support through this initiative will facilitate the development of new disease specific research centers or augment the capability of existing centers.
The goals of the VLC-COBRE are to:
- Train and mentor a group of talented MD and PhD biomedical investigators;
- Provide career development and guidance with skilled mentoring;
- Create a stimulating, supportive, and cutting edge research milieu.
The VLC-COBRE will undertake four separate, but inter-related, research projects with the following aims:
- To understand the mechanics of the lung periphery and its derangement in asthma.
- To determine the mechanism by which proteolysis causes inflammation and its role in the pathogenesis of asthma. Link to Project Synopsis
- To determine the intracellular signaling pathways that induce epithelial cell death following exposure to nitrogen dioxide. Link to Project Synopsis
- To determine the role of lymphocytes in cystic fibrosis airway disease. Link to Project Synopsis
