Funding will allow Medical Center to tackle one of state\u27s biggest health care issue

Bascom, Karen

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eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

University of Mississippi eGrove University of Mississippi News 8-18-2016 $19.9 Million NIH Obesity Research Award Largest Ever for UMMC Karen Bascom University of Mississippi Medical Center Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/umnews Recommended Citation Bascom, Karen, "$19.9 Million NIH Obesity Research Award Largest Ever for UMMC" (2016). University of Mississippi News. 20. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/umnews/20 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Mississippi News by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. Search this website … SearchThe Translational Research Center, scheduled forcompletion in 2017, is just one new resource that willserve UMMC scientists across disciplines.$19.9 Million NIH Obesity Research Award Largest Everfor UMMCFunding will allow Medical Center to tackle one of state's biggest health careissuesAUGUST 18, 2016 BY KAREN BASCOMJACKSON, Miss. – The University ofMississippi Medical Center has received itslargest single award ever to confront one of thestate’s largest health issues.The five-year, $19.9 million award from theNational Institutes of Health will fund theMississippi Center for Clinical and TranslationalResearch. Supported by the NIH’s InstitutionalDevelopment Award, or IDeA, program, theCCTR’s mission will be the prevention, diagnosisand treatment of obesity and related healthconditions.“Mississippi has the highest rate of obesity in the United States,” said Dr. James Wilson, professor ofphysiology and biophysics and the project’s lead investigator. The Centers for Disease Control andPrevention reports that 35 percent of Mississippi adults are obese.“High blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease are all associatedwith this one preventable cause,” Wilson said. Obesity also increases a person’s risk of multiplecancers, neurological disorders and stroke. The CDC estimates that obesity-related illnesses cost theUnited States $150 billion annually.To address the problem, UMMC scientists and health care professionals need an approach that bringstheir research from the laboratory bench to the greater population.“Translational research takes basic science findings and uses them to develop interventions that willaffect treatment options and public health,” Wilson said. Example interventions could be communityengagement programs or pharmaceutical drugs.The new award, announced by the office of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, enhances UMMC’s capability toconduct clinical and translational research. The CCTR’s task is to invest in people who will make thosesolutions a reality.“A significant mission of the program will be to train junior faculty into established investigators,” Wilsonsaid.That training will come through CCTR’s Professional Development Core, whose members will mentorjunior faculty conducting obesity-related research. In addition, the Pilot Projects Program will fundpromising projects while the researchers seek additional outside funding to sustain their activities.Dr. Richard Summers, UMMC associate vice chancellor for research, emphasized the importance ofdeveloping new talent to spur obesity-related clinical research – a theme present throughout UMMC’shistory.“When the Medical Center was built in 1955, most of the faculty who formed our early clinical researchprograms were young investigators,” Summers said. Organ transplant pioneer Dr. James Hardy was 37in 1955; cardiovascular physiologist Dr. Arthur Guyton was 36.“With the CCTR, our goal is to build a pipeline of investigators and clinical research for years to come,”Summers said.UM Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter thanked Cochran for championing health sciences research and extendedhis congratulations to the research team at the Medical Center.Read the story …Read the story …Follow us on socialCampus BriefsStudents Learn ‘Real Politics’ inWashington, D.C., Winter SessionOXFORD, Miss. – Eleven University ofMississippi students spent their winterbreak learning about the people who workbehind the scenes of the Americangovernment in Washington, D.C. Lead byJonathan Klingler, assistant professor ofpolitical science, the students of Pol 391:Applied Politics met not with candidates,but with the people who make candidates’More Posts from this CategoryThank You To OurDonorsYoung Alumna Gives Back to Schoolof AccountancyOXFORD, Miss. – Stephanie JenningsTeague, of Chicago, sees her commitmentof $100,000 to the Patterson School ofAccountancy‘s new building at theUniversity of Mississippi as a means ofsaying “thank you.” “It is a way to show asmall token of my appreciation to OleMiss, the faculty and staff, and theaccountingMore Posts from this CategoryOle Miss In the NewsReuters: Keep an Eye on the MoneySupplyU.S. inflation roller coaster prompts freshlook at long-ignored money supply ByMichael S. Derby NEW YORK – Theamount of money sloshing around the U.S.economy shrank last year for the first timeon record, a development that someeconomists believe bolsters the case forU.S. inflation pressures continuing toabate. The Federal Reserve’sNews Releases UM COVID-19 Video Gallery University Communications Ole Miss Homepage Ole Miss News BlogFacebookTwitterLin edInEmailCopyLinkSMSPrintFriendlySharFacebookTwitterInstagramLinkedInYouTubeChannelDr. James Wilson“We are honored by this NIH investment to substantially enhance ourcapacity and success in translating research discoveries andinnovations to better health outcomes,” Vitter said.UMMC has a reputation for strong basic research on cardiovascularfunction and disease, Wilson said. This will provide a starting point forcreating clinical applications.In recent years, UMMC has built the infrastructure needed to advanceits clinical and translational research capabilities. The Center forBioinformatics and Biostatistics, Enterprise Data Warehouse andClinical Research Support Program are three important parts, Wilsonand Summers said.When two campus construction projects – one nearly complete and theother in the planning stages – wrap up, UMMC will have a full set ofphysical tools needed to achieve these goals.“The timing of this magnificent grant couldn’t be better as it coincideswith the development of our Translational Research Center and Clinical Research Unit in the UniversityHospital, facilities that will be crucial to our success in clinical and translational research,” said Dr.LouAnn Woodward, UMMC vice chancellor for health affairs.“We look forward to putting these assets to work in the cause of discovering tomorrow’s treatments andcures.”“All of these pieces brought together give UMMC the infrastructure to enhance clinical research,”Summers said.However, UMMC cannot solve the obesity epidemic in Mississippi on its own. Tougaloo College and theUniversity of Southern Mississippi will also collaborate in the CCTR.“Those institutions will be key in community outreach efforts,” Wilson said.The CCTR will also pursue extensive collaborations with two NIH-funded clinical and translationalresearch centers. Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has expertise innutrition and metabolic disease, valuable to UMMC’s obesity efforts, Wilson said.The other center is based at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. UMMC and Mayo entered into acollaborative agreement in 2014 that allows the institutions to share data tools and trial participants.Close ties have already developed around cancer research.The National Institute of General Medical Sciences funds IDeA awards, which support biomedicalresearch programs in states with limited history of federal funding. The Clinical and TranslationalResearch program enhances research on health issues impacting medically underserved populationsand health concerns specific to those states.Wilson said that after five years, “We hope to have 10 or more junior investigators successfully fundedas a direct result of this grant” and on a trajectory to independent obesity research programs. Inaddition, other CCTR core infrastructure such as regulatory, logistics, epidemiological and evaluationsupport will be operating.“As an additional result, we hope to recruit senior-level population and clinical investigators with theability to collaborate with each other.”Summers said he is “very proud of Wilson and his efforts so far” and that he looks forward to the future.“This award has the potential to be transformational for us,” Summers said.FILED UNDER: APPS-TOP NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, NEWS RELEASES, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MEDICALCENTERRead the story …More Posts from this CategoryRetu rn  to  to p  o f  p a ge Copyright © 2023 · Th e Un iversity  o f  M ississ ip p i

$19.9 Million NIH Obesity Research Award Largest Ever for UMMC

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$19.9 Million NIH Obesity Research Award Largest Ever for UMMC

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