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Programmic Research
The Department of Medicine’s impact on the medical research
enterprise of the School has to a great extent been achieved by
members of our faculty playing key roles in developing highly successful
multidisciplinary NIH sponsored research programs. Many of these
programs have taken advantage of the unique and diverse patient
populations served at our teaching hospitals, as well as the talents
of our faculty who have played a critical leadership role in organizing
many of these programs. Prominent examples of such programmatic
efforts include:
Basic/Translational Science (Principal
Investigator)
Liver Center (Kaplowitz)
Will Rogers Institute Pulmonary Research Center (Crandall, Borok)
Gastrointestinal Oncology Program (Lenz)
Diabetes Center (Buchanan)
Lupus Center (Horwitz, Stohl)
Direct Microneurography Program (Campese)
Cardiovascular Devices Program (Saxon)
Large Scale Clinical Trials (Principal
Investigator)
Atherosclerosis Research Center (Hodis)
AIDS Clinical Trials Group (Sattler)/ Women’s Interagency
HIV Study (Sattler)
Sickle Cell Center (Johnson)
NIH LookAHEAD Study and Keck Diabetes Prevention Initiative (Peters)
General Clinical Research Center and CTSA Research Program (Buchanan)
Basic/Translational Science
The NIH-sponsored Liver
Center and core laboratories (Molecular Biology,
Cell Culture and Organelle), led by Neil K. Kaplowitz, M.D., is
one of only four such programs in the nation. In addition to basic
and translational research programs in liver disease, this Center
provides a major institutional resource fostering multidisciplinary
and interdepartmental investigations, educational seminars and start-up
grant funding opportunities.
The Will Rogers Institute Pulmonary Research
Center, under the direction of Edward D. Crandall, Ph.D., M.D.,
and Zea Borok, M.D., continues to contribute significant advances
in research related to lung injury and pulmonary edema. Their investigational
focus involves studies on transport, growth and differentiation
of lung alveolar epithelial cells from the cellular/molecular to
organ levels.
Cancer Center projects such as the Colorectal Center, under the
direction of Heinz-Josef Lenz, M.D., are concerned with developing
new and innovative chemotherapeutic approaches to the treatment
of cancer.
The Westside Diabetes
Center was established to investigate the origin,
prevention and treatment of diabetes and associated conditions (including
obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and atherosclerosis). Thomas
A. Buchanan, M.D., Richard N. Bergman, Ph.D., Chair of the Department
of Physiology, and Michael Goran, Ph.D., from the Department of
Preventive Medicine, share the leadership role in developing this
important multidisciplinary research program.
Information gained by the Lupus
Center investigators from the laboratory bench
research has served as the basis for development of prototype treatment
strategies for a wide variety of auto-immune diseases, as well as
the possibility of preventing organ transplant rejection.
The new Direct Microneurography Program studies
how renal injuries may activate afferent pathways which integrate
with hypothalamic nuclei involved in noradrenergic control of blood
pressure.
The Cardiovascular Devices Program is dedicated
to the development of innovative uses of new implantable device
technologies. Such new technologies will allow the introduction
of major preventive and/or critical therapeutic measures at the
earliest stages of disease development.
Large Scale Clinical Trial Centers
Under the leadership of Howard N. Hodis, M.D., the Atherosclerosis
Research Unit focuses on in vivo assessment of
atherosclerosis. Using cutting-edge noninvasive technology to assess
changes in intimal thickness in major arterial vessels, this Unit
is conducting studies designed to assess the benefits of a wide
variety of therapeutic interventions for prevention and reversal
of atherosclerosis.
Under the direction of Fred R. Sattler, M.D., the adult AIDS
Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) has become one of
the nation’s leading centers in carrying out NIH-sponsored
AIDS clinical trials in adult populations.
The Sickle
Cell Center, directed by Cage S. Johnson, M.D.,
is a well established NIH-funded program fostering interdepartmental
multidisciplinary research relevant to the cause and treatment of
medical complications associated with sickle cell anemia.
The Keck Diabetes Prevention Initiative, a joint
project between Anne Peters, M.D., and Francine Kaufman, M.D. (Childrens
Hospital Los Angeles), is designed to develop treatment programs
for the epidemic of obesity and type II diabetes occurring in the
medically underserved populations of Los Angeles. The NIH LookAHEAD
Study focuses on the benefits of weight loss and exercise in reducing
the risk of cardiovascular disease in a select type 2 diabetes population
located in East Los Angeles
The General
Clinical Research Center (GCRC) represents one of our most
successful research programs at the Keck School of Medicine, having
received continuous NIH support since its inception in 1962. Its
primary purpose is to provide resources and support for the conduct
of NIH sponsored clinical research. Under the leadership of its
current Director, Thomas A. Buchanan, M.D., this program has developed
two outstanding satellite units at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles
and the City of Hope. Combined together, these three GCRC units
represent the largest and best-funded GCRC program in the U.S. Next
year, the facility situated on the 6th floor of LAC+USC Medical
Center must be closed when the new LAC+USC inpatient replacement
facility is scheduled to open. Fortunately, advanced plans are now
well along the way towards building a new, larger and more centrally
located GCRC facility located on the 3rd floor of University Hospital,
which should open by early next year.
In recognition of the importance of translational research to the
improvement of medical care, the NIH has recently initiated the
process for the establishment of Clinical
and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) at leading
medical research institutions across the country. Such CTSA programs
are designed to provide substantially more complex and sophisticated
resources for the conduct of clinical research than are available
with the current GCRC program which it is designed to supplant.
Because of Dr. Buchanan’s outstanding leadership record with
the present GCRC program, he was selected to take on the challenge
of establishing such a new program at the Keck School of Medicine.
In recognition of the importance of this task and the critical role
that clinical research will play in the future of the School, Dr.
Buchanan was also recently appointed as our first Associate Dean
for Clinical Research.
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