Biomedical Research Cluster

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Overall Objectives Strategic Directions

• To pool faculty expertise and resources, and to
  establish a conceptual framework to address
  emerging concerns of disease and health
  disparities
• To attract necessary funding and personnel, and
  to strengthen our infrastructure to a level
  sufficient to develop biotechnologies required to
  meet such challenges

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Biomedical Research Subclusters

• Asthma/Allergy
• Aquaporins
• Bioinformatics/ Genomics, and Biostatistics
• Cancer Biology/ Non-Invasive Therapy
• Obesity/ Diabetes mellitus

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Asthma/AllergySubcluster

• To establish an asthma surveillance control
  program in Mississippi
• To identify biomarkers for asthma chromic
  obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• To develop gene therapy drug delivery systems

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Asthma/Allergy Faculty
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AquaporinsSubcluster

• To understand the role of water transportation in
  different biological systems and implications in
  the etiology of various human diseases
  nephropathy, and liver damage.

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Aquaporins Faculty
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Bioinformatics, Genomics and Biostatistics

• To establish high-throughput categorization,
  prioritization, characterization of genes of
  infectious disease pathogens, arthropod vectors
  of pathogens, and plants.

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Bioinformatics, Genomic, and Biostatistics Faculty
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Cancer Biology/ Non-Invasive Therapy

• To strengthen current methods for therapeutic
  index assessment of novel plant-derived agents
• To develop Molecular and Cellular experimental
  strategies (e.g., mouse xenograft model) for
  screening potential anti-cancer drug candidates.

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Cancer Biology/ Non-Invasive Therapy

• To establish additional research collaborations
  with national and international cancer treatment
  centers to conduct clinical studies

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Faculty Involved in Cancer Biology/ Non-Invasive
Therapy
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Obesity/ Diabetes Mellitus

• To investigate factors that modulate the
  expression of glucose transporter (Glut) proteins
• To investigate factors that contribute to
  vascular smooth muscle growth implications in
  vascular remodeling and hypertension.

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Obesity/ Diabetes Faculty
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Partnerships

• International Collaborations
• China Guangxi Normal University
• School of Chemistry Chemical Engineering/
• Chinese Traditional Medicine Division,
  China.
• Institutional, Corporate, National Laboratories
• The Univ. of MD Biotech Inst. Baltimore, MD
• The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore,
  MD.

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Partnerships (Contd)

• Global Infectious Disease Program, Marine
  Biological Lab, MA
• Department of Botany, Miami Univ., Ohio
• Tulane University Health Sciences Center, Section
  of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care, and
  Environmental
• University of Minnesota School of Public Health

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Cluster Performance

• Funding- 3.0 Million
• Publications 115
• Student Participation
• -15 undergraduate students
• -10 graduate students (4 Ph.D.)

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Funding Targets

• National Science Foundation
• Active Natural Products Program, NIH
• EPA CDC, Asthma/ COPD Surveillance and Control
  Program
• NIEHS, Asthma/ COPD Biomakers
• NIH (NCI, NHLBI, etc.)

• NIDCD, NIH
• USDA
• US Department of Energy
• Homeland Security
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
  Diseases
• Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases

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Infrastructure to Support ClusterI. NIH-RCMI
Core Laboratories

• ANALYTICAL CORE LABORATORY
• CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY MULTI-USER LAB

• ANIMAL FACILITY
• EMS Core Lab
• NMR Core Lab
• RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL CORE LABORATORY
• TOXICOLOGY CORE LABORATORY
• BIOSTATISTICAL UNIT

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Infrastructure to Support Cluster (Contd) II.
Post-Doctoral Fellows and Technicians

• 4 technicians
• 2 post-doctoral Fellows

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Transition/Commercialization

• Center for Medicinal Natural Projects
• Patent

• Proprietary product (s) developed in the Cancer/
  Non-Invasive Therapy may soon be commercialized
• (Patent 6,849,604)

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Vision for the Future

• Research Funding Increase - (25)
• Increase in Post-Doctoral Fellows- (10)
• Increase Collaborative Partnerships