The Science Resource Core (SRC) has emerged as an independent core for years 11-15 of the MARC, in recognition of the cross-cutting activities reflected in the 4 proposed Research Projects and pilot studies, and in the series of related R01 studies. The overarching goal of the SRC is to provide important infrastructure support and assessment coordination for Center-based and Center-affiliated research, through three broad aims: (1) general population database management and manipulation in support of subject ascertainment, follow-up, and novel study design thru the Missouri Family Register (""""""""MFR"""""""");(2) phenotype, environmental and genotype information management systems (""""""""PEGIMS"""""""") which include harmonization across studies of diagnostic phenotypes and environmental risk exposures, creation of centralized databases for these, and a central database of the genotypic data collected in the Center projects;and (3) continuation of assessment coordination and consultation (""""""""ACC"""""""") to ensure compatibility of measurements across the range of human research (laboratory, experimental, survey) and modalities (palm pilot, web-based, interview, questionnaire) to facilitate cross-study analysis, a line of research that is particularly compelling in the era of Genome-wide association studies and the concomitant requirement of huge samples. Core resources are essential to the current Center-based and Center-related projects, encompassing important research support features hat would not be feasible for individual investigators to obtain on their own. The Core takes advantage of the Center's interdisciplinary scientific group for coordination and harmonization functions. The core also serves an important training and faculty development purpose by providing resources important to junior investigators as they seek to establish independent careers in alcohol research. Resources managed and maintained in the SRC uniquely position the Center to continue its work of shedding light on the risk processes in the development of alcoholism and comorbid phenotypes by facilitating: informative sampling from the general population;cross study analyses of gene-environment interplay over time in different samples with coordinated diagnoses and environmental risk exposures;and continued maintenance of coordinated assessments across studies for future investigation and cross-study analyses.
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