The Rockefeller University General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) plays a central role in fulfilling the objectives of The Rockefeller Hospital: to combine laboratory investigation with bed side observation in providing a scientific basis for disease detection, prevention and treatment. The GCRC provides a unique environment, ideally structured to conduct long hospitalizations under carefully controlled conditions for the study not only of pathologic processes in patients, but also of physiologic processes in normal volunteers. Major, immediate scientific objectives include: A detailed analysis of the relative effects of genetic factors as compared with environmental (dietary) factors in the modification of the levels of serum lipids that are fisk factors for atherosclerosis and heart disease; a histo-pathologic evaluation of the lesions of psoriatic patients under different conditions of treatment to determine the optimum method of treatment; an evaluation of the therapeutic benefits to be derived from modifying the action of cytokines in acute inflammatory states - specifically, the effect of thalidomide on alpha-interferon production in acute pulmonary tuberculosis; testing the efficacy of gene therapy in alleviating the symptoms of cystic fibrosis; analyzing the physiologic events which lead to adverse changes in protein turnover during aging; to quantify the defect in energy homeostasis that leads to the development and maintenance of obesity in man; to examine whether a specific neuroendocrine abnormality is an inevitable consequence and sometimes an antecedent of cocaine addiction; to evaluate the role of cytokines and selective elements of the immune system in the pathogenesis of human immunodeficiency virus disease and to determine the therapeutic efficacy of administering specific cytokines in that disorder. These varied problems, all of which have fundamental molecular components as well as a need for detailed and sometimes prolonged clinical observation in our GCRC, generate an intellectual atmosphere well suited for a training center in clinical research. New leadership of the University and the GCRC are giving special emphasis to strengthening this training aspect of the GCRC for medical students, house staff officers and other physicians.
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