The GCRC at OHSU has had an outstanding and growing record of clinical research achievement. In the three years since the OHSU GCRC submitted its last competitive application, research activity at the GCRC has undergone major growth with a large increase in the number of investigators using existing services of the Bionutrition Unit. Due to this increased activity, the Bionutrition Unit has been unable to keep pace with the needs of its funded investigators. In addition, investigators are now requesting a number of procedures not formally available through the GCRC involving measurements of body composition, body fat distribution, and energy expenditure. In response to this growth and research evolution, the GCRC has begun to provide investigator support for these services, made possible with the generous assistance of donated equipment. Yet, no centralized core exists to administer these resources or facilitate their use by clinical researchers at OHSU. ? ? This proposal seeks to bring together new and existing personnel and equipment to form a new GCRC Core Facility, the BECC, to meet these burgeoning needs.
The specific aims of this application are: 1) To enhance existing resources in the Bionutritional Unit to meet the increased demand for bionutritionist and kitchen technician services; and 2) To form the GCRC BECC, which will provide consultative support to GCRC investigators with protocols measuring body composition, bone density, body fat distribution, and energy expenditure; to increase availability for body composition measurements to investigators through the acquisition of a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scanner; and to provide technical support for data acquisition, analysis and interpretation for BECC services. ? ? Expanding the resources of the Bionutritional Unit and BECC will enable the OHSU GCRC to maintain its outstanding record in nutritional research and be poised to meet the demands for future growth by patient-oriented researchers. ? ? INVESTIGATORS:The proposed Director of the BECC is Jonathan Purnell, M.D., an Endocrinologist. He is currently Assistant Professor of Medicine at OHSU. Prior to joining the faculty at OHSU, he was Associate Director of the Human Body Composition and Energy Expenditure Core for the Clinical Nutrition Unit at the University of Washington. Dr. Purnell is a former Clinical Associate Physician (CAP), has been a co-investigator on two R01s in the past, and currently holds a K23 and a New Investigator Award from the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon. He is well qualified for this position, though there is concern that heavy administrative duties could distract him from his research. Ms. Martha P. McMurry would manage the expanded Bionutrition Unit. Ms. McMurry has been in her current position since 1997, has a wealth of relevant experience, and is well qualified for this position.
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