The overall goals of this P30 grant application are to 1) support New Faculty Recruitment to Enhance Research Resources through Biomedical Research Core Centers for NIH grant and 2) establish the Loyola's Alcohol Research Center (LARC). We anticipate that obtaining this P30 grant will enable us to better direct our alcohol research interests in the direction of alcohol and injury and allow us to become more competitive in a future P30 Alcohol Research Center grant application. The theme of the research at LARC stems from ongoing work in the laboratory of Dr. Elizabeth J. Kovacs and members of Loyola's broader Alcohol Research Program (ARP), who continue to work on overlapping but independent studies designed to determine the mechanisms by which binge alcohol exposure increases tissue damage after an injury or infection and impedes the subsequent repair process. In the United States, nearly 50% of the adult burn and trauma patients who sustain injuries severe enough to require hospitalization consumed alcohol prior to their injuries. Recent evidence reveals that the vast majority of these subjects are not dependent drinkers, but rather consume alcohol on an acute or binge basis. Thus, performing studies that examine the effects of single or multiple binge drinking episodes followed by injury is both clinically relevant and significant. Consistent with goals of the P30 mechanism, Dr. Kovacs and colleagues plan to recruit a new tenure-track assistant professor with common interests to join this active, multi-disciplinary research and training group focusing on alcohol and tissue injury. Dr. Kovacs and a select group of faculty will serve as senior and peer mentors for the trainee. She and the mentors will help the new recruit to establish her own independent research program and facilitate her integration into to group projects that will lead toward acceleration of the research initiatives of the Center. Joining an interactive research team will accelerate the progress of the new faculty member and allow him/her knowledge and skills to this clinically relevant problem
The overall goal of this P30 grant application is to support new faculty recruitment to facilitate research in alcohol and tissue injury/repair. Nearly half of the adult burn and trauma patients who require hospitalization consumed alcohol prior to their injuries. Evidence from our group and others reveals that consuming alcohol prior to injury increases tissue damage and impedes the subsequent repair process.
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